Sweet Eyes

The chaos and brutality of Honey Parrish's life doesn't match the bucolic reputation of small town Iowa where she lives. Hers is a life constantly spinning just off center, dangerously close to spiraling altogether out of control. When she begins an affiar with Jasper Johnson, Divinity, Iowa's only black man, it seems that the little balance Honey was able to manage has been finally lost forever. Haunted by a dead lover, plagued by a lecherous boss, and at odds with her entire family, especially her brother who seems to be intent on killing either her or Jasper or both, Honey richocets through her days without much reason. She is desperate to connect with someone on her own terms but unable to decipher what those terms might be. As she show more tries to map a course for her life and thoughts, using butcher paper tacked to the walls of her trailer, the town sheriff forces her to confront a decades old, unsolved murder and figure out whether her dead lover, her ex-husband, or her brother was the killer.

Jonis Agee is the queen of marginalized, small town characters. These are not glorified and heroic characters, brimming with optimism and sterotypical middle American values. These are not rolling hills and suntipped stalks of grain. No, Agee grounds her stories in the hard scrabble and mundane existence of farming and ranching. Her characters don't glide through grain fields, they slog through mud and snow and bitter cold and repressive, sticky heat. And her characters are all haunted, some of them quite literally. They are haunted by their past, their self-doubt, and their weakness. These characters, who all seem to be living on the ragged fringe of society, are sometimes difficult to read about. Their mistakes and the chaos that composes their lives can be frustrating but you always feel like you are reading about real people, people who might inhabit your life and your days if you scratched a little deeper beneath the surface.

Agee writes with a poetic turn of phrase that, though juxtaposed to stark reality, never seems out of place. This was her first novel and, thougb her writing style and poetic voice have grown much over the years, it is still evident here and a pleasure to read. What has improved more over the years is her storytelling ability. Though the overall story is a good one, Agee builds up the mystery so slowly, dribbling out juicy details a little at a time, that the reader is looking for the mystery to play a larger role than it does in the final resolutions for Honey. And Agee, always quirky and eccentric with the characters, writes a few passages which stretch the bounds of believability. Her later novels show a much more practiced and experienced voice.

All in all, a very good read. Highly recommended, but beware if you are impatient with characters who don't make good decisions.

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