I received a copy of The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Changed Their Lives, by Cheryl Jarvis from Jen over at Devourer of Books. Thanks Jen!

First, a bit about the experiment:

A woman walks into a jewelry store and sees a beautiful diamond necklace. She tries it on and it occurs to her that she will never, in her lifetime, be able to afford something so beautiful. After thinking more about it, and seeing that the necklace goes on sale a few months later, she decides to get a group of women together so they can purchase the necklace as a group with the hopes of sharing it.

When I first heard about this book from Jen, I was intrigued with the idea. It is an interesting idea, but I was immediately skeptical. The cost of the necklace was not so much a concern to me, but the idea of thirteen women sharing the necklace?? That seemed like an impossible feat. Something about women in a group suddenly turns them into something they are not. These are my observations of course. I realize that there are exceptions.

Each chapter profiles one of the women and includes brief background information, how she came to be a part of the group, and what her feelings were at the time. There is a great deal of time spent on what they look like, etc. I found this to be incredibly distracting.

When Jonell McLain, the visionary behind the experiment, set out to start this group, I feel that she had expectations as to what she wanted for the group but that’s not what I feel was documented by Jarvis. We follow each woman as she takes her turn with the necklace and much of what is said it so trivial.

Each month they meet to discuss where Jewelia (the necklace) has been and to decide on how the necklace should be used, but whenever they get together, nothing is ever accomplished. There is a lot of bickering or a lot of silence and sometimes a combination of both. There is no real interaction between any of the women. I expected conflict but with conflict you expect to see growth. I did not see that here.

I think part of the reason these women feel so cold to me has to do with the way the chapters are structured. With each chapter dedicated to one of the women, we see very little of the interaction that had to have taken place at some point. Did these women ever go out with one another outside of the group? Was their relationship always centered around the necklace?

With the exception of one woman, I just didn’t see any life altering moments and in the end, we don’t even get to hear what Jonell thought of the experiment really. That too is trivialized. I think this story would be a good one for Oprah to pick up and discuss on her show. I need to see these women interact with one another in real life as paper did not do them justice, and I like to think that there is more to these women than just good hair and nice clothing.

Overall, I was not impressed. Have you read it? What did you think?