A Garden of Aloes - Tapa blanda

This is a story about “starting over,” something many woman have thought about but fewer attempt. After all, when you are living in a grand house in Santa Rosa, California, have two young daughters, many friends and all the accoutrements of wealth, how many people would throw all that away to escape from an abusive husband who will not grant you a divorce? How do you explain this to your children, particularly when you have to go into hiding, are close to penniless, can afford nothing more expensive than quarters in The Oasis, a seedy motor court in a disreputable part of Tucson? And how does one deal with a child’s anger over this fall from what she considered to be “grace?” It’s a story told in the voices of five women: There is Leslie, starting over, and her daughters—11 year-old-Sam (Samantha) and her older sister Audrey; Dee, the 400 pound Jesus-loving manager of The Oasis; Eden, a topless dancer who befriends Leslie and her bi-racial daughter Chablee—who tries to teach Audrey the ropes. All of these women do what they must to get by, all prove to be survivors, and each has a distinct voice.As Sam reflecting on her mother (and herself) puts it: “I think it’s funny my mother can be so buddy-buddy with an exotic dancer who has phony finger nails, but would not ever accept a ride to the grocery store from Dee because she is fat and wears designed clothes from Circus Tents Are Us. But people are like that. Of course Mom has no idea of what a snot Chablee is. But then I look at my mother and think maybe it’s not just me who’s desperate for a friend.” This unlikely cast of very real characters manages to form their own family unit and rise, supportively, from individual isolation after severing ties with their painful pasts, by putting one foot in front of the other as they rebuild their collective lives.

GAYLE DAVIES JANDREY is a native of Tucson, and A Garden of Aloes is her debut novel. Her life experience, including 28 years teaching public high school, have enabled her to give depth to her characters and propel the reader into the very real world of women displaced by abuse to the ragged margins of society.