Anam, a desi girl in the US, adopted by white parents, out to fulfil her birth mother’s dream of becoming a lawyer gets taken in by writing and acting and ends up being a substantial presence – Imaginations Wild by Parinieta Ahuja weaves the cocoon of resilience, not giving up, being awed but never being overawed. A brown girl who could have felt very lonely finds ways to thrive in vibrancy, relish every moment of life. While the book’s ending has an unusual twist, I came out feeling every individual could attain what Anam did! Life is complex but twinning simplicity to this complexity is in the hands of every individual. I felt motivated after reading Imaginations Wild – life is doable, is what Parinieta’s narrative has made me believe.
The author’s ability to describe the protagonist’s relationships, with her friends and her family, is extremely simplistic yet articulate at the same time. It is as if she relates to the audience based of these dynamic descriptions. Anam as a character is more of a part of person that is discovered in everybody. The zest, the ability to dream to love and to achieve is something every human being on this earth abides by and focusses their life towards it. The book is more of a lifestyle that we all desire. The element of surprise in the book is a common component that binds the book and gives it a character. With every page turning, there was an element of surprise that left me as a reader amazed and excited to keep reading. The next thing that made the book even more relatable are the ubiquitous times in our life that we don’t recognize how lucky we are as people.
From the writer’s perspective, it feels like Parinieta is working hard to remind every reader that even in the mundane there is an opportunity to find excitement. Another thing that the writer subtly brings up is the topics of race and adoption that infest our world everyday today but are easily over looked. Parinieta’s ability to build a story that raises some very important question leaving the reader more informed and further inquisitive of the lifestyle that Anam grew up in and continues to navigate every day. The author builds a very exciting story out of the purely common things we experience in our life. Finally, there is no ending to this review without talking about the most surprising ending of the story. It left me extremely shocked and yet I somehow felt that it was coming. It is a significant characteristic of the life that there is good followed by the bad and hence the cycle continues. The ability to end Anam’s journey on this note left me as a reader craving for a sequel. It makes us want to know more about Anam and indubitably speaks more about the protagonist’s dreams and desires than anything else.
A must-read novel published by Petals Publishers & pitched by The Book Bakers.
