By Kaylie Seed
Content Warning: domestic violence, death of a child, death of an animal, rape, incest
Gut-wrenching and raw, Cherie Jones’ debut novel How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House (How the One-Armed Sister) unapologetically explores patriarchal violence and its effect on generations. In Barbados, Lala is estranged from her grandmother, her only family, and lives a life in poverty with Adan, her abusive husband. How the One-Armed Sister looks at Lala’s life, as well as her mother’s and grandmother’s, and shows the reader how intergenerational trauma and patriarchal violence are interconnected cycles that are difficult to break.
While How the One-Armed Sister is a stunning piece of literary fiction with brilliant prose, there is an entire character that feels redundant to the overall story. Mira is married to a wealthy man and together with his children, they spend time vacationing in Barbados. There are slight connections to Lala and the main plot, however the amount of time spent with Mira gives the impression that she is another main character, one that might even mirror Lala, but this isn’t the case. Mira’s character arc is unsatisfying and leaves the reader to ponder whether there was a need for the heavy focus on her throughout How the One-Armed Sister. The entire book is filled with heartache; this is not a happily ever after story.
A novel meant to break the reader's heart, Jones succeeds—there is barely any glimmer of hope in this dark and gloomy book. The reader gets pummeled with depressing and graphic scenes with no respite. This might feel like too much at times, but it’s clear that the point was to make the reader uncomfortable and feel these dark emotions. With heavy themes such as sexual abuse of a child, rape, graphic domestic violence, the death of a child, and even the death of a pet, the negative extremely outweighed the positive to the point where it became unbalanced and might not be enjoyable.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House sheds light on the domestic violence that women in poverty are susceptible to, and how that leads to intergenerational trauma. Jones is a talented writer with fantastic works in her future.
Thank you HarperCollins Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.