February 2, 1998
Jones's first major American publication since Eva's Man (1976) is prickly, frequently tendentious and occasionally brilliant. From the opening pages we know we're in the presence of a masterly writer whose life experiences have sharpened her edges rather than softened them. The narrator, African American faith-healer Harlan Jane Eagleton, travels from small town to small town working her miracles. But, as we soon learn, being a healer is only her latest incarnation after stints as a beautician in her hometown of Louisville, Ky., as a racetrack gambler and as a business manager for the rock-'n-roller Joan Savage. Harlan is more sure of what she's not (anybody's fool) than what she is, and underneath her "countrified" voice is a shrewd observer of human nature. She is also remarkably well read in theories of art, science, literature and music--and she proves it at every opportunity, in long-winded diatribes too often explained away with a coy "I read about that somewhere." Despite Harlan's tiresomely false naivete (and the tedious political speechifying of the people she meets), readers will care about her and will eagerly follow her journey to heal herself first before she can touch others ("If I wasn't the one doing the healing, I'd be among the tough nuts"). It is through her flawed but gravely human voice that Jones's flinty work is quietly redeemed. (Feb.) FYI: The Healing is the first novel Beacon has published in its 143-year history. The press plans to issue another novel by Jones, as well as a book-length poem of hers, in 1999.