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| Gifted | 
 enlarge | Author: Nikita Lalwani
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £1.38
You Save: £6.61 (83%)
New (25) from £2.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 6106
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141030399
EAN: 9780141030395
ASIN: 0141030399
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Muddled and disjointed November 11, 2008
I expected to like this book. I had read promising reviews and the premise sounded - and is - interesting. However, I felt it was let down by the writing, which I found muddled and long-winded.
The story: Rumi is the only daughter of Indian immigrants living in Wales. On her first day at school, the teacher identifies her as being exceptionally bright and recommends that she join Mensa. Instead her father, Mahesh, decides that he can guide her to develop her fullest potential and so Rumi embarks on a rigorous program of study with few diversions allowed. As she grows older and starts to get interested in boys and popular culture, she increasingly chafes at the constraints put on her - not just by her father, but by teachers, journalists and others who all seem to have a view on how this "gift" of her extreme intelligence should be utilised.
When I read, I like to be involved with at least one character in the book. I don't always have to like them or approve of what they do, but I do need to at least care what happens to them. I admired how Lalwani shows us Rumi's view of the world (everything is a math equation), but I didn't particularly care about any of these characters and I actively disliked the father. The book felt disjointed, as if Lalwani was trying to cover too many bases. Also, the writing alternated between the present and past tense, for reasons that I could not understand.
I'm really surprised that this book made the Booker long list. I think the idea behind the novel is very interesting, but Lalwani failed to deliver on it. I almost gave up on it, but I kept reading and I'm glad that I did because it picks up towards the ending when Rumi hits her teens. Even though I found it flawed, it would be a good choice for a book club as there is a lot to discuss about family relationships, the experience of immigrants, and the importance that our society places on intelligence.
 A novel of great power April 28, 2008
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
Gifted is a novel of great power and enormous anger.
As the title suggests, the novel centres around a young girl, Rumi, who is found to have a gift for maths. Her parents - particularly her frightening father - decide the gift must be nurtured at all costs.
There are three principal characters, Rumi and her parents, Mahesh and Shreene. As a father figure, Mahesh would not have been out of place in Victorian Britain. He is strong, pious, bullying and hypocritical. Having inveigled his wife, Shreene, to follow him to Wales from India to make a better life, he sets about rejecting western values whilst enjoying them to the full. He prohibits his wife, an educated woman, from flourishing and exerts a huge degree of control on her time. Whilst this makes Shreene initially angry, she eventually seems to adopt the same values as Mahesh in order to make it appear as though she is in control o her destiny.
Then, when Rumi's gift is discovered, Mahesh finds a new opportunity to exert his control. Rumi's life ceases to be her own - a tight regime of libraries, study, discipline and obedience are imposed. Rumi tries to find small outlets for her individuality, sneakily reading fiction and pilfering sweets, but the brutality of her father constantly wins through. All Rumi can do is dream of outgrowing the nest and making an early journey away to university. Obviously, with her "gifts", Rumi finds a degree of celebrity which is not always helpful, particularly given her destiny to be younger and less mature than her peers. Both in Cardiff and in Oxford, she is something of a lab rat - expected to be a second Ruth Lawrence - but is at heart a likeable and ordinary girl.
The characterization is superb. The three principal characters strike so many chords. People like Rumi, Mahesh and Shreene exist - and not just within the Indian community. The novel is a caution on the results of trying to live your life through your offspring. It is a caution about attaching undue value and focus to a small part of a person. It makes one question the benefit of unbidden "gifts" that turn out to be white elephants. It also makes one wonder about the role of bystanders who are prepared to witness such appalling abuse without questioning it, just because it happens within the middle classes.
The level of hate that Rumi feels towards her parents - and especially Mahesh - just drips from the page. Rumi seldom says - even dares to think - harsh thoughts of them but the simmering, deep hatred is inescapable. Throughout the novel, one wills her to break free and realize her potential. At the end, one is left with envious admiration for her courage in daring to do what so many of us have wanted to do. But as to whether she has succeeded in breaking free, the reader is left to guess.
It was interesting to see in the acknowledgements at the end that Nikita Lalwani seems to have good relations with her own parents. She claims the work was inspired by Vik Sharma, presumably a friend or partner. To have produced a work so vivid through only vicarious experience is a wonder.
This is a work of immense power that will stay with me for a long time.
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