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A review by 2treads
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
In a word, this story is gripping. From the cautionary tale of the tunnels, I was invested in how this would unfold and was not disappointed.
Jones has written a narrative that is wholly Caribbean and so familiar. The relationships, interactions, existence, friendships, families, and experiences of each and every character. The deftness with which she layered each characters' stories was smooth and served to sweep the reader from house to road to beach to rich to poor and back again.
It is bursting with life, peopled with characters with attitudes that reach from the page and envelope you, with prose and dialogue that drops you right in the middle of Baxter's beach and the homes and communities of the rich and poor respectively; the actions that lead to poor decisions, that then cascade down and outward unraveling and revealing the connections that join our players in ways known and unknown to each other.
Lala wants to lead a life her way and not how her grandmother says and when she marries Adan, along the way she wonders who he is and who she is becoming. Living a life waiting on the jaws of the law to reach them, clamping down and cutting her off from her freedom, and when tragedy strikes, Lala knows that she has to escape now before it is too late.
It is an exploration of what forces join strangers in a community, an island where there is a clear line of who has and who has to struggle, but the hand of fate will always be there to stir it all up like a good pot of Satday soup. What I could have done without is a few tropes that are too often used with respect to the Caribbean sphere. You will know when you see it.
Big ups to the narrator who definitely captured the lilt and tone of bajans.
Jones has written a narrative that is wholly Caribbean and so familiar. The relationships, interactions, existence, friendships, families, and experiences of each and every character. The deftness with which she layered each characters' stories was smooth and served to sweep the reader from house to road to beach to rich to poor and back again.
It is bursting with life, peopled with characters with attitudes that reach from the page and envelope you, with prose and dialogue that drops you right in the middle of Baxter's beach and the homes and communities of the rich and poor respectively; the actions that lead to poor decisions, that then cascade down and outward unraveling and revealing the connections that join our players in ways known and unknown to each other.
Lala wants to lead a life her way and not how her grandmother says and when she marries Adan, along the way she wonders who he is and who she is becoming. Living a life waiting on the jaws of the law to reach them, clamping down and cutting her off from her freedom, and when tragedy strikes, Lala knows that she has to escape now before it is too late.
It is an exploration of what forces join strangers in a community, an island where there is a clear line of who has and who has to struggle, but the hand of fate will always be there to stir it all up like a good pot of Satday soup. What I could have done without is a few tropes that are too often used with respect to the Caribbean sphere. You will know when you see it.
Big ups to the narrator who definitely captured the lilt and tone of bajans.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child death, Death, and Child abuse