Keeping Corner

There has been some comparison to the book Climbing the Stairs. While both are set in India during World War II, they are different books. I felt that Keeping Corner had more detail about Indian culture and I came away with a better understanding of a young woman's plight not so very long ago. In Keeping Corner we have twelve year old Leela who has been married at a very young age. Leela is your typical girl, and that's what I love about her. She isn't bookish and she really doesn't care about politics. She is interested in looking nice and wearing pretty clothes and jewelry. That is the extent of her life, and I think that makes her so much more interesting as a character. I mean what young adult doesn't like those things? Leela's life is turned upside down when her fiancé dies. Now she is a widow at a very young age and must "keep corner." She has to shave her head; lose her pretty clothes and jewelry. The community views her as bad luck. Leela is trapped insider her house for an entire year. While she is in mourning Leela's schoolteacher comes and helps her with her lessons. Leela doesn't want to be taught anything. She dislikes school. Yet, as time goes on Leela becomes more interested in her studies and she enjoys hearing about Gandhi. She grows as a character and realizes there maybe something out there for her. Maybe she can change how people view women. Keeping Corner is an excellent story that has a lot of great details about the era and the plight of women. There is also an index in the back (something Climbing the Stairs didn't have). I think students who are interested in historical fiction will enjoy this novel as well as students who enjoy reading about other cultures. There is no romance in this novel however, so that may turn some teens away from the book. However, I strongly encourage people to read this novel.

This is one of the best books I've read this year! I loved Kashmira's descriptive writing. This story keeps you on the edge of your seat to find out what happens to Leela after her husband's death and keeping corner for a year.

As a member of the Brahman caste, the highest, twelve-year-old Leela doesn't notice the hardships of lower castes.Engaged at two and married at nine, Leela is soon to have her "anu," when she will move into the home of her husband. In the interim, she enjoys the life of a loved, petted member of her household which consists of her parents, her aunt and uncle, her older brother (away at school,)and Lakha, the man who takes care of their animals. Before the much anticipated anu, her husband is bitten by a venomous snake and dies. As a widow, Leela must have her head shaved, wear dull brown saris, and spend an entire year "keeping corner." She can't leave the house for an entire year. Only gradually does formerly light-hearted Leela come to understand the magnitude of the calamity that has befallen her. Set in India during the time that Gandhi is leading non-violent protests against the caste system and the British colonists, Leela's story exposes enormous gender inequalities as well. This novel follows Leela's inner growth during the year. She is tutored by her former principal, and she begins to read newspapers voraciously, equating the injustices suffered by Indians under British colonial rule with the injustices inflicted on her. Coming to appreciate education as her only hope, Leela endures the year of keeping corner, studying, until she ultimately triumphs. With first-rate prose, this work of fiction, based on the life of the author's great-aunt, is exciting and compelling within unusual confines.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I could not describe it any better than critics did. This is a book set in pre-independence India with its harmful traditions - that may still be there - as one young girl with support of her family leads the way for a change. This will make a nice reading for any young reader who wishes to be carried away in this colorful story mixing history, struggle and enlightenment.