POWDER NECKLACE

A teenage girl spends short stints in London, Ghana and the United States with various family members.

Lila, 15, lives with her divorced mother in London. Her absent father has his own family in the States, leaving Lila and her mother to lean heavily on each other for company and support. This makes her mother’s sudden decision to ship Lila off to Ghana and unload her onto Auntie Irene all the more shocking. Lila’s mother proves to be selfish, immature, impossible to empathize with and difficult to believe in as a character. Lila’s time at Ghanaian boarding school is striking—details like the struggle to find drinking water, eating before flies settle on the food and learning to sweep with a reed broom paint a true picture of African life. Unfortunately, just as we are settling into the developing world, Lila is called back to London. Just as quickly, she is sent to the States for an odd Disneyland vacation with her father and his Christian sing-along family, who are strangers to Lila. Time and again Lila is uprooted so quickly that the narrative cannot keep up emotionally. The effort to depict people and places seems wasted, as each time we become invested in a place and a lifestyle, we are promptly plucked out and moved. Though this mirrors Lila’s efforts to comprehend her kaleidoscope life, readers will only find themselves rushed, not pensive, and left without any literary or emotional payoff. Lila’s narrative is a mix of tragedies and blessings, but the end is wrapped up in a neat, barely credible ribbon that is tied just as hastily as the book’s other chapters. Readers will recognize that Lila has been given short shrift by the adults in her unstable life, but they may never figure out the reason for journeying with her.

Interesting vignettes, but this novel never feels whole. Though billed as women’s fiction, the book will be of more interest to younger readers.