June 18, 2015.
Three Stars
It is always an ambitious choice to write a novel from a child’s point of view. In this case, parts were very successful, while others did not work. Seven year old Jasmine continually fluctuated from childlike innocence to an adult understanding of the world around her – some of this knowledge could come from the serious situation she finds herself in, but the inconsistencies took me out of the story and made Jasmine less believable.
Jasmine and her parents are returning from a trip to South Africa, in which they make an unexpected layover in Sierra Leone. Upon their return to the United States, chaos breaks out in the airport because some of the African passengers are showing signs of illness – a topical reference to the Ebola crisis. Jasmin and her African-American mother get caught up in the ensuing madness, and end up locked in the upper level of a shopping mall with the African passengers. Meanwhile, downstairs, a predominately white mall workers retreat (is this a thing?) is taking place. Jasmine, being biracial, is caught in the middle, venturing downstairs to find medical aid for her mother. Neither group truly accepts her, although they both use her to get what they want from the outside authorities.
The novel is an interesting, albeit obvious, examination of race issues, mainly illustrated by Jasmine’s being ostracized from both levels. She begins to question her own identity, as she is shut out from the African community for being too white, and kicked out of the worker’s retreat for being part of the group carrying illness. This is when a child’s voice comes in handy – to clearly show the inequality in racial relations without becoming preachy. Without an adult worldview, Jasmine cannot understand why everyone wouldn’t be treated equally when it came to medical care, etc. – the author uses her naivety to show us this unnecessary racial divide.
I really liked the concept of The Two Levels, although sometimes the allegory was pushed too hard. I also thought the setting was overly complicated – why did the passengers rush into the mall, and what are the chances there would be a group of mall workers spending the night there too? It would have been much simpler to have the whole scene take place in the airport where it began. It seemed like unnecessary drama and it didn’t ring true for me.
The ending of the novel was somewhat ambiguous, and not in a good way. Instead of leaving the reader to wonder about the endless possibilities of what could happen next, it just ended suddenly with no hints to the future. I would have loved to read more about the aftermath of the quarantine, perhaps with Jasmine reflecting back as an adult on these events. Hearing her voice at an older age would have strengthened her perspective as a child. Other than these issues, I thought it was a great concept with many current sociopolitical applications.
I received this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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