Review of Kalayla
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Review of Kalayla
[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]
Jeannie Nicholas' novel Kalayla is recounted from the perspectives of three characters. There's Lena, a wealthy 72-year-old woman who dresses in all black and lives a hermit-like existence. Traumatic events in her marriage are part of the explanation for this. Second, there's Maureen, an artist who is forced to stop working after her husband's sad death. Her family and friends reject her because she dared to marry a black man as a white woman. Then there's Maureen's daughter, Kalayla. She is troubled and spends the majority of her time alone, traveling the streets and looking for work. Maureen has been feeding up Kalayla lies that her mother's family died in a major gas explosion.
This book has a lot of things that I liked about it. First and foremost, the writing is outstanding. Everything is visible, tangible, and audible. Second, I like how this novel features a bi-racial family. I had no clue bi-racial families faced such difficulties. I am aware that racism exists. I didn't realize it was this deep, though. This book changed my perspective on the world. I had heard that growing up in a bi-racial family was difficult, but I had no idea how difficult it was.
I have always dismissed such accounts as fictitious or exaggerated. How can you say that a person's trauma is fabricated? They treat police brutality and white on white violence in the same way. This makes me worry how deeply ingrained racism is. This book made me think in a good way. I adore people of all races and ethnicities. I hope that more people read this book in order to gain a better understanding of black realities. Thirdly, I adore the way she develop the characters. Jeannie did an excellent job of fleshing out each character. At a time I could imagine them being real.
Another thing that bothered me about this book was the story's jumps forward. There are times when the characters have a problem, such as a fight between Maureen and Kalayla, and we as readers are unsure how things will ever be the same between them again. The narrative then jumps ahead a few months, and everything between the two is fine! The reader is left wondering what happened because we don't get to see how the problem was fixed. This occurred multiple times throughout the book which is wrong, especially when it may have better explained the characters' actions, which takes me to the following point of review.
Kalayla gets a 3 out of 4 star rating from me. It's a one-of-a-kind tale. To be honest, certain things struck a chord with me. Apart from that, this book is dedicated to women and their problems, which are still relevant today and will continue to be relevant in the future. This is a novel I would recommend to anyone who appreciates family dramas, especially women who are carrying heavy burdens.
******
Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Jeannie Nicholas' novel Kalayla is recounted from the perspectives of three characters. There's Lena, a wealthy 72-year-old woman who dresses in all black and lives a hermit-like existence. Traumatic events in her marriage are part of the explanation for this. Second, there's Maureen, an artist who is forced to stop working after her husband's sad death. Her family and friends reject her because she dared to marry a black man as a white woman. Then there's Maureen's daughter, Kalayla. She is troubled and spends the majority of her time alone, traveling the streets and looking for work. Maureen has been feeding up Kalayla lies that her mother's family died in a major gas explosion.
This book has a lot of things that I liked about it. First and foremost, the writing is outstanding. Everything is visible, tangible, and audible. Second, I like how this novel features a bi-racial family. I had no clue bi-racial families faced such difficulties. I am aware that racism exists. I didn't realize it was this deep, though. This book changed my perspective on the world. I had heard that growing up in a bi-racial family was difficult, but I had no idea how difficult it was.
I have always dismissed such accounts as fictitious or exaggerated. How can you say that a person's trauma is fabricated? They treat police brutality and white on white violence in the same way. This makes me worry how deeply ingrained racism is. This book made me think in a good way. I adore people of all races and ethnicities. I hope that more people read this book in order to gain a better understanding of black realities. Thirdly, I adore the way she develop the characters. Jeannie did an excellent job of fleshing out each character. At a time I could imagine them being real.
Another thing that bothered me about this book was the story's jumps forward. There are times when the characters have a problem, such as a fight between Maureen and Kalayla, and we as readers are unsure how things will ever be the same between them again. The narrative then jumps ahead a few months, and everything between the two is fine! The reader is left wondering what happened because we don't get to see how the problem was fixed. This occurred multiple times throughout the book which is wrong, especially when it may have better explained the characters' actions, which takes me to the following point of review.
Kalayla gets a 3 out of 4 star rating from me. It's a one-of-a-kind tale. To be honest, certain things struck a chord with me. Apart from that, this book is dedicated to women and their problems, which are still relevant today and will continue to be relevant in the future. This is a novel I would recommend to anyone who appreciates family dramas, especially women who are carrying heavy burdens.
******
Kalayla
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Beyond the Higher Ground by Thomas A. Brigger
