J. C. Carleson, a former CIA agent and author of newly
released The Tyrant’s Daughter, describes this book as "the story
of a girl grappling with questions about guilt, choice, blame, and identity
under circumstances both extraordinary and mundane." I love the voice of that girl,
Laila, who moves with her royal family to the United States after a coup. She
refers to her younger brother as the "King of Nowhere" and her family as "people
who Used to Be." In trying to adjust to life
in America and in a new school she says: "I want an interpreter. Not for language.
For life. Someone who can help me understand … lunch lines and …posters in the
hallway telling students to wear their pajamas to school for spirit day."
Laila is smarter than her years and yet also naïve at moments…
what a great combination to which teens can readily relate. She struggles with
choices about friends and boyfriends and her relationship with her mother. At
the same time, Laila has to adjust to giving up a privileged lifestyle which included
motorcades (in which "the position of Father’s car changed every time so that
no one ever knew which car to attack') and instead, she must try to settle into
a world where nothing seems familiar, including news reports and comments which
describe her father from a totally different perspective.
I have been talking with teachers (especially from our Senior English "Good and Evil" class) because there is SO much to talk about in this book …
- the ways it mirrors world events (book image and this week's (March 8) Economist cover shown here);
- about assimilation and acceptance in American teenage culture;
- and about our reaction OR indifference to both far away international and very close high school happenings.
Laila’s effort to understand the various communities to
which she belongs and to define her identity is a journey worth sharing.
