I think I am not alone in my fascination for stories that involve girls posing as boys in order to take advantage of learning, opportunity or security. I devoured stories like this as a teen - everything from Medieval girl warriors, to girl farm hands to girl wizards. Of course I fantasized that I would be able to pull off such a hoax myself. Fooling everyone and being a better boy than the boys were.
Perhaps that is why I loved On Borrowed Wingsby Chandra Prasad. It's the story of a young girl who loses her obnoxious and selfish brother as well as her beloved father in a tragic stone quarry accident. Stuck with her mother, who is distant and never bothered to hide her favoritism for the brother, the daughter Adele connives a way to leave the town and take advantage of her brother's acceptance to Yale. She's heard so much about Yale as "the ticket out of this horrible town" for so long - as her mother and brother planned his future while she made every sacrifice to make it possible, serving them and their higher purpose to the detriment of her own needs.
So she cuts her hair, binds her chest and shows up for class. It's bolder than it seems, being it is the 1930s and higher education is off limits to girls. Unthinkable for girls. She is, of course, not a boy. So she is more sensitive and aware and curious. She's going through puberty with a gaggle of boys just starting to become aware of girls and their own sexual urges. She befriends a local family and tutors them all, including the 10-year-old precocious daughter, teaching them to read and being welcomed as family - a solace she has never known. She dreams of a better future for herself, and for the young daughter.
Of course she fools them all - except for one of her mates, Wick, with whom she's fallen in love, and who returns her love - confused and of mixed identity as it is. In the end, she earns a place in the university that frees her from the oppressive and mean spirited "love" of her mother. And truly gives her a self-made lease on life.
What's not to love about that?! I read this story and thought: This is absolutely plausible! I wonder if perhaps, back in the day, if there weren't some courageous girls who undertook such an identify shift - driven by need or fear or hunger or yearning. And who succeeded. I'd like to think so.
I'll be sharing this one with my sister Wendy, who I think will appreciate the story and the New England setting. I recommend On Borrowed Wingsby Chandra Prasad.
PS - I was just on Amazon to look up the book code and realize Ms. Prasad wrote another novel called Death of a Circus - about running away to join... you guessed it. That is absolutely my favorite fantasy. I just ordered it. I'll let you know how it is.
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