Book Bites

One chapter from a book sometimes tells you everything you need to know; hell, the first page can usually do that. Into my hot little hands have come three books by Indian writers, and I gave them all the same treatment, opening chapters only, just to get a feel of where they might go. Isn’t that the most exciting moment ever?

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A serial killer with a distinct and gruesome style, a couple of Indian dudes and a cop whose dourness is an instant lure meant I, gasp, read the Prologue AND Chapter One. The book begins with Partho Sen who had me at his particular hello, which was seeing “the violence of capitalism” in a snowflake. I like seeing things in new ways, and writers who see things in new ways, so meeting other characters speaking in an easy-going style as opposed to the penchant for stiff oratory many subcontinent authors pitfall into, I’m optimistic that this is heading into readable territory.

This reveals my own idiosyncracies. I find the whole small locality-appachan-ammachy motif painful in the extreme; they so rarely escape clichedom. Here’s a murder-mystery, as they say, but whether it will rise to the Sherlock-Watson level it aspires to….Inspector Nagarajan and rogue-turned-detective ‘Hamid Pasha’ try. There are some brushstrokes of colour that’s intriguing, as when the good Inspector tells his client exactly what Hamid’s background is, the bad boy image getting its outline well-enough to intrigue, but here also is a fine example of the stiff oratory mentioned above. Many of the conversations are like meringue, whipped to within an inch of its natural consistency.

Emotionally shaken but not stirred Sophie Tilgum morphs from market research maven to girl-about-town Carrie Bradshaw, making a business out of straightening people’s flailing love affairs as The Break-Up Coach. Like a mirror held up to Indian adult relationships these days, Balan does a fine job of showing the superficiality and need for instant gratification that goes under the guise of love. But Helen Fielding she ain’t. Sophie Says is well-written froth, realistically drawn but you will learn no life lessons and come on, Bridget Jones was both funny and interesting. That marketing flavour in Balan’s protagonist and writing emerges early on. You’ll hear about BF Denver Cunningham, The Blah-Blah Auntyhood and colleague Botox Booma, who is the recipient of Sorted Sophie’s first response which goes as follows: “He clearly has no interest in the world around him and he puts out your fire,” and her advise is to drop the man forthwith. Great. But I don’t really care. Will I as the story rolls on? That’s for you to find out.

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