About the author:
Abhay Nagarajan worked as a financial advisor for more than two years. He enjoys writing and reading statistics of cricket, which has been his first love since class five. This is his first novel.
Cover and blurb:
A humorous cartoon predicting a king, and matching the title… the blurb made me expect a humorous rendition of an author’s journey.
My thoughts on the book:
When you read an author’s debut work, you have no expectations in terms of what you want to see, or don’t want to see. That’s not quite true when it comes to the author’s works after reading the debut. If you absolutely loved the debut, then you’d want to see the same standards met, if not exceeded. If you despised the book to the core, you would be praying for better from the author. If you ask me why take that author’s book in the first place, I’d say it’s because writers usually grow with each book, or atleast should. So you always expect better and praying for the best, take up that book to read.
I didn’t like Abhay’s first book very much. The tagline there was also having the phrase “humorous journey” in it. So this book, I was expecting some fun. It did have fun, but not in loads. Not enough to classify as “humorous journey” anyways. I think humor is a matter of perspective, so for me it didn’t work out. Doesn’t mean that for you it shouldn’t. From the onset, the chapter about Raghu, the protagonist meeting his favorite author, it was evident that it might not be my cup of tea. I for one don’t find it humorous to read the titles of books like that. I can understand some subtitles being long, and such, but this didn’t work out. Even more unbelievable was that an actress would promote the “bestseller” book. What is good about the book is that it looks at life of a full-time author, one who has quit his job to pursue his passion. That journey is certainly worth reading the book for.
Not the best book that I’ve read, but most certainly not a bore. I’d rate this higher if, if the exploration of humor was something better than references to comical incidents that were controversial, or acronyms from names etc. The characters themselves appear sad and lost, so the conversational humor at best brings a chuckle out of me. Better book compared to his first book though.
Book Details:
Title: The Paperback Badshah
Author: Abhay Nagarajan
ISBN: 9789380349961
Genre: Humor/Fiction
Publishers: Srishti
Price: INR. 150
This book was given to me for review by Srishti Publications. This is not a paid review.
The opinions expressed in the review are my own, and remain unbiased and uninfluenced.
Shared with Indian Quills at Tales Pensieve.
(Sept 9th, 2013)
A Bookworm's Musing 