Untitled- A book review
Author : Atul Deepak Tawade
Publisher: Humming Publications LLP
My rating: ***
About the author: Calls himself a scribbler forever. Hoping to know more about the author (presently unavailable info')
This is his first book.
I love sepia toned pictures. It immediately gives me poignant nostalgia. The book cover did just that to me and will have the same effect on most readers I believe. And the silhouettes of three couples instantly told me that this book had a lot of tangled tales to tell.
Only recently at one of the writer's forums on a social media platform, there was a major topic of discussion that saw contributors answering ten to one. They were arguing over using a simple language over bombastic words while writing. And I can see our author here clearly belongs to the first group of writers. 'Untitled' is an absolutely easy read, using the simplest of English and well-seasoned with Indian-isms that gives it mass appeal.
As the back blurb says, this is a story about a few collegiate who start off as strangers, come together during the course of their young adulthood and together weave the story of today's present young generation. The tone of voice while narrating the story, the episodes of their lives everything has been written to give you nostalgia, if the reader had also been a collegiate a decade or so ago. The anecdotes of the many lunches and breakfasts at the college canteen, appearing for exams, making career choices, going off with a secret love-interest with an obliging friend as an alibi for the worried parents, late-night sojourns are all descriptions of a lifestyle that every college going teenager will be able to relate to.
The many characters or couples like Aditya and Ankita, Ravi and Pooja, Naman and Amrita and their lifestyle, the choices they make, the pain they go through all make them classic examples of people you may have met in your own life, at some point or the other. Each one of them is a thread and together they weave a fabric of memories, created together as 'the gang' and leave you reading their simple tale of camaraderie.
Though there were many high-points in the book, some tongue-in-cheek dialogues too that brought a smile to my face, what I personally feel is that the author could have done a bit more for his story-line. There came a point where I waited for an unpredictable twist but what enfolded was something that reminded me of the myriad Hindi movies or even regional Marathi movie scenes. I personally believe, the author would have done more justice with this story, if he had developed this like a drama script rather than a book. I also strongly believe that at the soul of literature lies good grammar. This book calls for a rigorous check of the Active and Passive voice, sentence structuring, paucity of figures of speech, typographic errors, etc.
It is a tale narrating the enthusiasm of growing up, excitement of discovering oneself, exploring the different facets of youth and experiencing the world at large. Untitled is definitely a book that will make for an entertaining read displaying the Indian college culture. I liked how the author starts the book with a hint of romantic mystery and ends with the same passages, drawing the curtains on the book.
Like the back blurb, rightly sums the book up- it is an ordinary story, about ordinary people, told in an extraordinary way.
Thankyou Goodreads.com for giving me the opportunity of being a 'first-reader' for UNTITLED. I feel lucky to have bagged the paperback in the giveaway.
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