Module 14: Karma

Ostlere, C. (2011). Karma: A novel in verse. New York: Razorbill.

Summary: Maya and her father, a Sikh, are traveling to New Delhi to bring home the ashes of her mother Leela, a Hindu. They arrive in October of 1984 when Indira Ghandi is assassinated and chaos erupts between Sikhs and Hindus. Maya is separated from her father, and survives and navigates the country with the help of Sandeep, a boy with his own past to understand. Their stories are told through prose in the form of written journal entries.

Response: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and felt drawn in by the lyrical prose. The book is broken up into three sections, each with its own set of conflicts to resolve. While all a part of the same story, I felt that the book had brought me across a great expanse of time instead of just six weeks. Maya goes through such a journey, both in traveling across India and in adolescence into adulthood, while also providing insight to the complicated and tumultuous history of India. It is as if at the end of the book, we are in the company of another person all together when reading Maya’s thoughts. I think this is a great read and a wonderful opportunity for teen readers to know more about histories of cultures other than their own.

Reviews:

OSTLERE, Cathy. Karma. 521p. Penguin/Razorbill. Mar. 2011 Gr 8 Up—

This epic tale unfolds through the pages of alternating diaries from October 28th through December 16th, 1984. Yet countless layers peel off with the turn of each page, leading readers deeper into the rich and sometimes tortured history beneath the tale's present. Fifteen-year-old Maya, half Hindu/half Sikh, has lived her entire life in rural Canada. Her family's religion and ethnicity set them apart from their community, but also from one another. Maya's name itself signifies the tension between her parents, lovers who forsook their families for each other, but who have lived in different states of mourning and regret since. Her given name is Jiva or "life," yet her mother blasphemously calls her Maya or "illusion," an insult to her Sikh father. Thus, when life and loss lead Maya and Bapu back to India at the time of Indira Gandhi's assassination, they are plunged deep into a nation in bloody turmoil. Maya's sense of otherness escalates dramatically as she is forced to consider it on a personal and near-universal scale. The middle diary belongs to that of Sandeep, with whom Maya experiences love, tragedy, ancestry, and loyalty at an intimate (yet physically innocent) level. The novel's pace and tension will compel readers to read at a gallop, but then stop again and again to turn a finely crafted phrase, whether to appreciate the richness of the language and imagery or to reconsider the layers beneath a thought. This is a book in which readers will consider the roots and realities of destiny and chance. Karma is a spectacular, sophisticated tale that will stick with readers long after they're done considering its last lines.

Maza, J. H. (2011). Karma. School Library Journal, 57(3), 167-168.

Program: Have a creative writing workshop for teens with books like Karma and other books written in prose as the inspiration. Have available samples of writing that are factual or written as a narrative and have teens challenge themselves to write the events in a poetic fashion. Teens can choose any sort of poetic form as long as they are altering the content to express details through ornate description.