Chetan's 5th book and it's as good as ever! I took exactly 5 hours and 45 minutes to finish it (with a lunch break, loo break, call-your-sweetheart break and a call your-sweetheart-again break).
We're all pretty familiar with the way he writes- first person narrative, extremely funny and a not-so-flowery language. Me being me, I felt the urge to underline several lines in this book but did not do so because I did not want to put the book down to fetch a pencil. This isn't his own story and he's simply narrating someone else's. He was just okay when he did that in One Night @ the Call Center, I could connect better with The 3 Mistakes of My Life, but Revolution 2020 was completely magnetic! I just kept reading and reading and reading!
There are many elements in the story that make it realistic. Being a veteran love guru, I know it takes just about 3 hours to narrate a sad love story. Which is true in the case of this book- the story starts at 3 AM and finish at 6. I also know that the narrator, especially if it is a guy, doesn't get into too many details and that is where we see Chetan's skill as a writer. He keeps the flow going, supplies necessary details without over-doing it. He has really put himself in the head of his character and has really done his research on Varanasi very well.
Just one sentence in the entire book seemed a tad bit unrealistic: on page 170, Mr. Bhagat, you write "She wore a mauve chikan salwar-kameez". Probably the only error in the whole book, according to me! I'm not quite sure a guy would KNOW what mauve is, let alone recognize or acknowledge it!
There are many other things that I want to talk about but I'll pick out only two other lines.
Page 219, "She sensed the tension in me." Now, given the context and where Aarti's head is located, you don't want to use that sentence when a slightly pervy urban teen is reading it!
And I love the way you choose your words: Page 243- "Everyone spoke highly of the stupid pink paper" is extraordinarily funny. It completely does it's job in telling us how Gopal feels and also eases the tension a little. That's what makes your writing realistic.
There's also a pattern with your books, eh? All of them have numbers in the title: FIVE point someone, ONE night @the call center, THREE mistakes of my life, TWO states, revolution 2020 (hey, come to think of it, I didn't think of cricket at all!). Also, barring the call center story, why do all your books begin with a medical situation? Ambulance, suicide attempt, counsellor and hospital hang-overs? That's it! Why do you have a hospital hang-over?
Oops! My review has turned into a letter for THE Chetan Bhagat now, has it? But then again, people are always more interested in other people's conversations... Other people's lives. That's why most of us like it when Chetan writes his own life stories- how he first fell in love, how he got married and all that. We all enjoy being legitimate voyeurs. You see, nothing keeps us more engaged in a book than details about the writer's cartoon covered underwear or loathing for DisCos.
Even out the numbers between your stories and other people's stories, Mr. Bhagat. We want to know more about YOU. Have your kids asked the famous "where do babies come from" question yet? Did you say belly-button? Tell, no!
Love,
Smart South Indian Girl you'll never have the chance of falling in love with and who was smart enough not to take engineering and THEN become something else.
P.S, the name is Abhineeta.
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