I will admit that despite the non-stop events steeped in trauma throughout the novel - I really “enjoyed” the story and the literary style the author chose to tell a multi-generational, cautionary tale warning against the silence that enables and perpetuates the evil in the world.
The story opens with a grandmother telling her young granddaughter the local parable of the “one-armed sister” which warns of the perils of not heeding a mother’s advice/warning and pursuing the lure of temptation and curiosity.
Set against a fictionalized Barbados resort town where the locals’ livelihood is tied to the ebb and flows of tourism, the reader meets an impoverished Stella/Lala, an 18-year-old expectant mother and beachside hair braider. She is recently married to Adan, a petty thief and hustler, with big dreams and limited options. A premature birth sparked by excruciating labor pains in the middle of the night sets off a series of fateful events that tumble like dominos and seemingly worsen with every turn of the page.
It doesn’t take long to realize Lala’s world is far from the idyllic island paradise described in tourism brochures. Here domestic violence is the norm, patriarchy rules with horrific, unspeakable results, and women and children are defenseless amid cultural acceptance and societal norms. The alternating chapters reveal her, her family, and the supporting character’s backstories via flashbacks and the reader begins to understand how the legal system combined with maternal/parental/familial failures are exacerbated with each passing generation. It’s clear to see how and why Stella/Lala is in her current situation….with every page, I was pulling for her to find her voice, her inner strength, and for her to get her “groove back.”
This was my first time reading Cherie Jones and I’ll definitely read her again, given the opportunity.
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