by
Toffee
Blurb
Arjun is an incredibly nice guy who believes in true love and is waiting for it with open arms. He falls in love, not once or twice, but thrice. And every single time, happiness – like the girls he fell for – comes very close to him before pushing him away. His only pillar of strength in all his moments of grief and dejection is his childhood friend Anjali. Dejected by the games played by girls and fate, he leaves Hyderabad for Bangalore and ends up meeting Krish, an irresistible flirt.
Krish understands Arjun's predicament, pacifies him with his words and enlightens him about the most complicated species ever created by God – Women. And then, Arjun's life changes forever. Will Arjun find the one he has been waiting for, or will he end up becoming a flirt? Will he ever taste lasting happiness? Join Arjun as he tries to figure out women and discovers the meaning of love, lust and life… all in his journey of Finding Juliet.
My Review
If there were three different dishes on my plate, the one that I would finish off first would be, without an exception, the one I liked the least. That way I can enjoy the ones I like more, peacefully.
Why did I feel the need to give you this information, you ask? Well, because I’m going to do the same here. I’m going to give you the bad dishes (read: news) first; i.e. the parts I liked the least in the book.
So, let’s start. ‘Finding Juliet’ is an ideal length novel, with 216 pages, including the Publications and Acknowledgement sections. Normally, a novel of this length would take me around four days to finish. This one, though, took me twice as many. Now, before you jump to your own conclusions, let me give you the reason for this. I started the book on the 1st of February 2017, and by the end of the 2nd, I had given up on it and decided to return it to the author. I found the language as too casual for my taste; so much so that it was bordering on sounding cheap and derogatory to women at some places. That is not something I prefer reading, and certainly not something I enjoy. I had even chalked out a long mail to the author and ‘The Book Club’, citing the reasons why I did not want to read the novel, much less review it online. I could not, however, get down to sending that mail across, owing to one or the other preoccupations- and boy; am I glad that I didn’t!?
In the evening of the 4th, I was having dinner with my wife in one of the fancy restaurant-cum-pub, when I noticed a group of young boys and girls sitting on one of the adjoining tables and enjoying their drinks. To my surprise, the language they were using- and by ‘they’ I mean all of them, including the girls- was strikingly similar to the one used in the book. That is when it dawned on me, that this bunch of guys and girls is the very T.G. the author had in mind while penning the novel; the Y.A. or as the author himself puts it, the Gen-Y.
Needless to say, it took me a good while after reaching back home, before I could rewire my mind to go back some (read: many) years and think like the ‘Gen-Y’. I recollected all the fun stuff we used to do, when we were a part of the proverbial ‘young’ crowd. After that when I picked the book back up the next day, I was better able to relate to the mindset of the protagonist, Arjun. It was then that I realized that the language was not casual; it was the language of today. I loved the novel thereon and finished it in four days. I am writing this review on the end of the 9th.
The casual, informal tone might end up disappointing a few, it is sure to strike well with the T.G. of the book. The author has chosen to tell the story in first person, from the protagonist P.O.V.; and in most part, it tends to flow well. I, however, found the last four chapters to have been rushed. It was as if the writer got bored of his own writing and wanted to, somehow, finish the book and get done with it. The climax definitely warranted a more sincere and sensitive treatment. I wish the editor and proofreader had been a little more careful, as there were some typos and grammatical errors glaring right into your face.
Overall, ‘Finding Juliet’ is a simple, fun read and strictly meant for the youth of today. A word of advice for anybody not belonging to that age bracket; you might want to visit one of those downtown pubs before you get down to read this one. I give ‘Finding Juliet’, 4 out of 5 stars.
Disclaimer: I had received a hardcopy of the book by the author via 'The Book Club', in return of my honest and unbiased review.
Read an excerpt here from Finding Juliet...
‘I have fucked you enough. Now you can fuck off!’ I said furiously, as I pushed her away from the bed.
‘You are such an asshole!’ she said, looking angrily at me as she stood up. Her cheeks were red with anger.
I saw her as she stood naked, with her hands on her hips. She was expecting me to say something, but I didn’t. It simply doubled her anger.
‘All you guys are the same. You want women only for sex,’ she stated furiously, pointing a finger at me.
I could have refuted her point easily and proved that she was being a hypocrite, given the fact that she had a boyfriend and yet she had slept with me a few moments ago. But I didn’t bother to respond and I just looked away from her. Disgusted, she let out a deep sigh and began picking up her undergarments, which were lying on the floor and started wearing them hurriedly. She moved towards the door where her black denims and purple tee were. She wore them in an instant and fished for her comb in her handbag. She brushed her hair and then wore the earrings I had removed before kissing her ears. She took some more time to get ready, gazing at herself in the mirror and adjusting everything, and I wondered how girls gave so much importance to their looks even during moments of distress.
Eventually, before leaving, she threw me a disgusting look and said, ‘I will never see your face again.’
‘Thank you. Now get lost,’ I said as she slammed the door shut.
After she left, I pondered over what had just happened and what had been happening in my life. ‘You shouldn’t have been so harsh on her’ – a soft voice from inside my heart said. But I strangulated it in an instant. I had lost enough in my life by listening to my heart.
