Silver Sparrow

Rosalyn Williams and Heather Simms portray two lives that converge in a middle-class Atlanta neighborhood in the 1980s. Each narrator portrays both of Jones's compelling lead characters--two half-sisters, only one of whom is aware of the other's existence. As Dana and Chaurisse's lead their separate lives, the destructiveness of strongly guarded secrets becomes palpable in their hurt and strident voices. Both narrators also deftly perform the difficult task of speaking with a stutter while portraying the girls' father, James, a secret bigamist. Eventually, the half-sisters individually set out on a ruinous trajectory to find the love they believe they lack in their broken families. As they come together, their paths lead to shattering revelations--and to a predictable but moving conclusion. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

February 7, 2011
A coming-of-age story of sorts, Jones's melodramatic latest (after The Untelling) chronicles the not-quite-parallel lives of Dana Lynn Yarboro and Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon in 1980s Atlanta. Both girls—born four months apart—are the daughters of James Witherspoon, a secret bigamist, but only Dana and her mother, Gwen, are aware of his double life. This, Dana surmises, confers "one peculiar advantage" to her and Gwen over James's other family, with whom he lives full time, though such knowledge is small comfort in the face of all their disadvantages. Perpetually feeling second best, 15-year-old Dana takes up with an older boy whose treatment of her only confirms her worst expectations about men. Meanwhile, Chaurisse enjoys the easy, uncomplicated comforts of family, and though James has done his utmost to ensure his daughters' paths never cross, the girls, of course, meet, and their friendship sets their worlds toward inevitable (and predictable) collision. Set on its forced trajectory, the novel piles revelation on revelation, growing increasingly histrionic and less believable. For all its concern with the mysteries of the human heart, the book has little to say about the vagaries of what motivates us to love and lie and betray.