Never Kiss Your Best Friend (Novel Review)


Sumrit Shahi, Never Kiss Your Best Friend, New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2015, ISBN 978-81-291-3485-1, Rs. 195, pp. 206.

In a wish-fulfilling, near dramatic way, I chanced upon this novel. I had earlier expressed my desire to read more books from the pen of the author who had fascinated me with his debut novel, Just Friends... and as if by destiny I chanced upon this book. I was excited and put all my other work aside to pore over this book. The novel is a sequel to Just Friends... (I had reviewed that too).

The protagonist, Tanie, is the narrator and she begins with a letter to life in which she rants about a whole lot of things that ought to have caused irritation but didn’t and then she comes to the one thing that shouldn’t have caused irritation but did. That one thing is the return of Sumer to her life. (Flashback) Sumer and Tanie were best buddies. Then for some reason which isn’t clear, they parted ways, until this moment when they are re-united, awkwardly at first and then more comfortably later on. Oh wait, awkwardly again!

What struck me about the book is that it is a lot more mature than the previous one. The author has evidently grown and improved in his style and delivery. The language used is markedly different and the ideas develop in more adult ways (not only sequentially but also relationship wise). Only the slightest hint at a continuation of the story begun in Just Friends...  is made. The characters are pretty much the same, the setting is wholly new and the story only makes allusions to the past.

I found quite some incoherent statements scattered across the narrative. The drama appears a bit forced and the make up-break up cycle gave me a headache. I suppose it reflects a certain reality with regard to young adult relationships but nonetheless, it was mind numbing. The liberal use of expletives and the crass references made to private parts leave a sour taste. The ending appeared to be made in a bit of a hurry but the soliloquies are well scripted and heart touching. The story develops well but has elements of ambiguity. The significance of the title comes across pretty strongly.

On the cover Durjoy Datta comments: “Witty, funny and straight from the heart...” I disagree with the first two qualities but will go along with the third. I confess feeling a bit let down. The story didn’t quite satisfy and left me with an insipid taste on the tongue.        

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortatio
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young priest, boys would long for more than just a wekkly encounter with him. They loved him and found in him a friend w
Read more