Book Review: Jaal
Fast-paced, to the point, and interesting
Bhavneet Singh feedback@postnoon.comThis book is the dawn of the new wave Indian writing. The book is set in an imagined world reminiscent of post Vedic India. The book defies the typical Indian style of writing and has a very complex and a multi layered style of writing.
In short, it is the story of Arihant, the protagonist of this book, who has to destroy Aushij, the Lord of Maya. The book starts off with the flashback where Aushij was tricked by Arihant’s siblings into a prison of dreams in order to save the world.
Despite being in the prison, he manages to wreck havoc on the real world and thus Arihant takes up the challenge to destroy him. The story from here is his journey on how he reaches the Lord of Maya and destroys him. The book has the potential to teleport you into another world.
Since the journey of Arihant in this book is in the dreams, sometimes the narrative becomes so confusing that it becomes hard to understand if he is dreaming or is he in the real world.
According to what Sangeeta says in her blog, Arihant has the universal appeal of the super hero who, even as he grows to fit the prophesy of his incredible destiny, never outgrows the emotional vulnerability of his humanity, his sense of perspective, and his sense of humour. Arihant appeals to the invincible spirit in all of us, for he shares with us his strength and gives us the gift of hope and dignity to face the vicissitudes of life.
But a drawback of the book is that it has a very slow start to it. This is definitely not the kind of a book you would like to read as a newbie. There are a few things that make the book stand out. The first one is Sangeeta Bahadur’s choice of words. There are many Hindi, Sanskrit and mythological terms used in the book. This works in a very positive way as it adds to the entire set-up of the story. The book scores on the visual description. The character of Arihant and his struggle demand a special mention here. The effective choice of words and strong expressions make Arihant, a character that we just cannot forget.
Apart from these things, the idea in itself is unique as the protagonist battles it out in the dreams.
Name: Jaal
Author: Sangeeta Bahadur
Pages: 460
Publisher: Pan Macmillian
Category: Books
About the Author (Author Profile)
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