Author: Cathy Ostlere
Publisher: Razorbill
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 9781595143389
Reading Level/Interest Age: Grade 9 and up
Genre: Historical--World Historical Fiction--Twentieth Century, Alternate Formats--Verse Novels
Reader’s Annotation: Jiva is on her own somewhere in India, so traumatized by violence that she refuses to speak.
Plot Summary
Jiva is the product of a mixed marriage. Her Sikh father calls her by her given name, but her Hindu mother calls her Maya. They live in a Canadian prairie town where they are the only people of color. Though Jiva feels like an outsider there, she’s never even been to her parents’ homeland, India. When her mother commits suicide, Jiva and her father take her ashes home. But just after they arrive in Delhi, Indira Ghandi, the Hindu prime minister, is assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The city erupts into violence. Jiva is separated from her father and gets on a train to escape Delhi. On the way, the train is boarded by a mob, and Jiva witnesses an horrific murder that causes her to stop speaking.
In a city on the edge of the desert a family agrees to let Maya stay with them until she recovers. The adopted son of the family, Sandeep, falls in love with her. But her sudden appearance and strange behavior cause a scandal, and soon she is forced to leave. Sandeep, his father, and an aggressive caravan leader take her into the desert to find a place for her to stay—but what her fate will be when she arrives, no one will say. After she runs away into the desert and nearly dies, Maya finally regains her voice and professes her love for Sandeep. Together they head back to Delhi to see if they can find her father.
Critical Evaluation
Karma is a verse novel with an interesting form. The first section, “Maya’s Diary,” tells of Maya/Jiva’s past, arrival in India, and flight to the interior. After she stops speaking, “Sandeep’s Notebook” begins. Sandeep tells about Maya’s time in his parents’ house and their journey across the desert, with occasional (written) interpolations from Maya. In the final part, “Jiva’s Journal,” Maya/Jiva takes over again.
Both of the voices are full of personality and emotion. Maya is passionate, contemplative, and very sad. Sandeep is outwardly cocky and loquacious, but his headlong plunge into love reveals his deep insecurity. When Maya resumes the narrative, her voice is fresh and newly hopeful. She writes,
“Oh, I have missed this,
A book.
A pen.
The empty page waiting.
Waiting for my voice!
…
Liquid thoughts.
Swelling letters.
A river of ink flowing
black and wet.
Flooding the paper banks.”
Both narrators powerfully evoke violence, color, and first love in spare yet luscious free verse.
Though the plot stalls in places, the setting and characters are riveting. Ostlere sensitively explores Jiva’s divided identity and loyalties, as well as issues such as suicide, prejudice, and hatred. There is a lot to learn from her account of the events of November 1984 and the glimpse she offers into the India of that time.
Curriculum Ties: History--India, religious conflict
Booktalking Ideas
Recount the true events that provide the backdrop for this novel.
Read Sandeep's charming start to his portion of the narrative ("Top six reasons to (maybe) keep a diary").
Challenge Issues: Violence, language
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include a glowing review from Booklist, positive reviews from Publishers Weekly and VOYA, and a negative review from Kirkus Reviews.
About the Author
Cathy Ostlere was born in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. She and her three siblings grew up as air force brats moving between Manitoba and Ontario military bases. Her family eventually settled in Winnipeg, the home of her Ukrainian grandparents, where Cathy completed high school and a degree in English at the University of Manitoba. Post-graduation she worked in Toronto for Warner Publisher Services. In 1983, she began a journey that would take her through sixteen countries in eighteen months. A chance encounter with a sailing crew allowed her to visit thirteen of the Greek islands and cruise the coastline of Turkey. In 1984, she continued traveling, going east to India, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Upon her return to Canada in 1985, she settled in Calgary. Over the next ten years she was an at-home parent for three children and a freelance writer. In 1990, she took her first creative writing class.
Cathy Ostlere’s first book, LOST, began as a series of poems but grew into creative non-fiction essays with the assistance of Sharon Butala, Greg Hollingshead and Edna Alford at the Banff Centre and Roberta Rees at the University of Calgary. Karen Connelly, of the Humber School of Writing, guided LOST into a memoir. Essays excerpted from LOST have been short-listed for the National Magazine Awards, Western Magazine Awards, CBC Literary Awards, and Prism International and Event Magazine Non-fiction Contests. In 2009, Lost: A Memoir was shortlisted for the prestigious Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-fiction. In 2010, she co-wrote with Dennis Garnhum, Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary, LOST: A Memoir, a 90 minute one-woman play performed in Calgary and expected to tour Canada over the next two years. Her first novel, Karma, a verse novel written for young adults, was released by Penguin in March 2011.
http://cathy-ostlere.com/author/
Why is this title included?
I read about this book in an NPR article that identified five recent YA releases with crossover appeal for adults (http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/137456199/hooray-for-ya-teen-novels-for-readers-of-all-ages). As an historical, multicultural verse novel it brings needed diversity to this collection.