Jewel: Summary and book reviews of Jewel by Bret Lott, plus links to an excerpt from Jewel and a biography of Bret Lott.

In the backwoods of Mississippi, a land of honeysuckle and grapevine, Jewel and her husband, Leston, are truly blessed; they have five fine children. When Brenda Kay is born in 1943, Jewel gives thanks for a healthy baby, last-born and most welcome. Jewel is the story of how quickly a life can change; how, like lightning, an unforeseen event can set us on a course without reason or compass. In this story of a woman's devotion to the child who is both her burden and God's singular way of smiling on her, Bret Lott has created a mother-daughter relationship of matchless intensity and beauty, and one of the finest, most indomitable heroines in contemporary American fiction.

Media Reviews

The Chicago Tribune Bret Lott's Jewel is a beautifully crafted first-person epic of one poor southern woman's personal duel with God....This is a voice we don't want to stop hearing....Some of the tenderest scenes of family love since those in Dickens.   The New York Times Book Review Sweeping and beautifully written....a parable for our age.   The Los Angeles Times Lott is one of the most important and imaginative writers in America today. His eye for detail is unparalleled; his vision -- where he looks -- is like no one else's in this country.   The Boston Globe Bret Lott has a gift for making the ordinary seem luminous. In Jewel, he applies his art to a broad canvas and produces what may stand as his masterpiece....Lott matches the honest strength of his characters with that of his prose. His Jewel is a force of nature, her story rising out of a perfect, seamless union of teller and tale.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by Linda Anders
Jewel by BRET LOTT
This book was devastatingly boring. The writing has a very confusing style that goes back and forth in time without warning. It is very obscene and I think the author had a little too much fun using the "N" word. The writing is nor just...   Read More

Rated of 5 by ronan
jewel
This book so confusing , I become too lazy to read it.

Rated of 5 by Nancy Johnson

9-23-03

In the beginning, I almost added Mr. Lott's book, "Jewel", to the box of books I had discarded or read to be passed along to others. It was a used book, you see, with pages that kept falling out which, in the past,...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Crystalee
Now that I have successfully finished this book, (yes, in just a matter of days!) I can give it a rating of 5 stars!

Review (not rated) by Crystalee
"Jewel" is a story of compassion and love- between a mother and her special daughter, between her and her other children, and between her and her husband. This novel is very well-written and a definite page turner. Once you pick it up,...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Fahreen
this book was so long and it sucked!
i had to do it for a book report and I slept everytime i tried reading it!

...1 More Reader Reviews

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Books with similar themes

• Novels
  
• USA 
  
• South 
  
• Mis. Ala. Ga. 
  
• California 
  
• 1940s & '50s 
  
• 1st Books/1st Novels 
  
• Physical & Mental Differences 
  
• Female Friendships 
  
• Religious or Spiritual Themes