PLOT: 3.5/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5
Sense of Quiet is a quaint, emotional, and heart-touching read that totally engrosses the reader with its sensitive take on love, life, and relationships, in the backdrop of contemporary India.
The story of Milind and Diya
The plot revolves around a couple, Milind and Diya who are both doctors and have a mutual friend named Rohan. The couple is settled in Haridwar and is struggling to balance their busy and demanding careers along with the commitments of being in a marriage.
Enter Rohan with a twist
They are visited by their common medical college friend Rohan who has come to catch up with his long-time best friend Milind.
Diya does not approve of his visit as she sees Rohan as impractical and impulsive, as someone who does not have any fixed goals and worthwhile motives in life. This is the first aspect of this novel, the friendship between the two men is developed in terms of the bond that they held during their college days.
However, Rohan is going through an impending divorce and his intention of visiting Milind is to set his life back on track and to find a new direction regarding the kind of moves he should be making in the future.
A relatable premise
The plot remains thoroughly in the present and follows a unidirectional and chronological path that opens up the characters and helps readers to identify with their dilemmas, struggles, aspirations, and wishes.
First look and impressions
The book cover is rather bland and minimally done with the silhouettes of the two male characters Milind and Rohan etched in black sitting in front of the beautiful façade of Haridwar’s temples and historical monuments. The nighttime scene is akin to the black and white illustrations that make up much of the content of the novel. These are indicative of the scenes and are interspersed in no particular pattern or manner but provide some sense of pictorial elaboration to the textual material.
When things get interesting
The plot is full of twists and turns as each of the characters gets into trouble and has their dedication, fidelity, honesty, and friendship tested. For example, Milind gets into a corruption scam while Diya finds herself pregnant and yet that does little for her emotional and mental well-being. It is at this climactic point that some light is shed on Rohan. He seems to be a vagabond kind of character who goes about Haridwar making a lot of friends with the maid and rickshaw wala and even gets into a fight with someone who is a close aide to an MLA. This forms one of the climaxes of the novel.
The cyclicality of the story
The spiral nature of the plot is what holds up the entertainment quotient as things do not seem to get better as they progress and they only seem to spiral completely out of control for all three of the characters. This adds to a spiral or cyclical nature of the plot, wherein fate unfolds in a different direction for each character, which makes it difficult for them to keep connected with each other, as they each struggle to make sense of all that they are going through.
The characters
The characters are each very differently built and are given equal space to unfold. Yet, they are portrayed on the basis of their actions and the manner in which they tackle the situation at hand. They are rounded characters and not flat ones, and with each page, the reader can see the humane side that makes them struggle through the hardships in life, particularly emotional hardships. This makes the book a highly emotional read.
The writing
The pace of the narrative is rather slow. This is effective in helping characters to open up about themselves and about their emotions. The writing style is a mix of third-person omniscient narrator and dialogues between the characters. The dialogues are of moderate length and are full of passion and emotion. This makes the reader get involved in the plot and feel close to the struggles and issues of the characters.
In the end
As a work of fiction, Sense of a Quiet is a highly emotional read and the emotional turmoil in the book will combine with the simple writing style to create a lasting effect in the mind of the reader who is bound to have a fruitful reading experience, particularly so for lovers of fictional drama.
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