Just finished yet another book by an Indian author and I am
wondering what it was actually! Calling it a book or story would be such a slur
as it was nothing but nonsense after nonsense printed in black & white. And I also wonder why
do I even waste my time in completing such shit pieces of work, damn this very
irritating habit of mine that doesn't let me leave things half way. But what's
worse is to realize that this book came highly recommended in most of the reading
sites and I wonder how? Well, book marketing has surely picked up in India, isn't
it? Incentivize few reviewers, spend some marketing money and voila you have
words after words spread across media in favor of some crap piece of work. Being
a marketer as well as blogger, I am also aware of the dynamics of how it works.
There is no harm in marketing any good product, anything new needs a bit of
push but unfortunately I think in case of something as precious as books, going
this far is really irking me a lot now.
My words might be sounding rude but I am actually quite disappointed
with my last 5 reads. If you all remember, I have been a big supporter of
Indian fiction and have always proudly mentioned my preferences for Indian
stories and authors but I think it's time for me to change my preferences now.
Whether you believe it or not, last few of my reads have all been centered
around either of the two themes - a 30 something career oriented girl
desperately trying to get hooked on to a man, takes all possible measures to
woo any / all kind of men and finally settles down with the one who has money
and all. In the last book that I read, the main character slept with 7 men in a
period of 6 months, lost her job, but is perfectly fine to lose her job as long
as she finds a good catch (read man). Now in which city / culture in India,
unmarried women date & sleep with 7 men in 6 months? After few pages, I was
feeling sick of reading that book and being a woman felt pathetic to realize
that the book was written by a woman only! All of it look such desperate,
forced projection of so called "modern", "new-generation"
Indian women. And the second theme, wait... do I need to tell you about the second
theme? It's the same - a boy at IIT meets a girl and it's love at first sight,
blah blah & some more blah. Uffff, I know I am picking up wrong books but
then all these have been picked after recommendations on Twitter, Goodreads
etc. I definitely was looking for some light reads or romantic fiction but in
the name of comedy or romance, all I could get my hands on was racy sex, almost
porn content and comedies which were disgusting to the core.
What happened to the good writers and stories? What happened
to healthy comedies? And what happened to pleasant love stories? With a heavy
heart I think I have decided to not read any Indian author book for next few
months except the mythology ones. I agree, mythological stories these days are
quite well written and engaging for sure. But for other genre, I am going to
stick to non-Indian writers for now . I am also thinking of trying my luck with
Hindi Classics. I have really not read much of Hindi literature and I think
it's time for me to delve into some old gems.
If I find something really good, I will get back to you with
my review of the same. Until then, if you have any recommendation for good fiction, do let me know of the same. By the
way, which site do you refer to for book recommendations these days? Any
pointers please? Any site which is not heavily influenced by paid media yet? Look
forward to your suggestions please :)
2 comments :
I have found Smitha's book review blog to be very helpful:
https://anyexcusetoread.wordpress.com/
Another one I a fan of is The mad momma blog
https://themadmomma.wordpress.com/
Search for book reviews on her blog. Some of the gems I read were found on her list.
Happy reading :-)
Can't agree more with you. It has become extremely difficult to find a decent Indian fiction nowadays. Even Amazon best sellers have same crappy titles and as you mentioned it is very difficult to get good recommendations. With publishers having deep pockets and Chetan Bhagat being the new role model, it seems every Indian author (in their late 20s or 30s) is dishing out same kind of crap and getting publicity!
Since I read on Kindle more, I try the sample book before buying. But then again I don't go for too many Indian authors. Picked Chanakya Chant by Ashwin Sanghi but with quality of language befitting Sir Bhagat, didn't bother to complete even the sample book!
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