“The Best Seller” by Arunabha Sengupta is one of the most interesting novels I have read recently. This is the story of a writer struggling to become a successful author.
Sandeep – the protagonist, is more than just a struggling author. He is also a tai chi expert, an investigative journalist, a ghost blogger, and a voracious reader. He also knows karate, has excellent knowledge of world cinema, and can talk about anything on the earth – science, history, mathematics, literature, or Bhagavad Gita. He is basically a proper multi-faceted person like the author of the novel.
The 681 pages of the exciting novel are about the struggle of our protagonist writer to become a successful author and his interactions with the other colorful characters. There are interesting and unique characters, such as the protagonist’s Dutch friend, the respectful professor in Kolkata, and the psychiatrist. Many other characters are similar to those with whom we interact in the typical corporate scenario in the contemporary world.
I would like to mention a particular character equally interesting as Sandeep. That is Shruti – a lovely and pleasant personality. The interactions between Sandeep and Shruti throughout the novel are poetic. I wouldn’t want to divulge the story in the name of a review. Let me just quote a few lines from a chapter where Shruti and Sandeep interact. This is just to give you an idea of how enjoyable the interactions between these two characters are throughout the novel.
Now the excerpt:
“Don’t you think births and rebirths will make the conversation too labored?”
“This is becoming too painful to bear.”
“I was not expecting that.”
“I guess there will be pregnant silence from now on till you deliver your story”
Many authors and poets of India have imagined and depicted Lord Krishna as a lover, son, king, guru, and even a servant. However, I wonder if anybody has portrayed him as a modern-day consultant. No one would have thought that his ideas, which are believed to be 5000 years old, could be used by consultants for the modern-day economic crisis. There are many novel ideas and unique thoughts throughout the book. Interesting right?
The novel is purely contemporary, meaning rather than merely having paragraphs and paragraphs of content, it’s written differently – it has sms messages, blog posts, Twitter messages, and emails along with the typical content. In his previous book, “Big Apple Two Bites” the author used a unique technique of referring to the protagonist in the second person. In this novel, he uses all the contemporary methods to represent the content of his book. It’s really innovative and interesting.
The novel deals with various dimensions – how the writers struggle to publish their work, how the books are being reviewed by people without reading the books, how the publishers reject the authors’ work without even going through the manuscript, the rat race in the corporate world, how the people in the corporate world are ready to do anything for their own sake, love, infatuation, Gita, Upanishads, the thought process and behavior of typical consultant, tai chi training…….it’s endless!
The humor and sarcasm throughout the book make it more interesting to read this long novel. Overall, it’s excellent work by Arunabha once again. I am looking forward to his next book.