Mosquito

By TAMALA M. EDWARDS

Jones made her name in the 1970s with brutal tales of sexual abuse and violence. So when she came forth with last year's The Healing, a quiet, sweetly engaging novel that took a National Book Award nomination, readers found themselves surprised as much as delighted. Jones returns with the story of a black female truck driver in south Texas who winds up in an effort to harbor border crossers. Mosquito is a carnival of digression and free association, though, with the plot hijacked for paragraphs, if not pages, by muddled tangents. Questions of racial identity provide an interesting subtext to the story, but they aren't probed much. Still, in rare moments, Jones' virtuosity grins up at us, leaving hope that this is just a frustrating detour on the road to better storytelling.

--By Tamala M. Edwards