Book Review #91: Johnny Gone Down By Karan Bajaj

Title: Johnny Gone Down 
Author: Karan Bajaj
Publishers: Harper Collins India
Genre: General Fiction/Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 324
Source: Personal Copy

Rarely few books keeps us engaged from page 1 till the end. Especially with the new age Indian authors, who write mostly the college romance, marriage and such similar stuff? This has become a mundane affair to see every tom, dick and harry who claim themselves as authors and writers. There is no fresh perspective whatsoever with it. 

Johnny Gone Down, by the author Karan Bajaj is nothing of that college romance as such. Though it has its fair share of college story but, it’s just at the beginning and the novel takes an entirely different route. I liked this novel. It has all those elements that a reader expects. If I may say so, it has more than what one would expect from a relatively new author.

The plot of the novel seems quite unusual from the page 1 itself. We see the protagonist in a gun duel bet, where he can lose his life in any moment. At the pull of each trigger, the protagonist imagines what transpired his life to this end. He imagines his happy days, his sorrowful days. His other opponent, a cancer patient, who is in a need of money to perform his daughter’s wedding is ready to give away his life in a snap. This gun duel is quite impressive as it helps the story to move forward. 

The readers will be in a strange quest before even starting with the initial few pages. As the title by itself is more intriguing. Why the hell this book is named Johnny and why he has gone down? The readers begins with this question in their mind. The protagonist of the novel is Nikhil Arya or Nick. Born to a wealthy NRI parents who moved out of India to settle in America. He lost both of his parents while he was young. As charming and studious as he is, expectedly Nick gets his ticket to MIT, Boston. 

Well, the story does start from his last examination day. He and his friend Sam begins their unplanned trip to Cambodia. But what awaits at Cambodia is a surprising factor. The country that is torn by the rebels uprising had made it worse for the civilians. Expectedly, the protagonist does gets stuck in Cambodia, but the fate had other plans. While Nick rescues Sam by showing his passport as his friends. And, he gets caught by the rebels and story takes it first major turn.

As one reads through the pages, more or less, the story goes on in a predictable mode. The readers could guess what might happen. The protagonist was captured and made to rot in closed jail for about two years. By somehow, he escapes from there and finds himself in a monastery in Thailand. 

In Thailand, our protagonist Nick, thought of staying for a long duration than he was anticipated initially. He learns meditation, he becomes a teacher and a monk as well. The quest continues further as we read through. Nick, now travels to Brazil to set up their meditation school. There he finds a different life altogether and he ends up being a drug lord and money launderer. He meets Marco, a drug lord, who happened to get saved by our protagonist Nick. There is a special love track in this part of the novel that might shape the future of our protagonist.

As the book progresses in each page, we feel a sense of urgency to see what is in store for Nick. From Brazil, his journey takes him back to USA. There he is homeless, cashless and even identity less. The writers can actually construct the most unbelievable events that makes no sense in real life, but still, in this novel, like any regular novel, the unthinkable happens. At the age of nearly 40, the protagonist Nick learns to code and builds an alternate virtual life game. Now here is the overdone part in this novel. How much ever the readers tries to comprehend the luck factor of Nick, it doesn’t become a convincing factor. He finds himself in the most horrid situations, but he has this extraordinary luck factor, that binds his fate in safe hands.

So, as the novel inches in for climax, we feel a sense of relief that, something good will happen to this Nick or let him die peacefully at least. Quite expectedly, he meets his childhood friend Sam, now a big tycoon of media industry. They meet and greet each other and share their whole bunch of successes, failures and stuff, like a reunion. There, our protagonist, changes his name from Nick to Johnny for a better future, but decides against it and let the JOHNNY GO DOWN!!

Overall, a good attempt with the contemporary style fiction. The story is quite unthinkable. Readers should come to terms with many events in the novel, because it happens only in fiction world. Language is simple and lucid. Can be read within few hours. Not highly recommending stuff, but yeah, you can give this book a shot. Worth it.

My Rating:
3/5

Book Review #66: The Demeter Code By Russell Brooks

Title: The Demeter Code

Author: Russell Brooks

Publishers: Self Published

ISBN: 978-0-9867513-6-3

Genre: Thriller Fiction

Pages: 366 (Epub Version)

Source: Review copy

The United States of America is under an attack. But, this time it is not the straight fight by terrorists. Rather, it is a bio-weapon attack. The entire nation was shocked to the core and the government and other intelligence agencies are trying their best to crack this case. There is CIA, NSA, FBI, etc… etc… that are too involved in the investigation of this. Sounds interesting? That’s the plot of this novel.

