Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

Published: 2020, Oneworld Publications

Genre: Fiction

Themes: Marriage, bigamy, teenagers, American south

My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤

Bigamy is a game for scoundrels, where you have no winners, and when the final whistle blows all you have is a mess. In order to make the deception work over a period of years, one of the wives must understand what is happening, and enable her part-time husband to run his life as though he is not a criminal. Just in case none of us has any idea why anyone would want to agree to that, Tayari Jones wrote Silver Sparrow to help us along.

The first time James Witherspoon got married he was still at school and it was a barely legal ceremony held across state lines. He and his fourteen year old girlfriend Laverne had already been refused a license in Atlanta, as the judge was not convinced she consented to the union, but James and Laverne's mothers were determined to see the thing through as Laverne was pregnant. They finally got the marriage done by driving twenty miles to Cobb County where the judge sold them a license without asking any any questions.

The second time James Witherspoon got married it was ten years down the line and he found himself smitten by a beautiful sales girl in the local department store. She wouldn't spend the night with him unless they were engaged, and as he already had a hotel room booked, he told her they were engaged from that very moment!

The book is divided into two parts and the story is told by James Witherspoon's two daughters who are both seventeen and moving round the same social circles like bumper cars. Gwen's daughter Dana knows she is the 'secret' daughter and she and her mother know all about the first wife and daughter because they follow them around town from time to time to make sure that the other family are not getting more than their fair share of James' money. As far as the first wife's daughter Chaurisse knows, she is an only child and she and her mother have no idea that James has a whole other family when he's not with them.

The characters of both girls are beautifully described, and they engage in all the horrible behaviours associated with teenagers who are capable of getting themselves into forbidden places with skill sets only otherwise seen in Ninja warriors or forward patrols of the SAS.

Overall I enjoyed this book but I ended up giving it 4/5 because I wanted it to end differently. Unless you want me to spoil the whole book, you will have to read it for yourself and decide if you agree if the ending seems reasonable or not.

Comments

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