by Chetan Bhagat

***~~ (3/5)

Fiction / Light Reading

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Book Synopsis:

3 friends, Hari, Alok and Ryan, are students at IIT, India’s most prestigious technological university. Instead of mugging their lives away like the rest of the cohort, they decide to have the time of their lives.

All the things not to do at university and more: mess up your grades, drink vodka on the faculty rooftop, date a professor’s daughter…

A funny and dark story of friendship and trying to survive IIT with a five-point something GPA. Will they make it?

My Book Review:

I picked up this book at a bookshop in Mysore, India, when I was attending a wedding there last week. I thought, I’ve experienced this country, so I should experience more of its contemporary fiction. Chetan Bhagat is apparently a lauded writer in India having written 4 novels to date:

Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT

One Night @ the Call Center

The Three Mistakes of My Life

and

2 States – The Story Of My Marriage

He is among the ‘trio of modern Indian writers that have re-written Indian publishing rules and brought a new scale to the Indian publishing landscape with previously unheard of book sales’ (courtesy of Wikipedia).

So I thought… Promising…

Chetan Bhagat is a humourous, down to earth writer, with a flair for writing identifiable characters – as I read, I kept thinking that parts of one of the characters reminded me distinctly of my boyfriend.

Set at India’s premier engineering school IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Delhi, 3 students decide that they want to actually experience life whilst in college and not just mug 4 years away (Apparently unheard of in IIT culture). There’s the ring leader Ryan with crazy his schemes, Alok the responsible cry baby and Hari, whose point of view this novel is written from, a bumbling yet extremely likable guy.

I find I value stories about friendship and loyalty. In stories, despite the huge mistake a person is about to make, if the decision is based on loyalty, it makes it all okay. It’s like they’re making the right decision, even though they are making the wrong decision.

Halfway through reading Five Point Someone, I described it as Lad-Lit, Chick-Lit for Men. It got deeper as it went along, and although it’s not great literature it’s definitely a quick, fun read with heart. I enjoyed it.

I have 2 more of Chetan Bhagat books on my shelf, so I will be reading and reviewing them in the near future.

x Julie

Online Bookstore and Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

by Jhumpa Lahiri

****~ (4/5) Fiction / Short Stories

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Book Synopsis:

9 short stories that reveal the lives of Indians living at home, or abroad, but nevertheless isolated, steering their way through the murky path between tradition and the new world that has evolved around them. These stories which are eloquently and subtlety told by Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, will speak to anyone who has experienced the longings of exile, or the isolated confusion of an outsider.

My Book Review:

I generally don’t read short story collections, they never really appealed to me. I like to travel along the long arc of stories with the characters and really immerse myself in a book. Short stories always seemed to cheat me of that depth. I did enjoy reading the book The Interpreter of Maladies. Though short story collections are still not my cup of tea, and I did end up wanting more of an investment in each story, I understand why it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Each story was a world of its own, entering the lives of real people and their displaced lives. As the book synopsis says, Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories are ‘understated’. They are quiet and domestic, but also therefore identifiable and honest in their portrayal. All 9 stories are unique and independent of each other in very satisfying ways, jumping across continents and content. I appreciated all the stories, but the two short stories that stood out the most for me are ‘This Blessed House’ and ‘The Third and Final Continent’.

Jhumpa Lahiri also wrote The Namesake, and though I haven’t yet read the book, it makes a great movie.

x Julie

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-Reading Like Rabbits-