When I was offered to review this book by the author, being a thriller fan, I admit that I’ve made the right choice. The level of research that the author has put in through for this book is visible in the story. This is a big novel. And, there are many plots, subplots that happen across the world covering many countries from Europe, Asia and Middle East.

Ridley Fox, a former Joint Task Force 2 Warrant Officer (JTF2) has joined back up with Dr. Nita Parris on a mission that is imagined brilliantly. What is seems like a terror attack in the initial few pages, turns out to be a bigger bio-weapon attack on the whole country. The formula of the bio-weapon is what that the author is trying to break in this novel, “The Demeter Code”

As the novel picks up from its initial stage of all the introductory scenes, it gets serious as the sole purpose of Ridley Fox and Nita Parris and their hacker friend Dewan who assists them in hacking the suspected places surroundings to help them in connecting the dots. They soon will discover many things that are beyond the comprehension level. They will detain a woman called Katy Sparks from whom they get necessary information that could help them to go to the next level in their operation. In all these stages, the author has never left a clue on what leads to next. He has maintained that suspense in every page and for sure readers will be guessing what will happen next as they read through the novel.

The dynamics between Ridley, Parris and the Hacker genius Dewan was so well written that you actually feel like you are part of their conversation. One may feel like, Ridley and Parris are the main protagonists that have to be praised for their entire courageous feat. My favorite would be this Hacker Dewan, with his unflinching demeanor and timely hacking of the surrounding that actually help the protagonists carry out their operation with so much ease and comfort. Certainly, Dewan is the unsung hero of this novel. I felt, Katy Sparks’ character would’ve been extended little further.

What will happen next? Will Nita Parris and Ridley Fox able to crack down the case? Which terrorist organization is involved in declaring the bio-weapon attack on the US soil? Well, these kinds of questions will pop up in our mind as we read through. The balance between the good guys and the bad guys is maintained well. However, there are too many details for each operation that would make us wanting to skip a few pages. Certainly, the entire novel could’ve been cut short by few pages at least.

Overall a well-researched project and well executed too. The novel takes in all the facts from around the world. Author’s brilliant imagination has added life to the novel which comes as a running picture before our eyes as we read through. A brilliant novel to read and I recommend this novel to all.

Note: I received this book by the author in exchange of an honest review.

My Rating:
4.5/5

Book Review #34: And The Mountains Echoed By Khaled Hosseini

There are few authors who can be termed as true storytellers and there are few like chetan bhagat. Khaled Hosseini is a master when it comes to storytelling. He gave us, the readers, what can be called as an emotionally charged novel. Without a second thought, this is one of the finest books I've read in recent times.

And The Mountains Echoed a third novel from Hosseini, captures a typical Afghanistan family of the 1950′s followed by the Soviet’s attack in late 60′s to 70′s and the invasion of Taliban, etc..

The story beings by a fairy tale that a father (Saboor) is narrating to his kids (Abdullah and Pari) in a remote village called Shadbagh in Afghanistan. This was an everyday scene in Saboor’s family. To make the ends meet and to win daily bread and also to support his new pregnant wife (yes, the 2nd one), Saboor takes an unexpected step through selling his younger daughter Pari, to a wealthy couple in Kabul who are childless. Pari was barely 3 years old when she was sold by her father. Pari was not aware of such consequence, but her brother Abdullah who was 7 years old, was devastated by this cruel act of his father.

Everyday Abdullah gets reminded of her little sister every now and then, all those happy moment playing with her, all those little gifts that he had bought for his sister, etc.. Pari loved the birds feather like it was a diamond in possession. Abdullah carefully collected all these feathers over the years to gift her and see the joy in her little sisters face. Now, all those moments have been crushed to sands and now he is all alone in the house. Later events makes him to run to Pakistan and he starts working in a restaurant and few years later he travels to USA along with his wife and daughter Pari (Yes, he named his daughter as Pari) and starts his own Kebab restaurant.

