I earlier had this ambitious goal of reading at least 12 new authors every year - one for every month. But my in-disciplined self made it close to impossible to achieve that goal. This is my effort at pushing the person inside me into reading one book every month, even if from the same author. Starting September, I hope to post a book review of the book(s) I read every month!! Hope my reviews help you decide whether or not you should read the book I've read :)
Details of Kamala’s life, the courage and dignity with which she walked out of her past to start an independent life in a city whose roads she had never before crossed gave her character a lot of the reader’s respect. Her affection towards her son, him being the only person for whom she fought without a second thought replaced the image of a docile simple woman with that of a self-respecting, intolerant mother. On the other hand, Anand’s difficult relationship with his father in law Harry, indifference towards his wife and finally the confrontation with both shows how small victories are indeed bigger than we might think. Both Kamala and Anand are shown to be fighters, respecting life as it comes but knowing where to draw the line.
The story rose to great heights in the second part of the book but fell flat towards the end. I loved reading the minute details of Kamala’s routine life and Anand’s feelings towards Kavika who was left as a mystery in the book. Anand’s relationship with his daughter and the absence of formality in their interactions is refreshing. Narayan’s sincerity with his mother, his own natural dislike for anybody who mistreats her and his hope of earning more money by relentlessly selling magazines at the traffic signal make his character lovable. In the end, Kamala’s pain on having to separate from her son is something the reader can easily understand... This is the beauty of the little details sprinkled by Sankaran throughout the book. All in all, it is indeed a simple story that has been narrated elaborately with a beautiful insight into the intrinsic qualities of the characters it portrays.
Worth my time??
Book Review: The Hope Factory by Lavanya Sankaran
About the author:
Lavanya Sankaran is a contemporary Indian writer based in Bangalore. Her first book, ‘The Red Carpet’ was a collection of short stories, released in 2006. The Red Carpet was amongst the top bestsellers for two years and made Lavanya the largest selling Indian author published by Hachette. The Hope Factory is her debut novel and has already been selected by Amazon UK as a Top Pick. Sankaran has also written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
The cover:
The cover:
Showcasing modern India in a royal combination of yellow and purple, the cover gave me the impression that this was a book written with positivity and full of life. I was looking forward to a light read, nothing too intense and this seemed like a good choice.
The blurb:
The blurb:
The blurb gave an impression that this was probably a simple story, well told. To see that two different worlds are woven in one story got me excited about reading the book soon. It also replaced my expectations from the cover of the book with new expectations of finding characters that might be flawed, unhappy and real.
My thoughts on the book:
My thoughts on the book:
To be honest, the book was very different from my expectations. It wasn’t light but it wasn’t too intense either. The two protagonists, Kamala and Anand were mostly covered in alternating individual chapters… and maybe this is the reason why at some places I wished I could skip a chapter and go to the next.
Details of Kamala’s life, the courage and dignity with which she walked out of her past to start an independent life in a city whose roads she had never before crossed gave her character a lot of the reader’s respect. Her affection towards her son, him being the only person for whom she fought without a second thought replaced the image of a docile simple woman with that of a self-respecting, intolerant mother. On the other hand, Anand’s difficult relationship with his father in law Harry, indifference towards his wife and finally the confrontation with both shows how small victories are indeed bigger than we might think. Both Kamala and Anand are shown to be fighters, respecting life as it comes but knowing where to draw the line. The story rose to great heights in the second part of the book but fell flat towards the end. I loved reading the minute details of Kamala’s routine life and Anand’s feelings towards Kavika who was left as a mystery in the book. Anand’s relationship with his daughter and the absence of formality in their interactions is refreshing. Narayan’s sincerity with his mother, his own natural dislike for anybody who mistreats her and his hope of earning more money by relentlessly selling magazines at the traffic signal make his character lovable. In the end, Kamala’s pain on having to separate from her son is something the reader can easily understand... This is the beauty of the little details sprinkled by Sankaran throughout the book. All in all, it is indeed a simple story that has been narrated elaborately with a beautiful insight into the intrinsic qualities of the characters it portrays.
Worth my time??
Hmm... MAYBE. I would not lose much had I not read this book.
Rating:
Rating:
Timepass
Book details:
Book details:
Title: The Hope Factory
Author: Lavanya Sankaran
Genre: Fiction/Drama
ISBN-10: 0385338198
ISBN-13: 978-0385338196
Publishers: The Dial Press
Price: $18.00
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