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The Roller Birds of Rampur
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 28, 2009
This book was really important to me when I was in Middle School. Re-reading it to capture the magic.
March 30, 2009
Sheila is a seventeen year-old English girl. Her family moved to England from India when she was seven years old. She does not see herself as different from her friends or classmates. However, when Shelia’s boyfriend breaks up with her because she is Indian Shelia re-examines everything. She begins to be unsure on where she really fits in her English society. Shelia decides to go and stay with her grandparents in India and learn a little about who she really is. What she finds is that she a bit of both worlds; something better than she could have imagined.
This book did a great job of taking the reader into the mind of a seventeen year-old girl. All of the questions, the drama and the lack of self acceptance girls of this age possess. The book, to some, may seem to be a bit over the top. But is that not how teenage girls are? I found the passage to self discovery the protagonist takes to be something any girl could benefit from reading whether they were bi-racial or not. I also find the struggle between 1st and 2nd generations to be something that any culture could relate to.
This book did a great job of taking the reader into the mind of a seventeen year-old girl. All of the questions, the drama and the lack of self acceptance girls of this age possess. The book, to some, may seem to be a bit over the top. But is that not how teenage girls are? I found the passage to self discovery the protagonist takes to be something any girl could benefit from reading whether they were bi-racial or not. I also find the struggle between 1st and 2nd generations to be something that any culture could relate to.
April 11, 2013
About a girl born in India and raised in England who goes back to India to sort out an identity crisis and in the end decides to become an anthropologist. Isn't that what everyone going through an identity crisis decides to? The book read like it was written by an anthropologist trying to write like a teen. It didn't take many pages for my sympathy with the narrator to turn to irritation, mostly because of the emphatic! and colloquial writing style. It was pleasant to see a teen novel engage with anthro theory, especially in the development of the narrator's self-perceptions as she consciously tries to fit herself "between two worlds." Perhaps to someone who has not been overexposed to anthropology, the narrative will appear more subtle and satisfying.
October 6, 2016
I first came across Indi Rana many years ago. There was a delightful book called 'The Devil in the Dustbin' about a Brahmarakshas who accidentally hitches a ride to London. So when my husband saw 'The Roller Birds of Rampur' in the book store, he pounced on it with glee.
I must confess to looking at the book with trepidition. Many Young Adult authors fall into one or the other of the following traps: a) writing down to their target audience b) trying desperately to *be* their target audience. Fortunately, Rana, writing from the perspective of the 17-year-old protagonist, Sheila, misses the first trap altogether. As for the second, she tries valiantly to avoid it, and I would say, succeeds to the most part.
Sheila, confused and heart-broken after her heady romance with a classmate ends (and with her first obvious brush with racism), decides to go to India when an opportunity presents itself. Her understanding parents (who don't know all the details) allow her to skip her A-levels' examinations and pack her off to her paternal grandparents in Madhya Pradesh.
Here, Sheila will come face to face with the land of contrasts that is Modern India, bond with her grandparents and cousins, meet her old friends and see how differently life has treated each of them and how their life trajectories have taken them in different directions, and try to make some sense of who she is and where she belongs.
It was an engaging read, though my eyes glazed over towards the end when Sheila and her grandfather dissected karm/dharm, and I thought a lot of the youth-centric slang was laid on with a heavy hand - but I can overlook the latter. Perhaps I don't know how the youth in India (or the UK) talk any more.
The use of 'I' where 'me' was needed, and a couple of missing/misplaced apostrophes raised my ire, but that's a professional hazard more than a glaring fault. The editors should have caught those. On the whole, I liked the book, even though Sheila's parents resonated more with me - having known people like them - than Sheila or her sister.
I must confess to looking at the book with trepidition. Many Young Adult authors fall into one or the other of the following traps: a) writing down to their target audience b) trying desperately to *be* their target audience. Fortunately, Rana, writing from the perspective of the 17-year-old protagonist, Sheila, misses the first trap altogether. As for the second, she tries valiantly to avoid it, and I would say, succeeds to the most part.
Sheila, confused and heart-broken after her heady romance with a classmate ends (and with her first obvious brush with racism), decides to go to India when an opportunity presents itself. Her understanding parents (who don't know all the details) allow her to skip her A-levels' examinations and pack her off to her paternal grandparents in Madhya Pradesh.
Here, Sheila will come face to face with the land of contrasts that is Modern India, bond with her grandparents and cousins, meet her old friends and see how differently life has treated each of them and how their life trajectories have taken them in different directions, and try to make some sense of who she is and where she belongs.
It was an engaging read, though my eyes glazed over towards the end when Sheila and her grandfather dissected karm/dharm, and I thought a lot of the youth-centric slang was laid on with a heavy hand - but I can overlook the latter. Perhaps I don't know how the youth in India (or the UK) talk any more.
The use of 'I' where 'me' was needed, and a couple of missing/misplaced apostrophes raised my ire, but that's a professional hazard more than a glaring fault. The editors should have caught those. On the whole, I liked the book, even though Sheila's parents resonated more with me - having known people like them - than Sheila or her sister.
March 22, 2007
Before Lahiri's The Namesake, there was The Roller Birds of Rampur in my life. Though the plot may be considered overwrought and overly dramatic now through my adult eyes, it was an important book to me because for the first time someone translated my second-generation Indian experience into a book. Though Sheila is from London, her experience in learning to balance her culture felt similar to mine.
This book also taught me a lot about parts of Indian culture and Hindu religion that I didn't know about. It made the concept of Karma/Dharma very easy, it summarized Indian history, etc.
I love this book, I really do. I wish I could find Indi Rana and hug her. She helped me a lot as a 13-year-old growing up in Minnesota.
This book also taught me a lot about parts of Indian culture and Hindu religion that I didn't know about. It made the concept of Karma/Dharma very easy, it summarized Indian history, etc.
I love this book, I really do. I wish I could find Indi Rana and hug her. She helped me a lot as a 13-year-old growing up in Minnesota.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews