mary sanjana

Jeannie Nicholas, in her novel Kalayla, has interlaced the lives of 3 different generations. The story starts with Lena, a 72 year old lady who has undergone a lot of trauma in her lifetime who is now retired and is living a lonely life. Lena’s life is turned upside down when she encounters Maureen, a recently widowed lady and her daughter, Kalayla. Maureen, a white Irish Catholic girl is pushed out of her family, when she decides to marry Jamal, an African American. And her life gets even worse when her husband dies of a car crash. She is neglected by her parents and finding it difficult to live with Jamal’s parents moves into an apartment owned by Lena. Kalayla, a 11 year old kid, grows up all by herself, without the supervision of her mother as she works all the time at Eddie's diner. Kalayla is uninterested in anything, without any friends and who’s favourite word to say is “cow turds”. Lena out of her parental instincts takes interest in the life of Kalayla and tries her best to teach the foul mouthed kid some manners and make Maureen’s life a bit easier. This is where the story is bombarded with lots of twists and turns. It is an optimistic and joyful book to read. It shows the different aspects of parenting, the troubles one has to go through to raise a child and how to forgive others when wrong is being done to us. It is amazingly well crafted as the storyline takes us on a journey in itself. The author's ability to mingle the lives of 3 unique women of different ages was so satisfying to read. Moreover, it also does have a strong subject of racism at its background.