Book Review: Virgin Gingelly

Author: V.Sanjay Kumar

Published by: Hachette India

Genre: General and Literary Fiction

ISBN: 978-93-5009-720-5

Price: INR 499

No.of Pages: 248

Synopsis: I hope to be remembered in this street, amongst the lame, as the husband of the one with amorous thoughts and sexy legs. 'There used to writer here in this empty house," They will say. "He had a porous mind."

A stubborn writer struggles with his stories in a city that has been encroached.

The last bastion is an urban agraharam near Mylapore where a bunch of misfits perform a strange kutcheri. Among these are existential street dogs, short-changed lovers, disgruntled housewives, runaways with bombs, veshti-wearing elders, and nihilist teenagers coming to terms with their sexuality. With a singular desire to escape, these characters visit each other's stories creating a layered narrative of loss and ennui. 

In language both gritty and humorous, and often surprisingly poetic, the author's narrative, set in the middle-class, housing -cooperative Chennai, tackles the simple conundrum of being and belonging.

Review: First things first: A beautifully designed jacket on the hard cover, very descriptive and vivid pictures that speaks something of the book. Also the list of praise for the book ranging from various magazines and newspapers to authors speaks volumes about the content in the book. Also from the contents page one can say that this book is different from the rest. A different breed altogether if I can say so.

It took me almost 5 days to complete my read and I must say I was completely exhausted reading the pages. Each page has a breath of freshness in writing that makes one go deep into the stories and ponder further. Humorous at times, poetic in between the prose, the author comes out with a writing style that is different from atleast what I've read till date if not from others.

The story is not about any Kathakali dancers probably evident from the cover but it is a story of a struggling writer based in Rainbow Colony in Chennai, who seems to be the main protagonist. The story is seen written in a haphazard manner just like putting all your life's instances into a book without any order.

There will be times when you'll question your choice of reading as it is not an easy read, leave it half way or run out of patience to read and understand various words that may be alien to you but be assured that the book when completely read, you will be rich literary wise.Because once you have generated some sort of an interest, the author makes sure that you will not leave the book till you reach the end.

The narration is one of a kind, breaking the conventional patterns of novel writing and probably a first to attempt this style of narration. The narration inspite of being not linear is very captivating to say the least.

Overall: Go, read this book for some good literary time with the magic that the author has cast upon through his writing.

Ratings: 3.5/5

This review is for Flipkart Bloggers Review Programme.