The perils of home.A Simple Distance * K.E. Silva * Akashic * $14.95 Jean Sousa, an American lawyer living in Piedmont, an upscale gay-friendly Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern community next door to Oakland, is caught between her West Indian West In·dies An archipelago between southeast North America and northern South America, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean and including the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Bahama Islands. heritage and her insistence on her own path in K.E. Silva's spare, elegant debut novel, A Simple Distance. Jean's Uncle George was a conservative legislator on the fictional West Indies West Indies, archipelago, between North and South America, curving c.2,500 mi (4,020 km) from Florida to the coast of Venezuela and separating the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean. island of Baobique, responsible for passing harsh laws against gay sex. As much as she loved him, Jean realized that in becoming a lawyer, her "plan was to steal some of his power. If he was there to make laws that made people like me illegal, I'd be somewhere else fighting back." While visiting Uncle George during his final illness, Jean made the mistake of falling in love with a woman. Goodbye, Baobique. But a year later, Jean's unstable mother falls victim to a family property swindle swindle v. to cheat through trick, device, false statements or other fraudulent methods with the intent to acquire money or property from another to which the swindler is not entitled. Swindling is a crime as one form of theft. (See: fraud, theft) . To help her, Jean must fly back to the island and face everything she had fled. Silva has much in common with her skillfully skill·ful adj. 1. Possessing or exercising skill; expert. See Synonyms at proficient. 2. Characterized by, exhibiting, or requiring skill. drawn central character: She's a Bay Area civil rights attorney born in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , whose mother moved back to the West Indies more than a decade ago. This may be why her descriptions of the island are so vivid and appreciative but unexotic. This balance reflects Jean's conflicting identities as a lesbian and Baobiquaise--and the ways she mutes them to get by. Clearly, when it comes to family, there's no such thing as a simple distance. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion