Homeless Bird: A Book Review

What would it feel like to have to leave your family at 13 years old to get married? Even worse, to marry into a family with innumerable problems?

     The above are exactly what happen to Koly, the protagonist, in Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan. As a reader, I thought that this book was very deep, but at the same time I could understand the story. Koly's journey throughout the novel is extremely emotional and the author, Gloria Whelan, makes sure that the reader feels those emotions along with Koly in order to better understand her as a character.
     The novel is brimming with twists at each turn of a page. I found myself gasping in shock often as I was reading. First, Koly finds out that her husband is severely ill and battling tuberculosis and that his family just married her in because they wanted money from her dowry to cure him. Then, her husband dies and she is left to deal with her husband's family, especially her cruel mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law reminded me of a cold-hearted, vicious snake. Next, her sister-in-law, who is her only morsel of happiness, gets married off to a handsome young man.

"As I watched Chandra and her bridegroom leave for his home, I felt my last bit of happiness disappearing."

     The line above is what Koly thought when her sister-in-law left, as she was left alone with her abusive, manipulative mother-in-law and her ailing father-in-law who eventually passes away as well. Koly's sass (mother-in-law), ends up abandoning her in a big city and Koly is left alone, as a "homeless bird." She goes through many rough patches; but learns many lessons and finally gets her happy ending through all of the misery. In fact, the last line of the book is, "Immediately I knew that it would be the homeless bird, flying at last to its home." In this line, Koly is referring to herself when she is about to go to her new husband's house.

    This novel taught me many lessons. The most important lesson--take life as it comes. It taught me that nothing is really in one's control as I was reading through the many hardships that Koly was forced to face unexpectedly. Even though she anticipated a perfect, married life; she got the exact opposite until the very end of the book.

   This book was set in India, so the author used many Indian terms throughout the course of the novel. Some examples are: "baap", "sass", "sari", and "namaskar". Since I am of Indian heritage, I enjoyed applying my knowledge to the book as I was reading it. I don't think that I would've gotten the same pleasure from the book had I not been able to interpret some of the vocabulary.

    Lastly, Homeless Bird really opened my eyes up to what used to go on in India and around the world in history. Women weren't treated well all over the world. This book definitely helped me envision the sad reality of the past as well-- women were not equal to men in almost any way. I believe that this was also one of the points that the author intended to make to the reader. Overall, I give this book 5/5 stars because of the marvelous plot and story line.