The Fab 5 Book Club met, oh, some time ago, to talk about Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. But first we ate some great Mexican food, from a restaurant that was closed by the health department shortly thereafter. We’re not sure whether we should be sad or grateful that we escaped with our lives.
We also talked a bit about pet-sitting. One upcoming vacation prompted the need for a rat-sitter. Then Nancy mentioned that she once did some cat-sitting for a friend, a friend who left a sticky note on every conceivable surface with instructions about the cat, the food, the way the toilet flushed, etc. Cat people may respond here in their own defense, but it seems there is something about anyone who owns multiple cats that puts them under the shadow of suspicion.
But about the book. Dana and Chaurisse are sisters, but only
one of them knows it. They share a father, James Witherspoon, and Dana has
spent her life as the product of his secret marriage. Chaurisse, on the other
hand, is the daughter of his public wife and has lived a pampered, sheltered life.
The book is written from Dana’s perspective in the first half, and the second
half comes from Chaurisse.
All of us were caught by the story, wanting to know what happened. We spent some time wondering what it would be like to find out that your father has a whole different family. And what it would be like to grow up knowing that. Children look to their parents for their identity—to find out how much they are loved, to try to figure out where they fit in the list of parental priorities. Daughters look to their fathers for the male perspective on themselves, and they watch their parents’ interactions to find out what marriage might look like for themselves.
To grow up as part of a secret family, your needs always second to that of the public family, means that you are not first priority. But on the other hand, growing up in a secure family with no knowledge of the other family, makes your life and the love you’ve experienced a fraud. It’s a fascinating puzzle to consider.
Identity is a huge issue for everyone involved—a man who doesn’t want to work for anyone else, his brother who looks white but is not, and two women who may or may not be beloved wives. The book points out how much of our identity is shaped by our relationship to others and how we are perceived.
On top of that, Jones sets the story in 1980s Atlanta, which had us all think back on jelly shoes and Add-a-Bead necklaces. Okay, I’m the only one who knew about Add-a-Beads. Must have been a southern thing. There were some cracks in the 80s description—I can’t think of anyone who was fashionably sporting a tube top in the mid-80s—but still kind of fun.
The biggest downfall for us is that none of us could quite understand how the character of James Witherspoon warranted all this female attention in the first place. While it is still missing something to make it great, it is an interesting, well-written story.
All of us were caught by the story, wanting to know what happened. We spent some time wondering what it would be like to find out that your father has a whole different family. And what it would be like to grow up knowing that. Children look to their parents for their identity—to find out how much they are loved, to try to figure out where they fit in the list of parental priorities. Daughters look to their fathers for the male perspective on themselves, and they watch their parents’ interactions to find out what marriage might look like for themselves.
To grow up as part of a secret family, your needs always second to that of the public family, means that you are not first priority. But on the other hand, growing up in a secure family with no knowledge of the other family, makes your life and the love you’ve experienced a fraud. It’s a fascinating puzzle to consider.
Identity is a huge issue for everyone involved—a man who doesn’t want to work for anyone else, his brother who looks white but is not, and two women who may or may not be beloved wives. The book points out how much of our identity is shaped by our relationship to others and how we are perceived.
On top of that, Jones sets the story in 1980s Atlanta, which had us all think back on jelly shoes and Add-a-Bead necklaces. Okay, I’m the only one who knew about Add-a-Beads. Must have been a southern thing. There were some cracks in the 80s description—I can’t think of anyone who was fashionably sporting a tube top in the mid-80s—but still kind of fun.
The biggest downfall for us is that none of us could quite understand how the character of James Witherspoon warranted all this female attention in the first place. While it is still missing something to make it great, it is an interesting, well-written story.
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