Kaylie Jones

Speak Now

This ambitious new novel examines the Holocaust by addressing the pall it casts on successive generations. Clara Sverdlow, an Ivy League-educated daughter of survivors, has always felt dislocated and has, for more than 20 years, dulled her discomfort with amphetamines and alcohol. Unable to fathom the abuse her father and aunt experienced, she takes addled refuge in the arms of boyfriend Niko Kamenski. Unfortunately, Kamenski is deranged, and over the years their relationship has taken an array of frightening turns. Clara needs help badly, and when she's in rehab and meets Mark-a twin whose brother recently overdosed-the two hook up. A child is born nine months later. Perceptive, gritty, and compelling, this is an absorbing book that dives headfirst into issues facing recovering addicts. Shorn of 12-step language, the book never descends into recovery speak but instead grapples with issues including parenthood, loyalty, friendship, and trust. Beautifully written and richly detailed, it is highly recommended for all libraries.

A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries

The inspiration for the Merchant Ivory film starring Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Hershey, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries is a rich and poignant family story from the daughter of novelist James Jones. Back in print, this new edition includes an author's introduction reflecting on the process of developing a screenplay from her novel, as well as a previously unpublished chapter, "Mother's Day," that was left out of the original Bantam edition.

New York Times
Although we've gotten used to second-generation actors equaling or surpassing the accomplishments of their parents, the same hasn't happened with second-generation novelist. Nonetheless there are a few...and added to their small number ought to be Kaylie Jones.

Library Journal
Jones's third book, a delightful account of Americans living in Paris, captures the essence of childhood. Growing up in a loving, if sometimes bizarre, family, Channe Willis becomes a sister when her parents adopt Benoit, a French boy. Each sibling must struggle to adjust to the new situation; later, returning to America, they struggle simply to belong. As Channe progresses toward adulthood, her significant relationships involve her father, her Nanny Candida, teachers, boyfriends, and finally the brother she had so much trouble accepting. Jones, the daughter of James Jones, writes with sensitivity and compassion. Highly recommended.

Publisher's Weekly
The daughter of James Jones here offers a discerning, brightly written, apparently semiautobiographical bildungsroman. Channe Willis, the daughter of an eminent American novelist and his loving wife, grows up happy and spoiled in Paris. One day, her idyllic bubble is burst when her parents adopt a young French boy her own age, whose foster mother has committed suicide. Jones (Quite the Other Way) captures Channe's waspish jealousy of Billy and her protective feelings for him that blossom against her will. A sexually promiscuous loner who is too dependent on her Portuguese nanny, Channe gropes her way through an adolescence whose pain is exacerbated by her father's heart disease and the Willises' return to America when Channe and Billy are 15. Although it explores Billy's sexually repressed birth mother's motives for giving him up for adoption, this novel is, above all, an elegy to a father-daughter bond that transcends death. Channe's father is almost too good to be true: he celebrates with Channe her first menstrual period, lets her high school boyfriend sleep with her under the Willis roof, and turns Channe on to literature ("My father told me about the souls of books, how they came out of the writer whole, like babies with their own separate souls").

Celeste Ascending

Celeste, at a less-than-tender age, finds herself engaged, living in a penthouse apartment, and jetting off on exotic trips. But after her initial rapture with Alex, Celeste discovers that he's not perfect, and she's not perfect. Alex makes her angry, he often seems to care more about his job than her, and he's prone to bouts of rage. And Celeste is drinking too much.

As Celeste begins to question her relationship and herself, she is haunted by painful memories of her past in well-mannered, blue-blood Connecticut. The people she loved most have all vanished?her beautiful French mother, who died young; her high school best friend, Sally, who suffered from severe depression; her first love, Nathan, who developed an insatiable case of wanderlust. Even in adulthood, Celeste's closest friends seem to abandon her, and she still, ten years later, cannot let go of her lingering passion for Nathan, who is the opposite of Alex in every way.

Celeste comes to realize that her life is full of lies, and that she must take responsibility for the choices she has made. In a bold refusal to compromise, she challenges her fiancé, her family, and the very society in which she's steeped.