Review of Kalayla
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Ayenka Franklin
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- Latest Review: Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas
Review of Kalayla
[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]
A lonely beginning and a hopeful outcome. I started reading Kalayla with the doubt of going through the first twenty pages. I’m a non-fiction reader. But like Daughters of Shame that I had hated from its title and got lost in its pages and discovered I had been reading the book for days, my only question being, “what next?” Through the imagination of Jeannie Nicholas and her character Kalayla the reader can transform imagery and fiction to an almost experiential reality in a world s/he has abandoned in the search for daily bread and screens. We are alone surrounded by many. Maureen struggles with two jobs to sustain her family. As a single mother with a foul-mouthed daughter who does not gussy up her words because of years of unintentional neglect by her. Raising her becomes a herculean task. What Maureen does not realize is that her past with Kalayla could have contributed to her bitter, lonesome, and hard-to-keep track of attitude as an 11-year-old girl. Jeannie Nicholas’ Kalayla centers around the 11-year-old gutsy girl whose relationship with her widowed mother makes her an outsider to her family and draws her closer to the older, successful landlady, Lena who is haunted by thoughts of her dead relatives and two estranged sons. This story of the friction in relationships and niggling feelings of three estranged individuals, distinct in character and stature is the birthplace of hope, of a new family, one that disregards the traditional formula of the family based on bloodlines and embraces the warmth and worries we can give to one another.
Kalayla is intriguing because it’s a sample of the contemporary family relationship model written as fiction. This model hypothesizes that history hurts and keeping track of the relations we’ve lost can seem like “chasing marbles going downhill”. In Jeannie Nicholas’ familiar tone, we must search for answers that will heal our differences and support the pillars of family, and family still makes sense outside bloodlines and biology.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because it is a vision for the future of the family in our world that is increasingly divided by ideology and conflict. I admire how Jeannie Nicholas looks into the soul of the modern family and captures its very essence. This is not just a book about love, perseverance, and forgiveness. It’s a template of family resilience that describes how love and forgiveness can rebuild broken relationships in miserable and dysfunctional households and communities. I highly recommend this book to social workers, but most especially to anyone who is in search of friendship, family, and forgiveness. This book makes me think about something I have thought little about before. Watch out for her.
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Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
A lonely beginning and a hopeful outcome. I started reading Kalayla with the doubt of going through the first twenty pages. I’m a non-fiction reader. But like Daughters of Shame that I had hated from its title and got lost in its pages and discovered I had been reading the book for days, my only question being, “what next?” Through the imagination of Jeannie Nicholas and her character Kalayla the reader can transform imagery and fiction to an almost experiential reality in a world s/he has abandoned in the search for daily bread and screens. We are alone surrounded by many. Maureen struggles with two jobs to sustain her family. As a single mother with a foul-mouthed daughter who does not gussy up her words because of years of unintentional neglect by her. Raising her becomes a herculean task. What Maureen does not realize is that her past with Kalayla could have contributed to her bitter, lonesome, and hard-to-keep track of attitude as an 11-year-old girl. Jeannie Nicholas’ Kalayla centers around the 11-year-old gutsy girl whose relationship with her widowed mother makes her an outsider to her family and draws her closer to the older, successful landlady, Lena who is haunted by thoughts of her dead relatives and two estranged sons. This story of the friction in relationships and niggling feelings of three estranged individuals, distinct in character and stature is the birthplace of hope, of a new family, one that disregards the traditional formula of the family based on bloodlines and embraces the warmth and worries we can give to one another.
Kalayla is intriguing because it’s a sample of the contemporary family relationship model written as fiction. This model hypothesizes that history hurts and keeping track of the relations we’ve lost can seem like “chasing marbles going downhill”. In Jeannie Nicholas’ familiar tone, we must search for answers that will heal our differences and support the pillars of family, and family still makes sense outside bloodlines and biology.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because it is a vision for the future of the family in our world that is increasingly divided by ideology and conflict. I admire how Jeannie Nicholas looks into the soul of the modern family and captures its very essence. This is not just a book about love, perseverance, and forgiveness. It’s a template of family resilience that describes how love and forgiveness can rebuild broken relationships in miserable and dysfunctional households and communities. I highly recommend this book to social workers, but most especially to anyone who is in search of friendship, family, and forgiveness. This book makes me think about something I have thought little about before. Watch out for her.
******
Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas
