BOOK REVIEW OF ‘WHEN LOVE HAPPENS’ BY MANISH KUMAR

Book Title: When Love Happens

Author: Manish Kumar

Total Number of Pages: 152

Publisher: Srishti Publishers

Publication Date: 1 November 2017

Format: Paperback

Language: English

Genre: Fiction / Romance

BLURB

True love never dies. It is redefined every time you feel it. When Nish falls in love, little does he know the impact it is going to have on his life. Hailing from conservative backgrounds, love is nothing less than war with the world for the lover and his beloved. Albeit limited communication, they still dare to dream of a life together. But with the pressure of attaining stability in life, he finds it impossible to chase his dreams endlessly. An unassuming man from a modest background, he fights helplessness and challenges thrown at him by life, only to learn precious life lessons. His faith in God gives him the strength to move on and find his calling in writing and poetry. When Love Happens… is a tale of shattered dreams and redemption, of fear and fortitude and above all, of the indomitable human will.

REVIEWED BY SOHINEE DEY

This year, I have read so many college romances and “from friends to lovers” story that I was a bit sceptical when I read the blurb because it seemed somewhat similar to the above to categories and I didn’t want to put a same label on this book.

When Love Happens is a coming of age novel and has a childhood friend romance as the main theme. The story mainly revolves around the male protagonist’s life. The book is a first person narrative of Nish, the male protagonist. His complete life is narrated, from a kid to growing up into an adult and experiencing life and it’s failures. The author hasn’t given a name to the female protagonist. I only got to know her as G.

Like most small town people, Nish too holds big dreams and wants to be a successful man. Nish and G had been friends since they were little kids and over the course of time, Nish develops feelings for G. When his childhood sweetheart says that she doesn’t feel the same way for him, Nish is crestfallen. But later on, G does admit to have feelings for him even though she had been giving him the cold shoulder and never really welcomed his advances. But it was only to keep him away because G comes from a conservative family and she is afraid that their parents won’t be happy with the match. G doesn’t reciprocate Nish’s feelings as strongly as he does which leaves Nish hanging on to a one-sided relationship.

Nish dreams of getting into IIT and that he does. Later on he also gets a good job offer at his preferred state. As soon as he steps out of his home, we see him succeeding and gradually he puts thoughts of G at the back of his mind. He does turn into a pessimistic self from time to time, questioning God why everything bad only happens to him but he also does pull himself together to face life.

The story while being fictitious, the author says that he has penned it from his real life experiences. So, I believe some of the incidences mentioned in the storyline actually happened in real life or the whole story is a true to life event. Whatever it is, I am going to think of it as fiction.

Talking of the plot, it’s a very simple one yet relatable. As for the characters, Nish receives most of the time in spotlight and G doesn’t shine equally. She was there in the beginning but then she faded out by the end of the story. There are some supporting characters but the plot mostly focuses on Nish. So, his character is the most developed out of all of them.

I liked the narration of the book. Unlike many other first person narratives, here, the author has managed to minimise the use of “I” and the sentences were structured well. But, I wanted to read more of the dialogues which were present only in a minimum number. For this, at times, I felt I was reading a memoir rather than a fiction book. The writing style was also really good. The only thing is I would have loved if the author also focused on the supporting characters other than Nish. Also, would have loved to read more of G’s side of the story. Considering the plot, the cover could have been better.

I did know that this book would have a simple story of a boy growing up into a man and all his life experiences. I was hoping that it would be a little edgy, there would be some risquè factors involved, but there isn’t much of those. Still the story sure is realistic and very much depicts the real life of a person.

MY FINAL VERDICT

The story is a simple, almost innocent of a love story. Since, I am not much into the simplistic love stories, I can’t say that this was my favourite, it was a bit on the plain side for my liking. But this book certainly isn’t a bad one. If you do like books with a simple stories, then for sure, go for this.

RATINGS :

Book Cover : ⭐⭐.8

Book Title: ⭐⭐⭐

Theme: ⭐⭐⭐

Plotline: ⭐⭐⭐

Characters: ⭐⭐⭐

Narration: ⭐⭐⭐.5

Writing Style: ⭐⭐⭐

Language and Vocabulary: ⭐⭐⭐

Grammar and Punctuation: ⭐⭐⭐.8

POESY IN CHRYSALIS RATING: ⭐⭐⭐ / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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