A Garden of Aloes
The Garden of Aloes is G. Davies Jandrey’s debut novel. Her life experience, 28 years teaching in Tucson’s public schools, gives each character a life and depth of her own, propelling the reader into the world of women displaced by abuse to the ragged edges of society.
It’s summer and hell in Tucson, Arizona. Leslie and daughters, Sam and Audrey, have just landed at The Oasis, a shabby motor court along the Miracle Mile, a street notorious for prostitution, drugs, and skin joints. They are at the tag end of everything from money to hope, and so begins their struggle to make a life better than the one they left behind in cool, green Santa Rosa, California, where they had friends, a 4,000-square-foot house, closets full of designer clothes, and a gourmet kitchen.
The story is told in four alternating voices. The first belongs to Sam, a diminutive 11-year-old with wide blue eyes and a vampire phobia. Angry, isolated and bored, she is ripe for disaster.
The second voice belongs to Dee, the 400-pound, canasta-playing, Jesus-loving manager of The Oasis. She and LeRoy, her decrepit miniature greyhound, befriend the lonely Sam. Dee doesn’t know where life is taking her, but knows God only requires her to put one foot in front of the other. Most days, she’s pretty sure she can do that.
Chablee’s voice is next. She is the 13-year-old biracial daughter of a topless dancer and carries a chip on her shoulder the size of a baby T. rex. Lying has become her method of coping with the unusual and embarrassing circumstances of her life. She and Audrey begin a friendship forged by their mutual devotion to make-up and pedicures.
The last voice belongs to Leslie, a conventionally pretty woman of thirty-four. Running away from an abusive husband with her reluctant daughters in tow was an act of courage, but now she’s in a limbo state, mired there by guilt, self-doubt, and poverty. When she lands a job as a telemarketer, she must daily leave Sam and Audrey to fend for themselves. Leslie had sought to protect her daughters and is devastated when she fails.
A Garden of Aloes is a poignant, sometimes shocking story, but there are moments of high hilarity. When you least expect to, you will laugh out loud, yet the plight of the women living at The Oasis is no laughing matter.
A Garden of Aloes can be ordered at any bookstore or online at www.amazon.com (search for A Garden of Aloes).
It’s summer and hell in Tucson, Arizona. Leslie and daughters, Sam and Audrey, have just landed at The Oasis, a shabby motor court along the Miracle Mile, a street notorious for prostitution, drugs, and skin joints. They are at the tag end of everything from money to hope, and so begins their struggle to make a life better than the one they left behind in cool, green Santa Rosa, California, where they had friends, a 4,000-square-foot house, closets full of designer clothes, and a gourmet kitchen.
The story is told in four alternating voices. The first belongs to Sam, a diminutive 11-year-old with wide blue eyes and a vampire phobia. Angry, isolated and bored, she is ripe for disaster.
The second voice belongs to Dee, the 400-pound, canasta-playing, Jesus-loving manager of The Oasis. She and LeRoy, her decrepit miniature greyhound, befriend the lonely Sam. Dee doesn’t know where life is taking her, but knows God only requires her to put one foot in front of the other. Most days, she’s pretty sure she can do that.
Chablee’s voice is next. She is the 13-year-old biracial daughter of a topless dancer and carries a chip on her shoulder the size of a baby T. rex. Lying has become her method of coping with the unusual and embarrassing circumstances of her life. She and Audrey begin a friendship forged by their mutual devotion to make-up and pedicures.
The last voice belongs to Leslie, a conventionally pretty woman of thirty-four. Running away from an abusive husband with her reluctant daughters in tow was an act of courage, but now she’s in a limbo state, mired there by guilt, self-doubt, and poverty. When she lands a job as a telemarketer, she must daily leave Sam and Audrey to fend for themselves. Leslie had sought to protect her daughters and is devastated when she fails.
A Garden of Aloes is a poignant, sometimes shocking story, but there are moments of high hilarity. When you least expect to, you will laugh out loud, yet the plight of the women living at The Oasis is no laughing matter.
A Garden of Aloes can be ordered at any bookstore or online at www.amazon.com (search for A Garden of Aloes).