A Group of One

Gilmore, Rachna. A Group of One. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001.

A Group of One is a novel about 15-year-old Tara, a Canadian-Indian girl, who struggles to understand her identity and her place in the world. When her grandmother, Naniji, visits from India, Tara is initially resentful because Naniji seems to disapprove of Tara’s mother’s somewhat Western ways. The grandmother is very upset because the kids know nothing about their Indian culture and have not learned about the Independence movement that occurred in India that the grandparents took part in. Tara is asked to do a report in her history class that involves doing some family research. She decides to ask Naniji about the Independence movement and how it affected her growing up. She becomes even more confused about who she is once she learns more about her Indian culture.

Gilmore spends a fair amount of time talking about Tara’s identity struggle, particularly towards the end of the novel when Naniji makes her question her culture. Her teacher, Tolly, assumes that because she has darker skin, she can speak Hindi and is not a “regular Canadian.” This really aggravates Tara because she does not see how she is any different than her other classmates. Tara states, “This is the world I live in. But how do I fit? I’m not one of the true natives, the First Nations, and not one of the whites who marauded the globe colonizing, who tell the history of Canada from when they arrived. I’m too dark for the Samantha’s and the rednecks, but not dark enough for Tolly, or Indian enough for Naniji, too Canadian, too Western. Always too something. Never just right.” I think that this was the most powerful part of the book and Gilmore does a good job of illustrating the ways in which negotiating multiple cultural expectations can be very difficult. There are so many different expectations for Tara to become this person who caters to everyone’s needs, where she begins to question who she is anymore.

When Tara reads her history paper at school about Naniji’s role in the Indian Independence movement, her mother and Naniji are proud of her. That is, until Naniji hears Tara proclaim how she is a "regular" Canadian. At this point Naniji "shutters down" because she cannot countenance the fact that her granddaughter is a proud Canadian - what of the family's heritage, sacrifice and history back in India? What of their allegiance to India? Tara can never win and she always displeases someone.

I really enjoyed reading this book because I felt like I was reading a story about my own life. The main character even shared my first name. It is often difficult to grow up in a multicultural family. It is hard enough growing up as a teenager but when you add culture on top of it, this is even more difficult. This book gave the reader a good insight to the Indian culture and it used traditional words in Hindi, which I thought was important when telling this story.

To view other books written by Rachna Gilmore visit: http://www.rachnagilmore.ca/picture.html
To read an interview with Rachna Gilmore visit:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/specialty_writing/rachna_gilmore.htm