Bibliography
Patel, S. (2016). Rani Patel in full effect. Cinco Puntos Press.
Plot Summary
After 16-year-old Rani catches her father cheating on her mom with a younger woman, Rani shaves her head and pours her soul into her rhymes. She must learn how to love herself after the one man she loved and trusted betrayed their family.
Critical Analysis
Set in the 1990s, Rani Patel in Full Effect focuses on a Gujarati Indian girl living on a remote Hawaiian island with her mother and father, both Gujarati immigrants to the U.S. At the beginning of the novel, Rani has shaved off her long dark locks after learning that her father has been unfaithful to her mother. But she doesn’t feel betrayed on her mother’s behalf. Shaving her head allows her to have control over her feelings of her father finding another woman to love and shower with attention.
Throughout the book, Rani is trying to process her father’s past sexual abuse and current abandonment. She begins a relationship with a 31-year-old customer, Mark, who has substance abuse problems. The relationship is toxic. As he continuously falls off the wagon, he talks her into drinking more, something she was never comfortable with, tries to take advantage of her body, offers her meth, and cheats on her. Because of the way her father treated her, she allows this treatment and forgives him easily. “In a weird way all I could do up until now was reflect whatever Dad and Mark wanted. I couldn’t work on figuring out my wants. My needs. My identity. They forced me into a corner where I was convinced I needed them. So I let them do whatever they wanted. I existed for Dad. Then for Mark.” If not for her mother and friends, Pono and Omar, and Mark admitting to impregnating a girl at the end of the book, she may still be with him. There was an interesting parallel to what was happening with Rani’s father and Wendy when Mark claimed to want Rani and said they could all live together.
Gujarati Indian heritage is prevalent mostly through food and when Rani’s mother speaks to her, both in the language and in English with her thick accent. The author does not easily translate some of phrases Rani’s mother uses, but a glossary of terms in several languages used in the book is provided. Her mother also celebrates Thakorji - “Lord of the House and the honorific name given to a form of the deity Krishna”. “She’s been more dedicated to Him recently. For me that’s like winning the lottery. The lottery of prasad, that is. Because more service time for her means more sumptuous Indian treats for Thakorji. And me. I bite into the penda. ‘Umm.’ I chew the milky-sweet-cardamomy-nutmegy goodness slowly.” A lot of other dishes are described or mentioned throughout the book.
Not only does this novel focus on Rani’s Gujarati Indian heritage, but it also takes a look at life on a small Hawaiian island. One day several years prior, her father announced that he bought the general store and cafe the family runs in Moloka’i, Hawaii. Now she helps run both family businesses. “Ever since then, the three of us have been living in cultural isolation on Moloka’i. No other Indians here, let alone Gujaratis.” Hawaiian pidgin is used in the novel and there is a description of the area they live in.
One way Rani processes everything that happens to her is writing rap. She listens to rap music and dresses in a way to reflect hip-hop culture. At least, the one description provided of her outfit reflects that. Her alter-ego is MC Sutra and her verses focus a lot on female empowerment and her culture as Gujarati Indian.
The author’s note is important to pay attention to because the author reflects on her motivation for creating Rani. She wanted “to give readers a realistic view of how one form of sexual abuse, incest, can affect the lives and interpersonal relationships of girls who suffer through it.” The novel begins after the abuse has ended, but Rani still feels the effects of losing the attention her father once gave her and doesn’t know how to process her feelings. In her eyes, her mother has always been weak and felt like her mother never acknowledged her much. But her mother ends up kicking her husband out and barring him from entering their family businesses, and eventually, with time, Rani opens up to her mother about her abuse and their relationship begins to grow. Only time will help heal what Rani has been through, but now that Mark and her father is out of her life, hopefully she will be able to find that female empowerment she writes about and can love herself.
Review Excerpt(s)
William C. Morris Award Finalist 2017
Texas Library Association’s Top 10 Teen Books 2016
“[Rani’s] story will appeal to readers who prefer gritty, darker fiction without a pat, happy ending, and characters who don’t always overcome their challenges but must face them repeatedly. A strong, unique choice for YA collections.” —School Library Journal
Connections
-Activities
A glossary is provided at the end of the novel. Divide students up by the language - Gujarati, Hindu, Hawaiian, Hawaiian pidgin, Japanese, Tongan and Sanskrit - and have them create a brochure or dictionary of the terms.
Rani and her father got into “water activism” - “He knew that many people on Moloka’i didn’t want the island’s limited water supply to be wasted on tourist development projects. Especially when many Hawaiian homesteaders didn’t yet have access to water for their agriculture.” Research water activism in Hawaii and Flint, MIchigan and other countries. What can students or people do to help support clean water.
Show the following video about Hawaiian Pidgin https://youtu.be/zRB2QXMREmk
Associated Press. (2016, February 16). Hawaiian Pidgin brings sense of pride to locals. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/zRB2QXMREmkThis novel was challenged in Loudoun County in Virginia in 2019. Have students read the following article written by the author that argues why the novel should not be erased from libraries.
Patel, S. (2019, October 13). RANI PATEL IN FULL EFFECT Part of Controversy Over Diverse Library in Virginia. Sonia Patel, M.D. https://soniapatel.net/blog/2019/10/12/rani-patel-in-full-effect-part-of-controversy-over-diverse-library-in-virginiaMoloka’i is an island in Hawaii. Group students and have them research the different islands in Hawaii.
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