R. Somasundarathin Kadhal Kadhai (R.சோமசுந்தரத்தின் காதல் கதை) – Book Review
R.சோமசுந்தரத்தின் காதல் கதை (The Love Story of R. Somasundar) by Don Ashok
A few days ago I was interested to try the Twitter Spaces and participated in one called “Books you would recommend others to read”. There were many speakers and I too listed some of my favourite ones and that’s when one gentleman mentioned a Tamil novel called “An R.S.S Love Story”. I was confused and intrigued by the title when he chuckled and said “Don’t go by the title”. I questioned him further to understand what he meant and he said “Please read the novel, its a short one and it’s not what the title might suggest”. He added that it is a novel that one can consider if they are starting to read Tamil books. I have read a few so far, so I decided to try it for two reasons – It was a short read, so I can finish it soon and go to my next book as planned and it was supposed to be humorous.
Publisher: Amazon (Kindle)
The novel is currently available only in the Kindle format and is about 42 pages “print length”. The book is written in a first person narrative and set in the city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. In the first two chapters the author sets the milieu and introduces us to some of the main characters who travel throughout the story. The story that goes from a character that doesn’t consider itself of any great value to one that is made to face some harsh blows in life. But all this narrated with loads of tempered humour. The humour is not Wodehouse like, where it is common sight to see people break into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, but the one that makes you want to laugh out loud but realising the scenario you let out a chuckle and move on. The writing is also full of references that take a dig or two at Politics, Cinema, Religion, etc.. The whole Cinema hall to Police station incident is a laugh riot with an amazing wink the social justice ideology. The other characters surrounding the protagonist too are not “cardboard-ish” and come with different flavour. The writing is not all humour and political and the testament to this is the short sensuous portion that is deftly handled by the author. The story moves in a fast pace, often jumping a couple of months to continue the arc. The short format of the novel feels a liability for the writing has potential to engage the reader for many more pages. But in a group conversation with the author in Clubhouse he mentioned that this was written for Amazon for a competition with a word limit. The kind of humour (Black?) is not easy to write and I was totally immersed while reading this novel. Though packaged as a humorous read, the novel does make you think, troubles you a bit, makes you question certain beliefs and practices in the society. It also made me think why does that one uncle always appear only funerals, but he rings the bell and comes in to ask a different question in the last page of the novel. I will encourage you to read the novel to find out the question lingering in mind.
I loved the writing and my only grouse is that the novel was a very short read. I would love to read more of this author’s novels.
Jai.. Scribbling away to Glory.....! 