How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones (4/5)

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones is a devastating story about Lala, a young woman who falls into her family’s fate of marrying horrible men. The story is set in the 1940’s-1968 in a place called Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, a paradise to tourists, and a disheartening place to its residents. The book's main focus, Lala, a Baxter’s Beach native, never really knew her parents, because they had tragically died while she was at a young age. Lala was then forced to live with her grandmother, Wilma, until she could move out. It is under Wilma’s wing that Lala is made to be a modest woman, because Wilma believes that the women in her family are cursed to have bad relationships with men. Lala’s mother, a victim of this fate, was never able to warn Lala about this directly, and thus Lala decides to not heed her grandmother’s cautions. She goes on to marry Adan, a defiant young man that carries on the legacy, and whose actions end up getting Lala and the residents and tourists of Baxter’s Beach in serious trouble. Every tragedy and betrayal from multiple different perspectives all leads up until one final moment, right where the one-armed sister from a cautionary tale lost her arm. I first opened this book thinking it would be some sort of murder mystery thriller, but was shocked to realize the amount of in-depth relationships through characters that had been constructed. The book does not follow a chronological structure, and oftentimes I had to reestablish my views of the characters after something about their past was told. However, the most noteworthy part of this read was how horrifically domestic violence and pain was portrayed in this book. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House is definitely not a light-hearted story that takes place in a paradise vacation stay. It is a lesson of how violence, repeated abuse, and infatuation can build trauma and intrinsically affect those involved with it. If you were to take on this read, be ready to endure the harsh topics of loss, grief, domestic violence, and bodily agony.