Book Title:  Gifted
Author:  Nikita Lalwani
Publishing Company:  Bond Street Books (click here)
Year:  2007
# of Pages: 273
ISBN:  978-0-385-66381-6
$32.95 

2 ½ Stars 

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA)

Rumi Vasi, a young girl of Indian parents growing up in the United Kingdom, bears the curse of being Gifted.  From the moment she is labeled a mathematical prodigy, her life becomes a regimented time of preparing for tests with the goal of qualifying to enter Oxford University at age 14.    

Just whose goal this is seems unclear.  At times, Rumi appears to want it, but often she is resentful of her father, Mahesh, setting her on a schedule each day after school, working in the library on a series of math problems, and having little to no social contact with her peers.  Yet, in the moments Rumi does interact with her peers, she is so lacking in social skills it is painful to read, and we would rather see her rush back to her math problems. 

Rumi's mother, Shreene, seems in the background of Rumi's life.  Shreene would much rather live in India, raising her children to follow tradition.  While Rumi worries about her math, her mother worries about raising a perfect daughter ready for traditional marriage.  A little brother, Nibu, is also in the story, giving Rumi a few moments of childhood normalcy.

This is a difficult story to embrace.  Author Nikita Lalwani shifts the point of view from one character to another, making the reader uncertain with whom to identify.  She does successfully depict an unhappy family, with many tensions keeping the members apart from each other.  Shreene cannot fully adjust to Western ways, Mahesh places his work above his family or any acquaintances (his one friendship is based on a weekly competitive chess game rather than any personal interaction).  It seems to be a family of monsters, yet I don't think that is Lalwani's intent, and that is a failing of the writing.

When Rumi does qualify to enter Oxford, a host of new complications for the family arise.  Initially, there is the question of just what has been achieved.  Her father, who had pushed so strenuously, wonders "Is that all there was in life, then?  You fought hard, marshaled yourself and strained every fiber you had to climb the mountain, and when you got to the top there was nothing to do, no one to tell."         

This is much the way I felt after reading this book.  Should I be happy for Rumi's achievement or worried that she is not leading the life of a normal child?  Should I be angry with her father for pushing her so, or should I dislike Rumi's bouts of disobedience?  Should I excuse her mother's violent outbursts because of the clash of cultures she faces or recognize them as abuse of a child?  The reader needs the author's help in crafting characters to care about.  Instead, after pushing myself to get through this book, I find an ill-defined story with no identifiable purpose.