Now that I have turned the last page of the book I realize that I wouldn't have normally selected this for reading - not because I am not familiar with the author but because I generally go for crime or mystery novels. I cannot even begin to speculate on the genre of this one.
The story is simple, told by a teenage girl called Tallie who lives in a small place called Eden in Virginia. When she is 12, her mom - who we are told bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous actress - leaves her daughter and husband to follow a dream in Hollywood. Tallie is forced to cope with an absentee mother and a drunk of a father. Her mom does return but succumbs to cancer in just 6 months. As Tallie struggles to come to terms with the complications in her life, her village is roiled by the supposedly accidental death of another teenage girl and apparent murder of her father, a wealthy lawyer, by her brother. And then one day, Tallie realizes that her mom has kept a secret from her all these years.
The murder isn't hard to figure out, and I suspect that the author never wanted it to be. Because murder is just the backdrop to Tallie and her life. And the author does a commendable job of making the reader get interested in both. You can feel for Tallie as she loves, hates and is angry with her mom for going to Hollywood. You feel sad for her when her mom passes away. You are happy when she is allowed to undergo a makeover on Glamour Day. And you fail to understand her,maybe even be angry with her, when she lets Spy into her room. But at no point can you remain aloof from Tallie. A fact that a reader like me, who is miles removed from Tallie's age, ethnicity and geography, feels that way speaks volumes for the author's expertise.
Even though the end resembles a typical 'and they lived happily together' outcome of a typical Hindi movie, you feel happy for Tallie. :-)
The story is simple, told by a teenage girl called Tallie who lives in a small place called Eden in Virginia. When she is 12, her mom - who we are told bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous actress - leaves her daughter and husband to follow a dream in Hollywood. Tallie is forced to cope with an absentee mother and a drunk of a father. Her mom does return but succumbs to cancer in just 6 months. As Tallie struggles to come to terms with the complications in her life, her village is roiled by the supposedly accidental death of another teenage girl and apparent murder of her father, a wealthy lawyer, by her brother. And then one day, Tallie realizes that her mom has kept a secret from her all these years.
The murder isn't hard to figure out, and I suspect that the author never wanted it to be. Because murder is just the backdrop to Tallie and her life. And the author does a commendable job of making the reader get interested in both. You can feel for Tallie as she loves, hates and is angry with her mom for going to Hollywood. You feel sad for her when her mom passes away. You are happy when she is allowed to undergo a makeover on Glamour Day. And you fail to understand her,maybe even be angry with her, when she lets Spy into her room. But at no point can you remain aloof from Tallie. A fact that a reader like me, who is miles removed from Tallie's age, ethnicity and geography, feels that way speaks volumes for the author's expertise.
Even though the end resembles a typical 'and they lived happily together' outcome of a typical Hindi movie, you feel happy for Tallie. :-)
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