Neesha Meminger,
Shine, Coconut Moon
McElderry Books, 2009.

Ages 14+

 “There is a man wearing a turban ringing our doorbell,”: so opens Neesha Meminger’s riveting debut novel Shine, Coconut Moon.  The unknown man in question turns out to be Uncle Sandeep, whom the book’s narrator, seventeen-year-old Samar does not recognise since her divorced Mom is estranged from her whole family and has always refused even to talk about them. This is not the beginning of a happy family reunion, however. Real life, convincingly portrayed here, is a bit more complicated than that - and Samar’s world has also just been turned upside down (more than she actually realises) by the events of 9/11 four days earlier.

To begin with, Samar comes across as a carefree teenager with school, boyfriends and shopping on her mind but Sandeep’s arrival, coupled with the broader impact of 9/11, is also the beginning of an awakening for Samar, which launches her on a journey of self-discovery. Suddenly, things she has never given much thought to become urgent: she wants to learn about her Sikh Indian heritage and she is determined to meet her grandparents. However, as she begins to explore Sikhism, and as racial tensions become more evident, both lurking beneath the surface and as overt acts of hatred, she can no longer ignore the significance of her ethnicity in her life: something which then calls for adjustments in all her personal relationships.

Weeks earlier, Samar had been deeply disturbed when it was suggested she might be a coconut – “Yeah, you know… brown on the outside, white on the inside.”  She had often brushed off being called all sorts of names because of her brown skin but “This is the first time someone’s telling me I’m not brown enough.”  Samar is piqued into looking at and around herself from a different perspective and this new take on the world brings with it a steep learning curve.

Samar is a convincing, spirited teenager on the cusp of adulthood who finds not only that she has much to learn, but that she wants to learn it.  Her individual narrative sometimes runs parallel to and sometimes interweaves with the varied societal responses to 9/11––and Meminger challenges readers to confront their own responses to it too, while highlighting the discrimination shown towards those of other world faiths, and not only Muslims, in the wake of 9/11.  Shine, Coconut Moon raises many issues of concern to teenagers today – tolerance and racism, the search for identity, faith and bigotry, family, loyalty – and as the narrative begins to race towards a cataclysmic climax, readers will not be able to put it down.

Marjorie Coughlan
February 2010