A Simple Distance
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A California lawyer is reunited with her Caribbean mother, and must cope with a crisis, in a novel about identity and family.
Jean has lived in the United States—and avoided her Caribbean homeland—for years. But as she prepares to work on a lesbian couple’s child custody case, in the hopes of advancing her law career, she is suddenly pulled in another direction.
Her uncle, a prominent man back on the island, has died, and Jean’s mother, who nursed him through his long illness, demands her daughter’s attention. She wants to come visit her in Oakland.
As Jean struggles through memories of both childhood and adulthood, she must come to terms with her past, her future, her true identity—and her relationship with a woman who has made her life difficult, but who may now desperately need her help.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this earnest debut, young attorney and biracial lesbian Jean Sousa is accustomed to living between worlds. But it's Jean's Jamaica Kinkaid like relationship with her mother, Sophia, and her mother's homeland, the fictional Caribbean island of Baobique, that has always given her the most difficulty: "I cannot think of a single thing I hate more in this world than unraveling my mother's knots." Though Sophia has returned to Baobique after many years in the U.S., Jean still feels her reach, especially when Sophia demands to visit her in Oakland, Calif. Once there, Sophia's behavior becomes increasingly erratic, including disappearing from Jean's apartment to spend the night on a stranger's porch. Sophia's reappearance leads Jean to recall her most recent visit to Baobique, where her influential uncle lay dying and where Jean has her first sexual relationship with a woman. California attorney Silva writes standard-issue prose that occasionally strains toward portent. The scenes in Baobique convey the most interest and tension, a convincing portrait of a place at an economic and cultural crossroads. By contrast, Jean's current life in Oakland lacks texture and energy, and a legal subplot involving a same-sex couple struggling over custody of their daughter feels forced.
