Clap When You Land - Book Review

"Elegant, poetic, eloquent"

Book - Clap When You Land

Author - Elizabeth Acevedo

Pages - 417

Genre - Young Adult, Fiction

Synopsis

Camino lives with her aunt, a faith healer in The Dominican Republic, aspiring to become a doctor. On the day when Camino's father is supposed to visit him from The States, she arrives at the airport to see a crowd of grieving people.

On the other side of the globe, in New York, resides Yahaira, a chess prodigy. Yahaira is called to the principal's office only to learn that her beloved father has died in a plane crash.

As Camino and Yahaira tussle to piece their lives together after the tragic loss, the truth is revealed, rattling their lives even further. A new loss stretches before them, the uncertainty of the future.

Analysis

a. Story - telling

This is the thing about stories. They transport you to different worlds. This book is a window through with you look into their lives of Camino and Yahaira. And no matter how much they differ in clothes, food, weather, human emotions remain universal, loss. Yahaira and Camino are grappling with the loss of their beloved father but also a loss of a stable life.

We walk with the girls for sixty days after the plane crash as they try to piece their lives together and navigate the family ties that have become entangles after the revelation of Papi's double life.

As the story progress, we get to meet the girls' past and further aspiration and as well as their loved ones. Enough space has been spared for all the characters to feel for their loss personally.

b. Verses

Elizabeth Acevedo's novel in verse is very poetic yet powerful. This storyteller weaves us into her lair with her captivating poetry. The lives of each family member are explored before and after the plane crash with great wit and elegance. It will nudge at your heart and leave a warm, touching feeling behind till you well up.

"I am theirs. You can see them on me.

But I am also all mine, mostly."

The story has been written from an alternating point of view between Yahaira and Camino. The P.O.V switches swiftly between the two sisters contrasting only in verse, environment, and upbringing. Yahaira's sentences are tactical, like the chess game often laced with the truth and hint of pain in them.

" I go back to stacking books.

Orderly. Logical. Safe."

On the other hand, Camino's verses are free-flowing and headstrong like the water she loves.

"I know this is what Tia does not say.

Sand & soil & sinew & smiles:

all bartered. & who reaps? Who eats?

Not us. Not me."

c. Content

Elizabeth Acevedo has managed to weave enough colours in the thread of her story. The knotty topics of cultural identity, sexual assault, and family ties have been probed with candor and empathy. Yahaira has been born and brought up in New York and lived no differently Where as both her parents are from DR. Can she claim the ethnicity of the place her parents are from? Can Yahaira find the answers by visiting the place, her father loved so much? Yahaira's words poke at the phrase - " To be and still not belong."

“Can you be from a place you have never been?

You can find the island stamped all over me,

But what would the island find if I was there?

Can you claim a home that does not know you,

Much less claim you as its own?”

d. Sexual Assault

Camino is chased by a man who wants to sell her to some foreigners. Yahaira had a similar incident of sexual nature on the train home. One is chastised to have provoked the man and the other suffers in silence. Similar incidents occur daily to millions of women and we still do not have an unassailable answer to these inhumane provocations.

e. Parenting

Papi though gone, has managed to live through Camino and Yahaira. He is brought back time and again in reflection and character. And with him, the loss stretched at their hearts and anger raised its fangs, again. How can you forgive the man whom you honoured so much, betray those emotions? Papi was a good father but a terrible husband and a selfish man. Parents are also humans. But is this action forgivable?

"So he created a theatre of his life

& got lost in all the different roles he had to play."

f. Defect

The last part of the book was rushed. Only a few pages were spared to explore the friendship between Camino and Yahaira in contrast to the setting of the plot. The aftermath of the last events in the story was also given very little attention. It was saddening to see the ending hastened.