Book: Chasing Illusions
Author: Utakarsh Jayant
Publisher: Frog Books
Price: 185 INR
Pages: 239
Blurb: This is the story of an honest, but befuddled young man's growth in the hazy real-estate sector of Delhi. Set against the backdrop of the rapidly changing social and economic scenario in villages of the National Capital Region during the early 2000's, it relates to his struggle under the omnipresent shadow of corruption, deceit, and swindling at various levels of politics and society in developing India. It speaks of his ultimate metamorphosis into an unscrupulous, cheating, and bullying goon, blind to right or wrong.
My Rating:
Plot: 3.5/5
Narration: 2.5/5
Writing Style: 3/5
Character Sketch: 2.5/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Narration: 2.5/5
Writing Style: 3/5
Character Sketch: 2.5/5
My Review:
Chasing Illusions is the story of the metamorphosis of an honest, confused young guy into a corrupted man who is blind to right or wrong. The blurb gives away the plot of the story and also its ending to some extent. Therefore, when you are reading the book, the only thing that you would like to experience is the process of the protagonist's metamorphosis. In this department, the author has done a good job. However, a fast faced narration could have made the journey of Ajay read much more interesting.
The narration of the book is clumsy and therefore, it is tough to finish the book in a few sittings. Despite being a bookworm, I found it difficult to get along with the slow and clumsy pace of the book. It took me quite a few days to complete reading the book.
The narration of the book is clumsy and therefore, it is tough to finish the book in a few sittings. Despite being a bookworm, I found it difficult to get along with the slow and clumsy pace of the book. It took me quite a few days to complete reading the book.
Coming to the plot, the protagonist of the book, Ajay starts his career by working under Ramu Kaka, who is a corrupted man. He doesn't realize at first that he is being involved in various sorts of illegal activities by Ramu Kaka, but when the police arrests them, the picture becomes clear to Ajay.
He goes into a trauma for days and then begins his new real estate business with his best friend at Gurgaon sector 129. The rest of the story is about how he becomes corrupted and greedy to climb the ladder of success, without any judgement of right or wrong.
The plot is different and quite realistic. Therefore, it won't be wrong to say that the story had a lot of potential. A powerful narration and better character sketch could have done full justice to the plot. First of all, the book had many characters, so it was necessary to make the characters strong so that they stay in the mind of the readers.
Apart from Ajay, the other characters fail to make a significant mark. Even the scenes of Ajay and his wife Vidhi lack the warmth and chemistry. The bond between the two characters could have been shown in a better way.
Lastly, the book had numerous typos and editing errors that affected my reading. However, due to the different and realistic plot by a debut author, I would rate Chasing Illusions a 3 out of 5.
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