Book Review: The Last Love Story by Falguni Kothari


 


Book: The Last Love Story

Author: Falguni Kothari

No. of Pages: 300

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Falguni Kothari

 

The book blurb …

I, Simeen Desai, am tired of making lemonade with the lemons life has handed me.

Love is meant to heal wounds. Love was meant to make my world sparkle and spin. Love has ripped my life apart and shattered my soul.

I love my husband, and he loves me. But Nirvaan is dying. I love my husband. I want to make him happy. But he is asking for the impossible.

I don’t want a baby. I don’t want to make nice with Zayaan. I don’t want another chance at another love story.

***WARNING*** Weepers, keep tissues handy.

 

Review …

I am speechless. In a way, I am all praise about the book, its writing, the author and all. I couldn't say enough to justify the 5 star rating and my personal bias towards giving it 6 or more stars out of 5.

I am numb. The book is an emotionally charged roller coaster with a very bold theme (if I may say so). It is not a novel for the average reader. It requires a very high level of maturity to even digest what is going on in the protagonists mind/heart and not hate her or judge her. It is emotionally draining to read about the complexity of her life and the demons she is fighting every moment. And also appreciate the struggles of the other characters. Even the minor characters of the story are not easily forgottable.  

Falguni gets my respect for crafting the character so well and she is on my 'fav authors' list now. I will read anything she writes. I had an emotional roller coaster ride as a reader. The ride she would have had as a writer must have been incredible.

Frankly i am speechless. I am like the audience who is so spell bound by a performance that they forget to clap. I am numb emotionally after reading the book and can’t think the proper words which need to go into an honest review.

Falguni manages to wrestle with several controversial subjects and roll them seamlessly into a complex story with complicated relationships and well sketched-out characters with diverse backgrounds.  

To the average reader, the book will appear to be scandalous in many places and overall they will be offended by it. Hence, it takes a matured reader to appreciate the book. The matured reader also identifies with the different characters and would find some shades of each character in himself/herself or in people around him/her. Once you begin to appreciate the matured content of the storyline … you accept the characters and the storyline as something very real … and you even forget that you are reading fiction.

Pick this book up if you are game for an emotional roller coaster and u have an open mind which is not bound and shackled by primitive or even today's world view of moral values and 'right behavior' and definition of relationships. You have been warned.

I have specifically NOT written anything about the different characters or the storyline. Go ahead, explore.  

Ratings on Book Review Parameters:

Cover Design:  2.5 / 5              Pretty ordinary cover design. Nothing noteworthy.
Writing Style:  5.0 / 5 
Characters:     5.0 / 5
Story / Plot:     5.0 / 5
Climax:             5.0 / 5
Overall:           5.0 / 5 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mumbai Local - First Class v/s Second Class

Image
    It is an old joke that the difference in the first class and second class of the Mumbai local trains is that people in first class use deodorants and hence you are exempted from the smelly underarms while travelling. The mute point being; both class of travel experience a passenger overload during the peak hours and you are almost equally squeezed and pushed around in both. Of course, the seats in First Class are cushioned (unlike the hard seats of second class) but then that would make a difference only if you get to sit (which would be a likely probability only if you get into the train from the station it originates). My father holds a first class pass from Churchgate to Andheri (since past 7 years, ever since we moved to Andheri). He often travels by Second class in the evening. Strange, isn't it? This is why he does it … In the First class, there is an unwritten rule that on the seat, only the designated number of people (which is 3) will sit. No sq...
Read more

Tongue Twister - V for Vendetta

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." - V for Vendetta
Read more