“My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.” This opening line to Tayari Jones’s 2011 novel Silver Sparrow, is simply stated, but after finishing the story, we realize just how much of a punch this one sentence packs. In this wonderfully nuanced story of two sisters, one of whom doesn’t even know the other exists, we are given insight into a family and the dysfunction that results from one fateful decision. In James Witherspoon’s eyes, he believes he is “doing the right thing” by marrying Gwendolyn Yarboro after she has his child, a daughter named Dana Lynn. Never mind the fact that, at the time, he had already been married to his wife Laverne for a decade and also has a daughter with her, named Chaurisse. On paper, Gwen is James’s “wife” and Dana is his legitimate child, but reality, especially the law, dictates otherwise. Regardless of what James says or does, Gwen and Dana will always be a “secret” that his “real” family must never know about — in fact, James makes it very clear to Gwen and Dana that they are to “stay the hell away” from Laverne and Chaurisse. How is that possible though when his “real” and “secret” family live in relatively close proximity to each other and, as we find out eventually, the daughters know the same group of friends. So of course, it should come as no surprise that Dana and Chaurisse eventually become friends, though Chaurisse has no clue that Dana is actually her sister. As is usually the case, secrets of this nature are hard to keep under wraps forever and when the inevitable is revealed, the results are devastating.
The story is narrated from the points of view of the 2 daughters, which I feel was the perfect mechanism for telling this story. As I came to know both Dana and Chaurisse, and began to understand the impact of their parents’ actions on them — physically, mentally, emotionally — I couldn’t help feeling deeply for them. For two teenagers to have to deal with not just a situation that neither of them chose, but also the fallout from it that changes their lives forever, it really made me detest the adults in their lives for their actions (and inactions). Of course, the character I hated the most in this story was the father, James Witherspoon — not just because of his cheating on his wife (which, as it turns out, was probably the least of his aggressions), but because the way he handled the entire situation, he repeatedly caused pain to both his families, which I found to be deplorable. The worst part was James’s nonchalant attitude toward the whole thing — it made me mad how he would constantly assert that he was “doing the best he could” and the fact that he agreed to “own up to his mistake” by providing for Gwen and Dana (as opposed to abandoning them, I suppose) should absolve him of all wrongdoing. But of course, it’s not that simple, as it becomes obvious from the way James treats Gwen and Dana throughout the entire story that he is exasperated with them, at times even making himself out to be the victim rather than the person who created this whole mess to begin with. Some may argue that James is a “flawed” man who made some mistakes, but since he did try to rectify them, he should at least be given some credit for that – while that may be true to some extent and perhaps in other circumstances, I might be more sympathetic, but the James Witherspoon presented as he was in this story made me feel nothing but disdain for him.
This was my first experience with Tayari Jones’s works (I know, I know — it embarrasses me to even admit this), but it absolutely won’t be my last! Jones is a master storyteller absolutely deserving of all the accolades bestowed on her. I love the way she writes her characters, all of whom truly came alive for me: I felt for Laverne and Gwen, both of whom, at different points in the story, had to take the bad situation they were in and make the most of it; towards James, I felt nothing but scorn and contempt; Raleigh I also did not care much for, but he did have some redeeming qualities that James completely lacked. Emotionally though, I related to Dana and Chaurisse the most, even though our backgrounds and experiences are so vastly different. I think the resonance, for me at least, comes from having the shared experience of coming-of-age in an environment that has not always been kind to people of color. Though I never had to deal with bigamy in my family, I did have many of the same struggles that Dana and Chaurisse had in terms of being a teenager having to deal with the consequences of poor decisions and actions from the adults around me at the time. And I can absolutely relate to the piece about how those actions (whether intentionally or unintentionally) can have a severe, and sometimes even destructive, impact on those we love.
I can’t wait to read Jones’s newest (and perhaps most famous) work, An American Marriage, which I’ve had on my shelf for awhile already but hadn’t get gotten around to reading. And like many others, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what Jones has in store for us next!
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