For long I have stopped taking books for reviews. But now
and then I take up one if someone I am well acquainted with has written a book
and wants me to review it for them. So here comes my review of the book “Kissing
Circles.” by Nitin Tewari. I picked up the Kindle copy . So I can’t comment on the cover design,
paper texture and other production values. Therefore I will straight away get on to the
story.
My overall impression about this book I would say was quite positive.
I found this book much better than many of the popular Indian best sellers
published by the big publishing houses while catering to more or less the same
audience. Why I found it so, we will get there presently and also have a look at some of the
things that could have greatly improved the book.
The overall story line was quite sound. The theme of two
North Indian boys going to Kerala to join as trainees at an IT company and
through their association with a local colleague, getting involved in a high
Adrenalin drama pertaining to a local tradition is quite an interesting theme.
The author has done a good job taking us through the characters of the two North
Indian boys, their Keralite colleague and the protagonist of the local drama –
the captain of one of the boat teams for the annual race. He displays very good
understanding of the characters of his protagonists and brings out
their desires, aspirations and thoughts very well. The drama builds up nicely from around a third of the book and manages to keep the reader hooked.
The other strong element of the book is the research the
author has done on the local culture and traditions. We get to learn the
history of the local people, their traditions, the origins and the social milieu.
So if nothing, somebody who has read this book would have learnt something
useful about Kerala.
The language in the book is
decent but quite inconsistent. At some places, it looks simple and in others it
looks more refined. I am not sure if this has to do with the author’s
innovative approach of having each chapter told from a different point of view - first person narrative of the main characters, omniscient third person point of
view, third person object on the wall narrative and also actual narratives by
Gods and odd objects. Talking of this narrative approach itself, while I
appreciate the author’s attempt to innovate, this did not work out so strongly.
There was no obvious reason why this form of narrative had to be chosen from a storytelling perspective except
for the sake of sheer novelty. And the writing by itself did not stand out so
differently between the various narratives for the reader to be able to
recognize immediately who is narrating without seeing the chapter title.
The book title "Kissing Circles" was something I really liked. It is really intriguing and has the reader thinking.The explanation for this that comes around mid way through the book and the way author links it at a physical and metaphorical level was interesting. I would have probably liked to see more of the kissing circle idea thread through the story.
The starting was a bit slow and many readers may be tempted
to put off the book at this stage itself. While reading about the life of trainee
engineers in a software company brought back some old memories for me, I did
not find these chapters particularly interesting. Nor was I too keen to learn
about the competitive landscape in the software industry and tit bits about the software industry keep popping up
regularly throughout the story. If the author had started in the middle with the
boat races coming in the first chapter itself, things might have been much more
interesting.
The book has no strong female characters and might feel a
bit misogynistic in the overall tone, especially in the sections narrated by the two north Indian boys. But then that is exactly how the mindset of young Indian
engineering graduates tends to be. I can vouch for that having been through
that phase. So it can be justified as a realistic portrayal of the characters
he has made the protagonists of his story.
In terms of plot and narrative, I feel he could have done a
much better job in the sequencing of events, blending exposition with the story
line, deciding between realism and fantasy, choosing which events to highlight
and which to push to the background etc. A strong developmental editor would
have really helped in all these elements and added much value.
Overall a light breezy read that I would recommend to most
people. If someone doesn't find the initial few pages interesting, I would suggest to skim through and hang on till at least till the boat races make their appearance.
The book can be purchased here on Amazon.
