This Side of the Sky is Elyse Singleton’s novel about the friendship between two African-American women. It begins when the two are growing up in a small town in Mississippi during the 1930’s. Myraleen is a light-skinned beauty but sarcastic and stubborn, who sometimes tries to pass for white. Lilian is dark, more educated, quiet and hard-working.
The two girls become close friends, even though Lilian’s mother looks down on Myraleen. Eventually, they move away to Philadelphia where they get menial jobs. There they find more freedom but segregation that is more hidden. With still more ambition, they join the Women’s Army Corps towards the end of World War II, eventually ending up posted in London and then Paris.
Although the plot of this novel is sometimes interesting, the characters never seem to be real people. Each of them has only a few characteristics. Nor does the period setting seem particularly convincing except for the details of small town life in a poor, rural area. London during the war is not very well depicted, and Paris is barely depicted at all, as if the author has never been to either city. A few chapters from the point of view of Kellner, a German prisoner of war who is involved with Lilian, seem particularly unconvincing.
Overall, I felt this story should have been very interesting, but it was ultimately lacking in the kind of detail that would make it believable.
What? Me Read? 