Reviewed: The Bestseller She Wrote
Love. Redemption. Betrayal.. Soon to be a motion picture-reads the cover page of Ravi Subramanian's latest work. And having gone through the 390 pages, the book can be best described as a movie that stretches far too long. And it's not even that interesting,
This was my second Subramanian title. After reading the first one my expectations of the author had reached a high which unfortunately has come crashing down after this book. The genre of middle-aged romance (or rather adultery) is much explored & R.Subramanian doesn't have anything new to add to it.
Aditya Kapoor is every man's dream come true, with a plush job, pretty wife & kid and his share of the limelight as India's most successful author. He is popular, he is loved & adored by fans and family alike and there's nothing more that a man can wish for. All that comes toppling down when he is on a visit to his Alma Mater IIM-B. A student Shreya Kaushik stands up to his commercialization of writing & claims that shameless promotion of books only serves to take away the charm associated with it, leading to quantity taking precedence over quality. This annoys Kapoor and he challenges her to read his books & then decide for herself, if he is wrong in channeling his resources for the promotion of his work.
And in typical Bollywood style, Shreya literally turns into a fan overnight.
What follows next is a cliched whirlwind extra marital affair between the famous author Aditya & the wanna-be writer Shreya. Some semblance of a mystery is thrown in to alleviate the reading. It takes almost the end of the book for the hapless wife Maya to realize her perfect husband is cheating-Subramanian is realistic here, I'll give him that.
I found the presence of sub-plot rather unnecessary. The story, had it been restricted to adultery & zealous ambitions, would have fared well. Adding the sub plot to help take away the blame from the protagonist was not required. Normal people cheat too. To portray Shreya's character as a psychotic, ambitious female who'd stop at nothing to get her own seems like just an attempt at pulling the story closer to Bollywood.
Characters could have been developed further. As a reader I felt no sympathy for Aditya- who has been showed as the victim. Even with Maya, the reader can feel no association for her character although an IIM-B grad herself, is shown to be quite naive and gullible. Aditya's colleague & friend Sanjay, is quite hidden and we don't really get to see much of him until the end.
The conversations in the book are not gripping & seem rather forced. So also the sex scenes.
Summing up, Ravi Subramanian's latest offering is rather disappointing as a book. If written with a movie in mind, then given the Indian audience's taste, it just might work.
Nothing more than 2/5 from me for this one.
I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Programfor Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!
This was my second Subramanian title. After reading the first one my expectations of the author had reached a high which unfortunately has come crashing down after this book. The genre of middle-aged romance (or rather adultery) is much explored & R.Subramanian doesn't have anything new to add to it.
Aditya Kapoor is every man's dream come true, with a plush job, pretty wife & kid and his share of the limelight as India's most successful author. He is popular, he is loved & adored by fans and family alike and there's nothing more that a man can wish for. All that comes toppling down when he is on a visit to his Alma Mater IIM-B. A student Shreya Kaushik stands up to his commercialization of writing & claims that shameless promotion of books only serves to take away the charm associated with it, leading to quantity taking precedence over quality. This annoys Kapoor and he challenges her to read his books & then decide for herself, if he is wrong in channeling his resources for the promotion of his work.
And in typical Bollywood style, Shreya literally turns into a fan overnight.
What follows next is a cliched whirlwind extra marital affair between the famous author Aditya & the wanna-be writer Shreya. Some semblance of a mystery is thrown in to alleviate the reading. It takes almost the end of the book for the hapless wife Maya to realize her perfect husband is cheating-Subramanian is realistic here, I'll give him that.
I found the presence of sub-plot rather unnecessary. The story, had it been restricted to adultery & zealous ambitions, would have fared well. Adding the sub plot to help take away the blame from the protagonist was not required. Normal people cheat too. To portray Shreya's character as a psychotic, ambitious female who'd stop at nothing to get her own seems like just an attempt at pulling the story closer to Bollywood.
Characters could have been developed further. As a reader I felt no sympathy for Aditya- who has been showed as the victim. Even with Maya, the reader can feel no association for her character although an IIM-B grad herself, is shown to be quite naive and gullible. Aditya's colleague & friend Sanjay, is quite hidden and we don't really get to see much of him until the end.
The conversations in the book are not gripping & seem rather forced. So also the sex scenes.
Summing up, Ravi Subramanian's latest offering is rather disappointing as a book. If written with a movie in mind, then given the Indian audience's taste, it just might work.
Nothing more than 2/5 from me for this one.
I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Programfor Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!
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