“PEARLS OF ASIA: A Love Story” is not a story about the transgender experience—it’s about finding the courage to take control of your own life.
Self-confidence is one of the underlying themes of the PEARLS OF ASIA. In my view, every personal journey requires a combination of courage and confidence; the courage to take the first step, followed by the confidence to take the next step. Life is chock-full of peaks and valleys, and only those who believe in themselves realize overcoming obstacles is a natural and crucial part of any journey. The transgender characters portrayed in the book learned this lesson early in their journeys to become the person they always wanted to be. All of them, through the power of their personalities, ultimately share this lesson with the book’s protagonist, San Francisco Homicide Inspector Mac Fleet.
Another theme from PEARLS OF ASIA is regardless of who you are, or where you come from, people are all the same. There are battles to fight, bills to pay, and families to be a part of. The five transgender characters in “PEARLS OF ASIA” are portrayed as a beauty queen (Sheyla), a godmother (Reyna), a diva (Diamond), a working girl (Nadia), and a prodigy (Ashley). I believe you’ll find the same personality types working at Google, attending classes at Harvard, or sharing wine with you at your local book club. Character, not gender, should judge a person.
Finally, everyone dreams of finding someone to love, and to be loved. To the end, Mac learns that being a man has nothing to do with machismo, and everything to do with being secure in whom he is an what he believes. Sheyla leads Mac to this realization not by her physical beauty but through the power of her feminine attitude. Ultimately, Sheyla convinces Mac she is the right woman for him.
Now if he can only keep her out of jail.
... Thanks Lee :D
