Write a review of a book, which has become a best seller. Base your review on the hints given below:
Name of the book- authors name- genre of the book(novel, storybook, poetry_- brief description of the content
of the book- specific features of the book- reasons for its becoming a bestseller- overall impression)
(You may also include other relevant details)
Answers
When you finish reading a book in one sitting, and especially when that sitting straddles an entire night, there is not much more you need to say about it. The Bestseller She Wrote is gripping for sure. A page-turner, especially in the second half!
The big risk that Ravi Subramanian took in switching genres from thriller to romance, has paid off. At least in the craft of the book, and in its engagement. Of course the author minimized risk by cleverly using techniques perfected with his banking thrillers. He has brought in an element of the tested genre’s raciness, intrigue and suspense into his romantic offering. The result is a bit of the best of both genres – a romantic thriller!
But that is not the crux of his experimentation. As a true votary of ‘books as products’ that need to be marketed and sold, Ravi’s intention in shifting genre was to attract the ever-increasing group of romance readers, who were perhaps not inclined to reading banking thrillers -- in particular, women. Did he succeed in the attempt? “Yes, that has happened,” says the author. “Today I get a lot of mails from women readers who say this is the first Ravi Subramanian they have read.” And numbers tell their own story – This book has been his fastest sales yet in the first four months! Though of course a small number of his diehard thriller fans are disappointed.
The fact that the story is set in the contemporary world of books and is partly based on actual incidents makes it a must-read for readers of commercial fiction. The author’s well-advertised jibes at some fellow authors in the course of the book stoke curiosity. What worked for me are the real life characters and situations. The questions that the story throws up about glitzy success and its shenanigans, about morality, adultery, jealousy, anger, bitterness, repentance, revenge, forgiveness and redemption are all fascinatingly close to real life.
A handsome, bestselling author Aditya Kapoor with a beautiful, loving wife and a great career (banking, what else?) is distracted by the attentions of a typical go-getter Shreya Kaushik who uses him for her own ends. The author of course vehemently denies any autobiographical element in the plot, just accepting that some of Aditya’s habits and views about the publishing industry are his too.
Shreya has a single-minded focus – she wishes to use Aditya to reach the pinnacle of success. He, at the top of the ladder, makes Adam’s eternal mistake and bites the forbidden fruit. Here onwards complications ensue, and the story takes some surprising twists and turns, maintaining the pace and edge-of-seat suspense of a thriller -- before matters are resolved at the end in a powerful catharsis.
The book leaves a trail of questions to which there are no answers. Each of us must reach our own conclusions. Who is to blame in an extra-marital affair – the committed man or the single girl who chases him unabashedly? Is it possible to love two people at the same time? Is it possible to forgive a straying spouse? Can a broken marriage possibly limp back to normal?
The success of the book is in the brisk pace, the twists and turns, and in its long tail -- the open-ended discussions on relationships that it leaves trailing behind…
The book that I will review is Kafka on The Shore.
Kafka on The Shore, written by Haruki Murakami, is the author's 10th book. He only writes in Japanese and his work is translated into English. Even so, his works have become popular, particularly this book. It is his best selling book.
The book has two storylines that progress and entwine to give birth to a beautifully disastrous end. One protagonist is Kafka, who is a school-going teenager. He decides to run away from his uncomfortable shamble of a home to a place he has a distant yet emotional connection to. He spends his time in a library trying to read up about everything and anything that he can.
The second protagonist is an old man who appears to be dumb to everyone and is excluded from society. But the appalling fact is that this man can in fact talk to cats. Symbolic as it might be, this is one of the few examples of Murakami's extraordinary use of imagination.
Although these two characters lead the story, every character seems to add a flair to the story, I personally fell in love with the librarian. That character seemed to be so non-chalant yet the epitomy of elegance.
It is a best seller because it is written as an example, in my opinion, of the gold standard of fictional writing of any kind. The extraorinaire of the themes and concepts and the nuanced, grounding emotions of the story would grasp anyone's heart and break it into a thousand pieces and leave one wanting the book to never end. It is a must read and will definetly take you to the edge of the world.
#SPJ3