Reviews
“Cipher” is about what history means for us today, about making sense of it and coming to terms with it. It’s a story of Jeremy Jones’ family, but also a timely reflection of the way America, as a nation, still struggles with our complicated, ugly past.
Jones’ obsession with one philandering, daydreaming nineteenth-century ancestor ultimately makes him more attuned to the multiplicity of lives that flow into his own.
I was completely mesmerized as I read the accounts of this man, which are interspersed and juxtaposed with pieces from Jones’s present-day life as a father. I found his tales of his two young boys, fatherhood, marriage, place and emplacement, social and political conventions very resonant and timely, even two hundred years later. The weaving and connecting of these moments is nothing short of genius.
In this searching account, memoirist Jones (Bearwallow) delves into the salacious diaries of his 19th-century ancestor...It’s a unique look at private thoughts from a bygone era.
Through meticulous research and lyrical storytelling, Jones layers his own journey of identity and inheritance atop Prestwood’s coded life, revealing not only a vivid portrait of a flawed ancestor, but also unsettling truths about family, history and self.
One of my true joys is finding a good book and reading it slowly. A few pages at a time. Savoring it. Making it last. I obtained an early edition of “Cipher - Decoding My Ancestor’s Scandalous Secret Diaries” by Jeremy B. Jones. I was thoroughly knocked out by this non-fiction work, reading just a few pages each night.
