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Summary
Summary
In the tradition of Zadie Smith and Marlon James, a brilliant Caribbean writer delivers a powerful story about four people each desperate to escape their legacy of violence in a so-called "paradise."
In Baxter's Beach, Barbados, Lala's grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It's a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter's Tunnels. When she's grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom - and their lives.How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House is an intimate and visceral portrayal of interconnected lives, across race and class, in a rapidly changing resort town, told by an astonishing new author of literary fiction.
One of 2021's Most Anticipated New Fiction
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Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Jones's intense debut explores the poverty and crime in Baxter's Beach, Barbados, amid an explosive collision between tourists and locals. The place, called Paradise by foreigners and residents alike, turns out to be a living hell for two women whose lives are changed by one horrific incident. Lala, a local hair braider, is stuck in a turbulent marriage to Adan, a burglar. Mira Whalen, a former local who now lives in London, is vacationing with her English husband, Peter, at their beachfront villa. One night, Lala is on the beach, in labor and about to give birth. Adan, meanwhile, is nowhere to be found. Lala stumbles upon the Whalens' mansion and presses the buzzer for help. She hears a gunshot and Adan rushes out, an ear-piercing shriek following on his heels. A parallel narrative follows Mira dealing with the aftermath of Peter's murder by Adan, while a detective works the case, and more violence ensues as Lala and Mira's lives eventually collide. Rich characters and pulsing backstories add a great deal of flavor to the drama. Jones is off to a strong start. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander (Jan.)
Guardian Review
When a novel is described as "unflinching", you know you are in for a tough read. Cherie Jones's debut is set on the island of Barbados, a destination that markets itself as paradise, but here is anything but. The book opens with a murder and follows a cluster of characters connected to it: a beach gigolo; a rich tourist's widow; the man who murdered him; the detective on the case. The centre of gravity, however, is Lala, a young woman trapped in a violent marriage - as her mother had been before her. Over the course of the narrative, things go from bad to worse for Lala. The titular "one-armed sister" is drawn from a tale she is told by her grandmother, the moral of which is to avoid the temptation of darkness lest you end up maimed by the monster that lives there. It can also be read as a metaphorical question: how can a woman make a life for herself when her body is under siege? This novel, at times, feels relentless. It includes murder, rape, sexual assault at gunpoint, incest/child abuse, domestic violence, and the death of a baby. Jones's descriptions are vividly haunting, and she uses setting and landscape to compound the horror: the beach "stinks of stewing moss, sargassum seaweed and the putrefying guts of beached fishes", the plantation's driveway is "fringed by cabbage palms that legends say still hang heavy with the souls of the slaves who had been drenched in cane juice and tied there to be tortured by the stings of red ants". Were I not reviewing it, I might have tried to put it down - I say "tried", because the book is intensely compelling, as well as a lesson in narrative control. You are ensnared in a web with these characters and their trauma; their claustrophobia becomes your own. It's a startling achievement. There is very little light in this novel, but what shines through instead is a pitiless truth that stays with you long after the story ends.
Kirkus Review
The only people enjoying themselves in Paradise are the tourists--at least the ones who haven't been murdered. Barbadian author Jones' harrowing debut is set on a fictional strip of Caribbean shore called Baxter's Beach in the town of Paradise. It opens with a fable told by Wilma to her 13-year-old granddaughter, Lala, about the nasty fate of a girl who didn't listen. "Curiosity kill the cat, says Wilma, don't make yourself stupid like the one-arm sister." This gambit backfires--when we next see Lala, she's 18, very pregnant, in horrible pain, and bleeding "blurry poinsettia flowers everywhere" in a rickety beach shack. She stumbles to the nearest neighboring house, a fancy villa, presses the doorbell, and hears gunshots inside. She has interrupted her baby's father, Adan, midrobbery, and he's had to shoot his victim. It's the man's own fault, says Adan. And Lala's fault what he does to her, what will happen to their baby, to their friend Tone--yet he's the one who has been torturing animals since he was a boy. In fact, Adan is one of the most repellent and unredeemed villains we have encountered in quite some time. Lala has pretty much figured it out--"Maybe it is time to accept that this man is not the laughing giant you meet riding a unicycle at a fair two summers ago"--but still cannot escape him. He won't let her work--she's a braider on the beach, a job she loves--and has stolen what little money she has. The novel moves among the perspectives of several characters, including Mira Whalen, the widow of the murdered man. Mira is a former prostitute whose tourist client left his wife for her; Adan's crime severs her from the amazing life she lucked into, with homes in England and here on the beach, with sweet stepchildren, friends, and travel, and the only conjugal love and happiness evoked in the entire novel. A compelling and terribly sad story of lives defined by trauma generation after generation. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After a robbery gone wrong in Baxter Beach, Barbados, locals Lala and her husband Adan are caught in a dangerous web of deceit and danger. The victims of the thievery are Peter and Mira, who reside in the Baxter Beach Mansions. Shortly following the incident, Lala and Adan's newborn daughter's lifeless body is found in the sand nearby. For both couples, the turn of events unravels a complicated weave of trauma, steeped in lust and legacy. Jones's debut is a microscopic look into the lives of local Barbadians and the rich people who colonize their spaces. The pages are filled with the juxtapositions of wealth versus poverty, choice versus survival, and love versus abuse. Told from multiple perspectives, Jones debut novel provides readers with an arsenal of stories, which ultimately validates the reasoning behind the characters' senseless choices. There is a rhythm to the writing and the words are often a poetic stream of movement. Jones is meticulous, giving a strong pulse to each perspective. The cinematic ending is sure to leave readers wanting more.
Library Journal Review
A Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner, practicing lawyer Jones dreams up a debut novel set in sparkling Baxter Beach, Barbados, where a botched robbery by charming smalltime criminal Adan reveals tensions between wealthy ex-pats and the locals who serve them. Among the characters: a mother who has lost her baby, a woman living unsteadily between the two worlds, and two men who risk everything to find a better life.
