A review by serendipitysbooks
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

 
How the One Eyed Sister Sweeps Her House has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and I can certainly see why. The writing and storyline were engaging, drew me in and quickly had me absorbed. The protagonist Lala was a spunky child from a difficult background determined to play by her rules and forge her own path in life, contrary to the good advice and cautionary tales dispensed by her grandmother. Unfortunately for her she chose to get involved with the wrong man, and her life became blighted by violence that she struggled to free herself from. Set in a Barbados resort town this novel highlights its darker side, the one tourists don’t get to see, the one that involves the sale of drugs, addiction, domestic abuse, poverty, violence, sexual assault, crime, murder, corruption, the death of a child and generational abuse. Through Lala we get an excellent insight into the psychology of domestic abuse victims. While Lala was the main character there were several interesting lesser characters including Mira, the former prostitute who married a wealthy visitor and, most heartbreakingly, Tone a sometime accomplice of Lala’s husband who can see the truth of her marriage and who has secretly loved her from childhood. Through their compelling intertwining stories we see that Paradise is anything but for those who live there. It’s a book that was relentlessness grim but also impossible to put down.
 
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