Book Review- You are The Best Wife

You are The Best Wife

        True stories are the most difficult to review. Like how can a reviewer say that, this part should have been better or that part needed a little more spunk. I mean, it is reality painted on the canvas. It cannot be a shade lighter or darker!! The critic in me wanted to accept this daunting task and here I am reviewing You are the Best Wife.

       This is the story of the author himself – Ajay Pandey and his beloved wife – Bhavna Pandey. Two contradictory people who fall in love and eventually get married. They compliment each other’s personality and are head over heels in love. Mid-way Bhavna leaves Ajay’s hand. Ajay is devastated. Does he reach a point of no come back? Or does he take this as an experience and moves forward in his life? The answers to these questions lie in the emotional story  named – You Are The Best Wife.

        This one starts off like a regular love story. Two people meet in an engineering college. Guy falls in love almost instantly. They become friends first. Slowly the friendship blooms into love. They, obviously, think about marriage. But parents are against it because of the all important caste issue. How Ajay and Bhavna convince them into agreeing for this is a treat to read. The author has mixed this with a dash of humour. This is where the book picks up. After this point the book drifts from being a regular love story to a bona fide one. Ajay’s brother’s character – Monu, has also been drafted oh so well!! He enters and exits at the right time throughout the narrative. The protagonists get married. Two years into their marriage Bhavna starts feeling unwell. The book then turns into an emotional roller coaster ride. One is almost choked reading those chapters, kudos to the author for that. He has written the feelings of each character so well that you almost envision all the scenes as if it is happening right before you. You feel the emotions of the characters as your own. You not only feel the pain of losing an important person but also each and every sentiment that one goes through traversing those tough times.

      The author wins your heart with his writing. A knack for depicting the most pertinent emotion is his forte. He has written this book to immortalise his wife and he does it impeccably. The epilogue just steals your heart away. One just breaks down reading it. In this day and age, of relationships breaking for the smallest of things, being aware that a love story like this exists is in itself being extremely fortunate for a reader like me. The author’s depiction of his wife’s character is flawless. She teaches you life’s most important lesson in the most inconsequential way.

       Yes there are a lot of sentences in Hindi. Yes there are multiple repetitions of lines that have been used before in the story. But the author blends all of this so beautifully that not once do you feel like keeping the book down. And to evoke such a feeling when the reader already knows (from the synopsis) what to expect out of this one, is a masterstroke and all credit goes to the author’s writing skills for this. Emotional but nevertheless, it is a fast paced novel.

         Pick this one up not only for the emotions it awakens in you but also for the realisation that true love exists. Having a loving partner and family is not a thing of the past. They exist even today. And if nothing pick this one up for the sheer simplicity with which Ajay pens his emotions and makes sure we all join him in this emotional roller coaster.

Stars- 3.75/5

This review was first published on talespensieve.com.