The entire story is captured from 1950 till 2010 that spans over more than 50 years. Pari’s new parents, Nila wahdati, a poet by passion and Suleiman Wahdati an artist. Even here, there is a tragedy, Nila divorces her husband and takes Pari to France forever. Then the novel takes another turn, describing Pari’s life in France, her bonding with her new mom, her college life, etc.. But, Pari often gets a jolt sometimes that, she is missing something, like she is not born to Nila and she constantly gets reminded of a little village where she was born somewhere buried deep in her memory.

The novel has many characters and many stories that was probably unnecessary to the novel. There is one character called Nabi, the driver of Suleiman Wahdati and also maternal uncle of Pari and Abdullah, who actually sets the stage for Wahdati couple to buy his sister’s daughter Pari. Later in the novel, Nabi writes a long letter to Mr. Markos, a plastic surgeon, working in Afghanistan for over 10 years. He describes what all the things he has done, and he also mentions about Pari.

All those hardships and fights and long waits to reconcile is described in the last 2 chapters, which is a must read from the book. After all, will Pari and Abdullah meet in the end ??. Will old Abdullah be able recognize her sister old Pari ? You must read that in the book. I stop it at this point, so readers can actually go and read this novel. For sure, its an emotional roller coaster ride for both Pari and Abdullah. Hosseini has captured this very essence brilliantly and carried it throughout the novel. I assure you, you will be restless to witness the climax.

My Rating:

4/5

Book Review #22: Bankerupt By Ravi Subramanian

Thrillers, Thrillers and more thrillers. Yes, I love reading books on this genre. I find it really enthralling to read such books, which leaves me with a big sense of satisfaction of achieving or witnessing something in front of my eyes.

I should've read this much before, anyways, now I did. It didn't disappointed me. Ravi Subramanian has again mastered at his creativity by making this book "BANKERUPT" as one of the best thrillers that I have read.

As there is a saying by famous short story writer Henry Van Dyke , “Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”  Every characters of this book seems like racing against the time. It holds the readers with a firm grip that, one would not really wish to put this book for a second day reading. Expectedly, I finished this book reading in 2 sessions. You always feel that, what would happen next, who is the culprit, who is the hero, who is plotting for a coup, etc.. etc.. That's the Crux of this novel. 

This novel has everything in it. As the caption of this novel goes, "DESIRE. GREED. MURDER". The story tactfully captures all these essence and leaves the readers with much awe. 

The book has 3 tracks of story. First protagonist of the novel, Aditya Raisinghania, an investment banker at Greater Boston Global Bank (Shortly called as GB2), who has dreams to make it to league of big-wigs and believes in achieving something in any means, by hook or crook.

Another Protagonist of the story, is Cirisha Narayanan, a tenure assistant professor and a research student in social psychology at Massachusetts University of Boston (MIT), who is known for her integrity, honesty and living the life in a right way. 

The Third track of the novel is about the Gun lobbying in USA, by some hard core groups that influences many universities in doing a research programs.

Intertwined with all these stories at the right time and in right place, author has left his readers with no time to think. The plot introduces us to the various incidents of the protagonists with their ups and downs in their respective lives. Aditya's crooked plan for selling a shoe company that was under nominal profit, for a higher valuation price, by tweaking the records of that company, that showed it as running in higher profit. What he thought was a small mistake led to a bigger scam which he never expected, this incident reminds me of the famous corporate scandal that happened in India, Satyam Scandal. What can be achieved by manipulating the accounts, will certainly leads into a bigger mess later. Later incidents in the story that leads Aditya to get terminated by his company.

In another track, Cirisha Narayanan wife of Aditya, was stuck between her much anticipated academic life and her personal marriage life. The incidents at MIT, and fight between two high positioned professors who was fighting to get the highest chair of MIT, is an awesome read from the book. 

Meanwhile, the Gun lobbying in USA is an altogether different story in the book. Certain lobbyists influences and sponsors few people at MIT to get a research report on why banning Guns is not a good idea. This section of the novel feels like it is for real after witnessing several shooting incidents in past few years. 

Overall, a must read book for thriller lovers. Somehow, I was bit disappointed at some of the incidents in the novel, regular murders of someone or the other in the novel, the gay relationship of professors at MIT, the role of police is kept bare minimum, no rigorous investigation chronicles by police which was expected out of every thriller novels, etc... I felt this section of the book would've been narrated in a different way. Anyways, as a 3 books older of  Ravi Subramanian and considering myself a fan of him. I give full points to the author for bringing such a speed and engrossing novel.

My Rating: 5/5