Original Article was published in my Medium Page
Photograph of the Book — ‘The Sun Is Also A Star’ Taken from Amazon and Kindle
My recent read is the book, ‘The Sun Is Also a Star’, written by Nicola Yoon. I personally feel that it’s hard to describe this book in words. Emotions can be felt but it’s a challenge, when we express the same in sentences, perhaps a ‘heart’ can only answer to this query. I have seen romantic movies but what Nicola Yoon wrote here in words about life, our emotions and about humanizing immigration procedures through this wonderful love story can hardly be expressed in paragraphs.
Sometimes, I wonder as to what is there in a romantic story that an emotion stays for many days. From my childhood I have understood that ‘Love’ is a universal language. It brings us together. Nations, communities, friends and all our social circles are bonded together by that one word ‘Love’.
The story of Natasha Katherine Kingsley, one of the main character of the book is a high school student and has her origin in Jamaica. She fell in love with Daniel, another character in the story and loved transpired in a situation when Natasha was to be deported back to Jamaica, if the order about her deportation is not cancelled. Natasha is born in a family where her father came to United States to be a good actor and to become a renowned theatre artist. However the problem lies that her father had a Jamaican ascent, which made his comeback as a theatre performer problematical. With two children and a wife, it became very tough for the family to make both ends meet. However, Natasha’s mother had to take up the job to help with the finances.
From the story, it was clear that Natasha’s mother and her father did not share a good equation, the reason; finances. A meagre income makes a grim life, no matter how big one’s dream is. While reading the book, I remembered that sometimes we do jobs which are not interesting, but we go on, the reason again is finances. Pursuing one’s dream for those who starts from zero sources of income is a bigger task.
Since this family did not get the Visa extension and were living as an undocumented immigrant in the U.S, Natasha’s dream became an illusion. Her exciting hopeful world crumbled as the authorities came to know about their staying status in US. The result was, leave United States and go back to Jamaica. It was that moment of her life, she met Daniel.
The author has beautifully expressed the chemistry of the two love birds, Natasha and Daniel. The writings of the author is so great, that at times, I felt that the communications between these two individuals never ends. The author beautifully expresses the honesty and the sweetness of the young lovers in a tone, which is sure to touch any human soul. When both their appointments are re-scheduled, they tried to live a life of their own in their dream world. For a moment, Natasha forgot about her reality that she had to leave the country, if her judgement is not reversed and that Daniel, who wanted to be poet may lose his opportunity to a renowned University, if he did not clear the interview.
Love sometimes had tremendous ability to heal matters, which we want to forget in our daily lives.
So, what do you think, will Natasha can finally stay or have to leave the country. For all those questions, one need to read the book.
It’s a very touching story and I can never forget the line said by Daniel when he looked up in the open sky in a light polluted city– “Sometimes when we look up, we don’t see anything at all. But here is a true thing. Almost everything in the night sky gives off light, even if we can’t see it, the light is still there.”
The book ends with a very strange unexpected note. It was a happy ending and I am elated by that fact that ‘All’s well that ends well’. The flow of the book is extraordinary as one gets hooked up to the conversations. I thought a lot about the Cover heading — The Sun is also a star and I understood that there are times when humans meet and fall for each other in one fascinating magical day and then they remembers the same throughout their life. The book showed us that even nations, caste, creed, religion, color, social status, race and nationalities do not matter, when we care for each other.
When a book is full of Stars, What Star rating can I recommend for the book ‘The Sun Is Also a Star’?
However, if I have to rate the book on 10 stars and 10 being the highest, I will give the book 9.5 stars.
(Please Note: The above are my own personal thoughts after going through the book. Your views and opinions after reading the book may differ)
Thanks for visiting the Book Review Website:
Thanks and Regards:
Mainak Majumdar, Book Critic
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