On Borrowed Wings [Kindle Edition]

Chandra Prasad (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Prasad's touching first novel, Adele Pietra, a poor girl from a Connecticut granite quarry town in the 1930s, becomes a pioneer at Yale—disguised as her brother. Adele grows up in a town where the working-class residents never mix with the upper-crust vacationers. Except, that is, for Adele's parents; her mother was cut off by her wealthy family after she married a dashing Italian stonecutter. After a quarry accident kills Adele's father and her brother, Charles, Adele impersonates Charles and attends Yale in his place. At Yale, she makes friends with a stereotypically bookish, money-minded boy from Manhattan and handsome WASP Wick, who presents the greatest temptation to shed her assumed masculinity. The polarity of her upbringing adds meaning to an unexpected twist: Adele's work-study job is to assist a bigoted professor conducting a crooked study aimed at proving the rabble is intellectually inferior to the upper classes. Prasad has obviously done a great deal of research for this novel, and while some of it is integrated clumsily, she captures the excitement and strangeness of beginning college. Transcending the sometimes labored period setting—and wisely taking for granted the strictures of society that make Adele's charade necessary—Prasad renders believable a girl who becomes herself in a most unlikely way. (June)
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Review

"In her splendid debut novel On Borrowed Wings, Hamden author Chandra Prasad explores the theme of identity in all its myriad forms -- gender, race, class and ethnicity -- in a poignant tale about a young woman whose fate is forever changed when tragedy takes the lives of her father and brother." -- Patricia D'Ascoli, The New Haven Register

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 502 KB
• Print Length: 324 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0743297822
• Publisher: Atria Books; 1st Atria Books Hardcover Ed edition (June 19, 2007)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000RH0CFY
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,093 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Hello, all! I was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in a neighboring town.
I knew from an early age, eleven or twelve, that I wanted to be an author. When I was a child, one of my favorite activities was spending quiet hours in my room writing short stories (come to think of it, that is still one of my favorite activities). I also reveled in make-believe games with my two brothers; I remember pretending to be pirates and ghostbusters and jewel thieves and deep-sea miners. Those early, fanciful imaginings no doubt gave me creative fodder for the books that I've written, and the books that I hope are still to come.

As an undergraduate at Yale University, I gravitated toward history courses, particularly the history of the U.S. during the 1930s. From a literary standpoint, the economic, cultural, and social turbulence of that era'the sense of being on the brink of vast and permanent change'appeals to me. Two of my books, Death of a Circus (Red Hen Press) and On Borrowed Wings: A Novel (Atria) are set in the '30s, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed the research almost as much as I enjoyed the writing.

I also have a strong interest in the politics of identity, perhaps stemming from my hodgepodge ethnic background. My father is from India and my mother is of Swedish, Italian, and English descent. The seemingly contradictory urge to explain my racial identity, and to get past simple, often superficial or misleading categorizations, inspired me to create Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (W.W. Norton), a book I edited and contributed to. Mixed, the first anthology of its kind, includes original pieces by acclaimed authors such as Danzy Senna, Cristina Garcia, Rebecca Walker, Mat Johnson, Ruth Ozeki, Marina Budhos, Diana Abu-Jaber, and Peter Ho Davies. It's an arresting read, and the feedback I've received can be summarized this way: if ever there was a collection of short stories that is both stunningly diverse and universally sympathetic, Mixed is it.

Having lived in New York, Arizona, and Washington, DC, I've returned to Connecticut, where I now reside with my husband, a native of Odessa, Ukraine, and our young son. In our spare time, we enjoy swinging in our backyard hammock and sharing stories. In a way, I feel like I've come full circle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good summer read, July 16, 2007

By 

Quyen T. Truong (RI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On Borrowed Wings: A Novel (Hardcover)

Since work keeps me so busy, I'm very particular about the books I read. When a friend suggested I read "On Borrowed Wings," I was initially skeptical, but I found myself sucked into an engrossing page-turner. Give this a read. I found the plot surprising at several turns. And although I'm not usually one to read historical fiction, I found myself firmly planted in the period.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional read. I could not put it down., July 7, 2007

By 

Alika Giordano - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Borrowed Wings: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book reminded me of the classic university novel A Separate Peace (John Knowles). On the surface On Borrowed Wings is about a girl who has the guts and determination to attend a boys-only university. You get absorbed in Adele's joyride of a journey, and feel like you are with her as she learns to become a male student and assimilates to her lively and elite college life. But like A Separate Peace, this novel is densely layered.. It is also about the changes the U.S.A. is undergoing in the first part of the twentieth century. It is about how a single person can and must overcome barriers. It is about growing up and shedding one's innocence and finding a greater good. And most of all, it is about how being true to yourself sometimes requires a leap of faith.

I am a high school teacher and intend to recommend this to my students - highly! It has so much to offer.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bracing and unforgettable--a timeless read, July 1, 2007

By 

S. Swanson (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Borrowed Wings: A Novel (Hardcover)

Do yourself a favor and take this book to the beach, backyard BBQ, or wherever you are going this summer. I picked it up at the bookstore on account of the beautiful cover (shallow, I know), but was delighted with this particular impulse buy. On Borrowed Wings is 100% engrossing. It was a middle of the night, I'll read just five more pages kind of book. Sure enough, I started it in the afternoon finished it at dawn, sleepy, but so engrossed in Adele Pietra's story that I had to keep going.

The early quarry scenes appealed to me most. Prasad has a gift for description; her spare, evocative details perfectly reveal Stony Creek, Connecticut, a class-torn granite town, where options are few for Adele, an ambitious young lady with limited means. I enjoyed the passages about the granite mine, and learning about the tough, but also tender lives of the quarry men. At first I was disappointed when the storyline moved so quickly to Yale University. But Prasad pulls off the swift setting change by giving the reader an assortment of intriguing new characters: Adele's university classmates Wick, Harry, and Phin, and the DeRisios, a charming Italian family that adopts Adele, and that Adele adopts right back.

My only minor quibble with On Borrowed Wings is with the rhetorical questions sprinkled throughout. Prasad uses too many, in my opinion, but maybe that's just her style.

As for highlights, look for the Amelia Earhart cameo, mere months before she disappears for good somewhere in the South Pacific. Earhart's presence in On Borrowed Wings seems to encapsulate the book itself: dynamic, intense, indisputably appealing, and in the end, a story that you wish didn't have to end.