Hmmm... another Indian Fiction to review. (If you sense a
hint of disdain, read my earlier posts about BFR) so, let's get on with it...
shall we?
Did you have a habit of writing a diary? I remember from my
earlier years, there was this huge craze in school kids around writing diaries.
Jotting down what happened on a daily basis, no matter how mundane. Those years
were filled with chronicle-ing daily routine, in the hopes that some day this
writing will be of a great reading material. These were also the years when a
lot of diary related literature was being published. No matter who the author
was or what the quality of the written material is, a lot of diaries were being
published. Some of these were a really fantastic read, like Anne Frank's...even
Cecelia Ahern's Love Rosie falls in the category. While others were simply
really, well...lets be polite and say...not so great.
Reading Ahmed Faiyaz's "Love, Life and all the
Jazz" is kind of like reading through a diary.
The novel is aimed at young crowd. Aimed at a crowd that is
still dreaming about life outside the carefree world of college, who are still
unsure of what to expect from "real" world. A crowd that is still
trying to figure out "what’s next". The novel is a glimpse of what
all is possible. and an epiphany of "Plans are futile" & re-iterating
the age old "Life is full of unexpected".
The novel revolves around lives of four friends; Tanveer,
Tania, Vicky and Sameer. The narrative starts a couple of days after their
graduation and within a couple of pages, introduces and establishes each
character. You meet the naive and responsible Tanveer, for whom the life is
about reason and responsibilities to the family; the spoilt rich kid, Vicky, for
whom life is about enjoying finer things in life; Sameer, with his plans and
grand dreams. And Tania, the glue that holds the group together. You walk with
these four through 6 years of their lives. The storyline is rather unimpressive
and has all the elements of a stereotypical post college life novel. College
life, love affairs, career choices, struggle to justify the need to be abroad,
clashes with family due to inter-religion love, office politics, falling out of
love, pinning after a break-up, marriage and post marriage chaos... the events
are everyday events and they even happen in a very predictable rate and manner.
So, if you are looking for an engaging read that captures your imagination and
gives you something to chew on post reading...this is NOT a novel you should
pick up. BUT...
Even though this is not a ground breaking novel, it has its
own merits. For once, it’s not complicated. The narrative is rather
straight-forward and clean, without any fancy twists and turns. It might not be
spellbinding but it sure is a novel that you would not want to leave half-way.
Even when you won't find hidden meanings and higher enlightenment, you will
find it to be refreshing. The uncomplicated love-non love stories of the novel
will make you look back at your own time after college, and all the dreams that
you had of achieving greatness and glory. There are parts of the novel where you
will find yourself laughing, not really at what’s written but by recalling
similar events in your own life. At times the language used by the author would
make you wonder whether he was referring to the dictionary or thesaurus for vocabulary,
but it would surely not hamper your speed or narrative. (I'm very picky about
language, being a communications trainer kind of makes it easy target, I guess)
So, What’s the culprit? The novel will prove a good read for
a relatively young crowd (gosh, saying that makes me feel soooooo OLD)... I
believe someone who has passed through those initial 10 years post-college...won't
really find things to enjoy... It’s a fine read for the times when you want to
turn to something uncomplicated and clean to read about without getting a
headache or a heart-ache... and if you are a sucker for "Happy
Endings". As for me… I don’t think I’ll be adding Ahmed Faiyaz to my “safe
writer” list.
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