Love in the Present Tense

Love in the Present Tense
written by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Read by; David Coburn, Jeremy Redleaf and Duana Speights
Published by Random House Audio

Price: £14.99 Random House

The novel begins with love destitute Pearl as a seven year old standing at her window and watching as a man is murdered in the street below. She’s so desensitised by life that rather than finding the scene below horrific, she’s stunned that the man begs for his life, leaving his dignity. She vows always to keep her dignity – whatever happens to her.

Pearl is beautiful; part Black American, part Korean, something she is very conscious of for such a young age, choosing to go with men if they have the ‘taste’.

Moving back and forth in time the story follows Pearl at 13, living with a prostitute while her mother dopes herself up on drugs. Pearl spends her birthday looking for her mother, gets mugged by a boy her age, picked up by police, of which she has sex with one and then accidentally shoots with his own gun.

Pearl, played by Duana Speights (Duana has a listing on the internet movie database) spends the next five years in hiding, until the inevitable – the Policeman’s partner recognises her mug-shot when she’s arrested for driving without a license. He finds her in no time and Pearl is never seen again.

Duana Speights sounds very young herself, and plays Pearl really well. She has an American accent, thick with street slang, with which she captures the young girl’s strong character and honesty. Mostly softly spoken, when Pearl is harsh, Duana makes for gritty listening.

Two other characters narrate with Pearl; Leonard, her son, and Mitch their troubled but charitable neighbour, allowing us three different perspectives on Pearl’s disappearance and Leonard’s coming of age.

I adored Leonard’s voice. The childlike quality of it was touching, something that remained in Leonard as a young adult. After much hunting I found that he’s played by Jeremy Redleaf. Mitch is played by David Coburn. His voice is gravely with an American accent. He’s softly spoken with Leonard, something you hear only once you get used to the grit in your ear.

Leonard is a sickly child. He has no identity as Pearl never tells him who his father is, but over the years he becomes close to Mitch. He tells Mitch about ‘Forever Love’ after seeing Mitch’s affair with the Mayor’s wife burn and implode. He’s as astute as his mother as he questions how Mitch’s love could be real love. Pearl taught Leonard that ‘Forever Love’ was an unconditional love that stays with your forever, even when you die. It’s because of this love that Leonard never stops seeing Pearl's presence in everything around him.

While you're recommending Love in the Present Tense to friends, you could also mention another of Catherine Ryan Hyde’s great novels,  Pay It Forward, which was turned into a film starring Haley Joel Osment and Kevin Spacey.