300 - book curtain raiser

This is not a review about that Spartan soldiers movie. 

Its about an yet to be released book, a love child of my friend and blog mate. An effort that materialized after a near penance like trance and a rigour which matched "Rambo" on his preparation spree before any boxing bout. I wouldnt be sharing any spoilers about the book but would provide a back link to this post when it is published. This avasara kudukkai of a post is due to my unbridled admiration for his writing and the impact created by the story.

There are few book review posts that i've shared on this blog. Usually, its just the happiness or the thrill factor that the book creates or its theme. This is the first time its a double shot happiness with not just the book but the author also being a reason for the happiness. I pestered him to share the book even before its fully edited just out of curiosity for the story. He cribbed that his editor had mercilessly chopped over 40,000 words from the story. That's right. 40,000 were chopped off. And yet in pdf format it was 357 pages in size. Later he clarified that it was still in editing table and because of my nuisance nachhu he shared the copy. 

15 pages into the book i rushed to the ending to check if it was a sad or happy one. Its a love story told in predominantly a conversational tone between the lead characters. I read it three hour straight in one sitting and another 3 hour straight the second day. In between time, the story and the characters, their situations, conversations, their love, pain, joy and sorrow, it haunted non stop and made the waiting time a painfully joyous experience. I can't put a finger on the reason - be it the conversational tone that gives it a personal diary-ish feel throughout, the first person account of narration that projects the hero as my friend himself, tone set in a blog like mode making it a easier read, the language that goes easy on the vocabulary, be it the characterisation being such that there is too much overlap on his own real self making it an even interesting read for his friends or the concept of love being an eternal favourite amongst everyone.

I am eagerly awaiting the launch of the book so that i share more details and spoilers on the book and post more in details. This guy is surely set in the league of Chetan bagath with only similarity being the personal experience related storyline but is bound to go places beyond the famed one. Knowing his varied exposure to different language movies and his relish of modern authors be it tamil or European one can expect more varied themes from him down the line. He is already working on his next novel and the one liner that was shared make it even more an interesting premise. Watch out for more. Coming soon :)