Tuesday, March 16, 2010

"Gifted" by Nikita Lalwani

Rumi Vasi, the teen-age daughter of Indian immigrants in Wales, lives a life of double estrangement, marked as an outsider both by her ethnicity and by her precocity. Yet her isolation is generated less by the culture surrounding her than by the pressures of family. Her mother, determined not to allow Western morals to corrupt her daughter, tells her, "Only white people have sex"; her father insists on a punitive schedule of tutoring and test-taking under strict conditions—freezing temperatures, isolation—meant to enhance learning. Sent to Oxford at fifteen to study mathematics, Rumi begins to question the course that has been determined for her, and to seek freedom at any cost.

I really liked this book. You know right from the beginning that her life is a disaster in the making. I actually felt bad for her as if she were a real person as her Dad constrained her more and more. Her end decision surprised me but I think it was authentic to the story. Free Signature Generator

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