CHARACTERS: 4.5/5
WRITING STYLE: 4/5
CLIMAX: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5
It is always a pleasure to read to humour, be it in the form of a memoir or be it in the simple and ripe form of fiction.
Humour always leaves you with a happy feeling and makes you keep wanting for more.
A few days back, I luckily had the chance to read one such book, Another Face in the Crowd, which made me laugh so much that my husband became completely sure that his worst fears have come true – his wife has reached the pinnacle of insanity by hysterically laughing all over the house and for no apparent reason whatsoever.
I will credit the reason for this alleged insanity to none other than this incredulous book which has made me a life-long fan of Indraneel’s writing.
The story of Another Face in the Crowd is about three hilariously different but chaddi-buddy sort of fast friends.
Jags, a Tamil communist Brahmin who has a mostly unwelcomed opinion on almost everything, Fatso, a Punjabi dude whose entire world revolves around women and food, and Bali, a north-eastern beauty who is the hero’s love interest and has him and the two of his friends in her firm grip.
Our hero of the story who incidentally is also the narrator of its many twisted events is a simple Bengali boy with a not so simple life.
The three are just out of college and are looking at the start of their careers when the hero meets the heroine and needless to state, they fall in love.
Being the visionaries that they are – they soon decide to let go of their jobs and start a new venture. How this venture comes by and what all goes into making it a success is what the story is all about.
In between the notoriously funny humour doses, the author brilliantly sprinkles bits of emotions and philosophy, something which is very difficult to achieve in humour writing.
The characters are all too charming and will make you go weak in the knees and will please you to no end.
They will make you laugh and sometimes they will even make you cry but most of the times they will make you live and breathe with them.
The writing style of the author as already stated is quite impressive; the way he so beautifully and flawlessly connects humour and emotions together is indeed commendable.
I also liked the plot – simple and classic. No unnecessary fuss, no unwanted subplots and characters. It is these qualities that make the author one of my favourite debut authors this year.
All in all, Another Face in the Crowd is an excellent read and I recommend it to all my readers while rating it four and a half out of five stars.