How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House was the June selection for my family book club. I read this both on kindle and on audio – switching between the two.
This is a difficult book to rate in many ways. It is beautifully written switching easily between dialect and standard English. It was clear reading it that the author is intimately familiar with the island of Barbados and its culture.
There were times I felt the book repetitive or maybe wordy and overly descriptive. If I wasn’t on the audio I would have wanted to skim certain areas to get to other parts of the book.
This is a very dark, depressing story. The overarching theme of sadness, violence, and abuse was hard to plow through at times. As someone who grew up in the Caribbean I found myself thinking how different the island I experienced was from the one being described. It was a stark reminder of my own priviledge and how my own upbringing insulated me from the harsh realities that these characters and so many others living in similar situation endure.
I found myself yearning for just one happy thing to happen. Sadly, I know that this is not always reality. I do think this book should be clearer about the subject matter as there is so much that could be triggering to some readers.
I found the ending of this book to be incredibly unsatisfying. After reading page after page of what sometimes felt like needless descriptors the ending felt rushed. There were so many unanswered questions and so many characters left underdeveloped. It felt as though the author was setting us up for a possible sequel.
After reading the book and having the book club discussion none of us can quite understand the title. Its bearing on the rest of the novel is not apparent. And interestingly, based on the title alone, I would have skipped right by this book.
Overall I think I would rate “How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House” 3.5/5 stars. I waiver between rounding down to 3 or up to 4.
View all my reviews
