Book Review- The Suicide Diary

The Suicide Diary- Hari Prasad

                 When Tales Pensieve gave me the opportunity to review this book, I was completely unaware of what to expect. I have never read a book like this before. The author had sent me a signed copy, so as elated as I was, I started reading not knowing what a ride I was in for.

                  The protagonist is fatigued by his existence. He feels like an old man trapped in a young man’s body. He is hunting for ways and procedures to end his grieve. Every minute of his life, he feels is a waste. Every minute there is somebody to make him realize that his life is not worth living. But everytime he looks at ending his life, his inner voice thinks otherwise. On this journey, how he meets a few people and how he then decides and plans his cessation, is the story of The Suicide Diary.

                     I must confess that initially when I started reading I felt a little blasé. I felt that I had done a mistake by picking this book. Since I had taken it up for review so I had to under any circumstance finish reading it. I really thought that this book would be a drag. But I was proved wrong. The book picked up and how. Gradually I understood the style of the author and what he wants to infer.

                      The characters are developed strongly by verbalizing the entire novel superlatively. The cynical thoughts that go in the protagonist's mind scares the reader due to the way it is written. The horrendous encounters by the lead character leave you flummoxed. The entire storytelling is unexpected. The author weaves the entry and exit of each and every character so well that you are left gobsmacked and you wait for a moment, to let your grey cells  comprehend what has happened. Each and every word can be visualized and you feel that those things are happening right in front of your eyes. The sadism of the protagonist leaves you frozen. Mildred, Estella, his wife all have been drafted impeccably. Infact, even the short role of the inspectors have been drafted to perfection.

                     During the course of the reading the protagonist depicts his feelings a lot of times and 9 out of ten times it is the same but you don’t feel it to be repetitive even once. This is due to the magician Hari Prasad. His usage of words and metaphors are pertinent. They create such an impact on the readers mind that the visuals of the narrative leave you with goosebumps. Description of certain incidents are penned flawlessly. Couple of them stay with you forever. Like the lust which the lead character faces for a young girl at the beginning while travelling to the petrol pump. The feelings that he gets while uploading the pictures on the internet. Kudos to Hari Prasad for this. I am in awe of his writing.

                     The author had sent me a copy signed: “Let literature Inspire and enrich your life always”. I would like to request the author to continue writing and inspire amateurs like us with his wisdom because it is a rare gift and something worth sharing with the world. I would also like to thank Tales Pensieve for giving me this once in a lifetime opportunity to review such a piece of art. This is not a genre that can be read and re-read. But just for the writing style and the sheer vocabulary you would want to re-read it. It is a learning experience and I feel myself fortunate to own a copy of this masterpiece.

Stars-4.75/5 

Book Review- Killing Ashish Karve

KILLING ASHISH KARVE-SALIL DESAI

Crime fiction is a genre I have always enjoyed. Though I have marked that not many Indian Authors attempt this genre. Contrary to this,Salil Desai has penned down two murder mysteries. This one being his first. After reading a lot of rave reviews and being termed as “The Best murder mystery by an Indian Author so far”, I was itching to pick this one.

Sanjot Karve, the wife of Ashish Karve, goes to the police station to file a missing complaint of her husband. The Police not believing her at the very first instance,later find a dead body in a car. Identifying the body as Ashish Karve the police department then start their investigations. A Suicide  note is found alongwith the dead remains, but Senior Inspector Saralkar is of the opinion that it is a murder. Tracing one clue at a time, how he, alongwith PSI Motkar unveil the mystery is the crime fiction thriller by Salil Desai.

I have read murder mysteries before but this is first of a kind where they have given step by step procedure of how the police department works on a murder/suicide case. And I must say the author has done a good job with it. He has worked hard on the usage of words as well. The use of words have been pertinent and accurate, making it a simple as well as an enjoyable read. The biggest thing according to me for a novel to do well is the strength of the characters. The author wins your heart with strong characters of Sanjot Karve, Suchitra Chopra, Jaideep Karve,PSI Motkar and my favourite Senior Inspector Saralkar. His character is written to perfection. He is intuitive, smart,witty and fearless. A lot of different traits of his personality come through, throughout the narrative. Another ace of the book is the relationship depicted between Saralkar and Motkar. It is humorous, witty and make for a delightful read. The reader almost waits for their conversations to happen throughout the story-telling.

Alongwith the positives there are negatives as well. The characters of Saralkar and Motkar are penned so well that one yearns to read their discussions. I wish those conversations were crisper. Too much description sometimes makes you skim through it and read only their dialogues. ALso I wasn't very happy with the climax. First of all in the beginning itself I had a little inkling over who the killer was (Blame Sydney Sheldon and all his racy reads!!). Secondly I do not think the reason was justified. It is the 21st century. We are looking ahead in life. Looking at equality, then why would we consider this topic taboo. How can the murderer be so ruthless as to kill someone on this basis or have such a regressive opinion on this matter.

Inspite of this, this book has been drafted well and Kudos to Salil Desai for this. If nothing then this book should definitely be picked up to witness the sheer camaraderie between Senior Inspector Saralkar and PSI Motkar.

Stars- 2.5/5