Mosquito

Starred review from January 4, 1999
It is nearly impossible to read Jones's latest work without being reminded of the recent tragic events of her personal life. Last February in Kentucky, a standoff with police--sparked, ironically, by a news story heralding her return to publishing with the novel The Healing (an NBA finalist)--resulted in the suicide of her husband and Jones's hospitalization for depression. The raw, ephemeral spirit lurking in such books as Corregida seemed to have come to life. Here, however, Jones has written a powerfully hopeful "jazz novel"; improvisations, repetitions and syncopies round out the free-form genius of her fractured tale. Sojourner Jane Nadine Johnson--"Mosquito"--is the only female African American independent trucker driving a route along the border in Texas. After a pregnant Mexican woman hides in her truck, Mosquito becomes immersed in the new underground railroad, which offers sanctuary to Mexican immigrants. The ensuing relationship enriches her once solitary life with love, identity and independence. Mosquito's intelligence is evident through her language, a dialect with 19th-century inflections peppered with polysyllabic words and references to the philosophical concepts Mosquito has feverishly accumulated in her compelling quest for knowledge and wisdom. She learns from books and her women friends, cantina bartender Delgadina and Monkey Bread, who is seeking truth as a "Daughter of Nzingha." Remarkably, without the aid of quotation marks and other traditional guideposts, it is possible to track Mosquito through dreams, polemics and even a play by Lucille Jones, the author's mother. Though it is not for those easily distracted, this wonderfully inventive book begs to be read aloud.