"'Koly, you are thirteen and growing every day’ Maa said to me. ‘It’s time for you to have a husband”’ and those were the lines that started Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan. Gloria Whelan weaved Hindu words and similarities of a Cinderella-like style tale to create a masterpiece. Similar to a Cinderella story Koly is treated harshly by her mother-in-law. Since, Koly is thirteen she must get married, and later the marriage brings nothing but grief, suffering and mistreatment.
A truly well-crafted tale is spun in a clever way similar to the familiar Cinderella story that your mother told you when you were little, or the one you read cramped in a small corner of a library, with the book covering your face, reading it intently. In general the Koly suffers from the chores that her mother-in-law assigns her, but she has grown attached to her sister-in-law, who is kind hearted and makes Koly’s life less difficult. But when her sister-in-law is off to marriage her sole comfort and confidant is gone, since her husband had died earlier. But when her father-in-law also passed away, her mother-in-law sets out to take Koly to her youngest brother’s home. But her sly mother-in-law makes sure that Koly doesn’t know where her brother’s home is and abandon’s Koly in a city where the widows are. Desperate and lonely Koly doesn’t know what to do and her chance to live starts there, and that is where the tale truly begins.
An intellectual plot different from a Cinderella story but similar in ways has caught the attention of those who yearn for a story to read. Quickly building a conflict upon conflict tension rises and your heart starts racing from the excitement. Gloria Whelan captured a story that could not have been better written in words and is a truly short book for necessity of enjoyment.
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