SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones: Book 26 of 2011 [Dear Thursday]

I had planned to read SILVER SPARROW first thing on my vacation, but somehow other books got in the way, and I didn’t start reading it until the last day of my vacation. Big mistake. I got sucked into such an intense book thrall, that I ended up having to take the first day after I came back from my vacation to finish reading it, just so I could get on with my life and, you know, promote my own dang book. Anyway, here are my thoughts on SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones.

What’s It About: A bigamist marries two women and ends up having a daughter with each of them. Dana, the “secret” daughter, knows about Chaurisse, the “offiicial” daughter, but not vice versa. The story is told from their two points of view.

What Makes It Different: t I’ve heard about secret families plenty of times IRL, seen them on TV and at the movies. But I’ve never read a book about a “silver sparrow.” This made it immediately fascinating from like page one.

What I Loved: SILVER SPARROW is a rare combination: beautiful language, poetic prose, wonderful character work — but still a page turner. What’s even more amazing is that you know pretty much what’s going to happen later within the first few pages, but watching it all unfold — glorious! It was like undoing what appeared to be a basic white origami crane and finding a compelling pattern on the inside of the paper. If you’re in a book club, order this joint yesterday, you will talking about it for days. In the middle of the book, which I had downloaded as an e-book, I ordered the hardcover, and gave it to my visiting SIL to read, just so I’d have somebody to talk to about it with. Seriously, I loved-loved this book.

What I Didn’t Like: I know that authors get to decide where a book ends, but I really needed this story to keep on going. We get an epilogue, but it’s not nearly enough. I could seriously use a sequel.

Writing Lessons Learned

Pick an original point of view. What’s interesting is that I’ve seen this story before from the husband’s point of view and from the wives’s point of view, but I’ve never heard it from the children’s point of view. If you’re afraid that your story has “been done” before, think about switching your point of view character(s). How much more interesting was Gregory Macguire’s WICKED from the supposedly good and bad witches’ points of view?

Poetic but simple. I love the way Jones writes, direct but with poetry to spare — no convoluted sentences here. When working and reworking your prose, try to think of ways to say things in the simplest way possible but with some poetry. This kind of prose is always a pleasure to read.

Smart bad girl. I adore a smart bad girl — and in Dana, our main silver sparrow, we have someone who talks back, and has sex in high school, and drinks, and smokes dope — but still loves math. Yes! Fierce nerds come in all sorts of packages. So think about putting yours in a package we wouldn’t expect.

To Whom Would I Recommend This Book: Donna Butler, Elizabeth Carter, Book Clubs, and Anyone with a Father Who Cheated.

Click on the book cover to buy SILVER SPARROW at Amazon.

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