 December 2002
This Side of the Sky
by Elyse Singleton
Using conventional wisdom and status quo in analyzing new authors and their debuts can be fraught with misconception and misleading thoughts. What can be said if nothing is missing and the book exceeds all expectation? This reviewer after reading this book didn’t have to adhere to the opening statement. Alas, more often than not we tend to buy into the feeling anyway, that first time authors should struggle with misplaced storylines, be victimized with shoddy plots, and even be inudated with flimsy characterization. This analogy is given to you to support the case of This Side Of The Sky, Elyse Singleton’s auspicious debut that is discernable enough to elude any preconceived notions of initiating scrutiny of a first time novel.
This author has penned a novel worthy of your perusal depicting a wonderful period piece using WW II as a backdrop, the Great Depression as fodder to fuel any fire, and life for a woman in uniform. The storyline is so believable that the protagonists build a predictable crescendo to use as reason to fuel the need to move on to greener pastures. Oppressed dreams through barriers of segregation and poverty, and the optimal joy of finding love in an era that often discouraged it are adhesives to pull the story together.
This is also the story of Lilian and Myraleen, best friends weaving their way through peaks and valleys to arrive at formulae unique to themselves, and equally foreign to those that didn’t know them well. A greater case can also be made for it to be the story of an author defining a different story about a war-torn era of historic content as it pertain to African American women in uniform generally, and the Women’s Army Corps (WACS) specifically. This is during a time when bucolic angst is tantamount to minimal opportunity and oppressed dreams, whereas by the time they decide to move from Nadir, Mississippi to the subtle biased attitudes of Philadelphia, their minds are ready for the world.
Along the way and through many trials and tribulations later, they try their lot at love. Myraleen eventually becomes involved with a black Tuskeegee airman, while Lilian, as the author in an interesting way, pursues a German POW she befriended years ago in Nadir. Rare would you find as protagonists two hard-minded idealists, and black women mind you, tackling the problems in the changing times of yesteryear. Yet, Ms Singleton pulls it off in a rather dramatic fashion as the style of writing she uses allow the characters to be colorful, adventurous, and with enough emotion to not let you forget that matters of the heart will always be material for a good story!
A book like this will invariably standout against what is currently considered to be in vogue simply because it’s different…and sadly to say, there’s paradoxically nothing to compare it to when you think of historic fiction written where you readily see how the author has researched her craft well. This book deals with other issues that are perspective to the times of the day. In a lot of respects I feel that it’s much more than a novel with historical setting. It’s a novel with a literary tone that defies racial overtones, and where the characters could have been depicted in any other cultural makeup in determining terms of value, and the author’s intent on giving poignancy to this drama.
This is simply a well-written book that is both compelling and compassionate. Says the author, “Writing a first novel is like being an orphan. Nobody waits for it. Nobody other than oneself legitimizes it with the insistence that it should exist”. In light of such a bold statement, I can easily attribute it to this book, and give a good case to support the need for one to not judge a book or an author on first takes. This is a homerun, a touchdown, and a slam dunk. It delivers! I recommend this book wholeheartedly and would encourage those to read it regardless of subjects not being written about of late.
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