Just a few moments ago, I was rolling in bed with Aditi, and after we came together, she began talking to me endlessly, like most girls do after sex. I was more interested in looking at the fan on the ceiling and wondering why it was spinning anticlockwise and not clockwise.
While talking, she had grazed her finger over my shoulder and moved it slowly towards my arms and said, ‘Behind these strong muscles, there is a weak heart, yearning to be loved and dying to be cared for. You can hide your pain from the world, Arjun, but not from me.’
That was when I had pushed her from my bed and I didn’t really understand why I had reacted so strongly. Was it because I had been hiding my true face from the world successfully all the while? No one had ever tapped the underlying guy inside me, except Krish. But when Aditi said those words, I became very defensive. The last thing I wanted was someone knowing about the void inside me.
I got up, splashed water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were crimson red. And even though I was nowhere near smiling, I saw an evil grin on my face. I splashed water once again and looked at myself. The grin grew wider and scarier. ‘How had I been and what have I become?’ I asked myself. I saw the image in the mirror once again. I couldn’t look at it and smashed the mirror with my hand. Pieces of glass got stuck on my knuckles. A big piece made a deep gash, but it didn’t hurt as much as the scars on my heart did.
I then riffled through the shelves to find weed – my temporary solution to permanent problems. I rolled a joint hastily and lighted it. After a few puffs, I felt feather-light and forgot everything that had been going on in my mind. Surreal images flashed in front of my eyes, and when I closed them, I saw myself waiting at the gates of heaven, even though I was, in fact, right in front of my bathroom door.
I tried to get in as I had to pee, but I tripped and fell on my face, my forehead hitting the tap find. The thud sound was what I remembered last, and I woke up to see myself lying on a hospital bed the next morning, with Anjali standing beside me.
‘You are such an asshole!’ she said, looking angrily at me as she stood up. Her cheeks were red with anger.
I saw her as she stood naked, with her hands on her hips. She was expecting me to say something, but I didn’t. It simply doubled her anger.
‘All you guys are the same. You want women only for sex,’ she stated furiously, pointing a finger at me.
I could have refuted her point easily and proved that she was being a hypocrite, given the fact that she had a boyfriend and yet she had slept with me a few moments ago. But I didn’t bother to respond and I just looked away from her. Disgusted, she let out a deep sigh and began picking up her undergarments, which were lying on the floor and started wearing them hurriedly. She moved towards the door where her black denims and purple tee were. She wore them in an instant and fished for her comb in her handbag. She brushed her hair and then wore the earrings I had removed before kissing her ears. She took some more time to get ready, gazing at herself in the mirror and adjusting everything, and I wondered how girls gave so much importance to their looks even during moments of distress.
Eventually, before leaving, she threw me a disgusting look and said, ‘I will never see your face again.’
‘Thank you. Now get lost,’ I said as she slammed the door shut.
After she left, I pondered over what had just happened and what had been happening in my life. ‘You shouldn’t have been so harsh on her’ – a soft voice from inside my heart said. But I strangulated it in an instant. I had lost enough in my life by listening to my heart.
Just a few moments ago, I was rolling in bed with Aditi, and after we came together, she began talking to me endlessly, like most girls do after sex. I was more interested in looking at the fan on the ceiling and wondering why it was spinning anticlockwise and not clockwise.
While talking, she had grazed her finger over my shoulder and moved it slowly towards my arms and said, ‘Behind these strong muscles, there is a weak heart, yearning to be loved and dying to be cared for. You can hide your pain from the world, Arjun, but not from me.’
That was when I had pushed her from my bed and I didn’t really understand why I had reacted so strongly. Was it because I had been hiding my true face from the world successfully all the while? No one had ever tapped the underlying guy inside me, except Krish. But when Aditi said those words, I became very defensive. The last thing I wanted was someone knowing about the void inside me.
I got up, splashed water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were crimson red. And even though I was nowhere near smiling, I saw an evil grin on my face. I splashed water once again and looked at myself. The grin grew wider and scarier. ‘How had I been and what have I become?’ I asked myself. I saw the image in the mirror once again. I couldn’t look at it and smashed the mirror with my hand. Pieces of glass got stuck on my knuckles. A big piece made a deep gash, but it didn’t hurt as much as the scars on my heart did.
I then riffled through the shelves to find weed – my temporary solution to permanent problems. I rolled a joint hastily and lighted it. After a few puffs, I felt feather-light and forgot everything that had been going on in my mind. Surreal images flashed in front of my eyes, and when I closed them, I saw myself waiting at the gates of heaven, even though I was, in fact, right in front of my bathroom door.
I tried to get in as I had to pee, but I tripped and fell on my face, my forehead hitting the tap find. The thud sound was what I remembered last, and I woke up to see myself lying on a hospital bed the next morning, with Anjali standing beside me.
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About the author
Toffee is a simple guy who loves the complications of life. He used to write code by the day and books by the night earlier. But currently, he is busy writing assignments and chasing deadlines in his Master's in Business Analytics from the University of South Florida. Toffee loves narrating interesting stories with subtle insights. Through books, he wants to share beautiful stories, reach out to people and touch their hearts. Finding Juliet is his second book, written specially for India's Generation-Y.
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