These days a lot of books that I read seem to be an extended form of a short story. What would have worked excellently in a short story – with a tight hold on the plot, gets lost in the lengthy descriptions of the parts that are not so relevant from story’s point of view? This book Where the Rainbow Ends came to me for review.
I picked it up when I was in a mood for some light reading. And I was not disappointed. It is the story of a man with a young daughter whose girlfriend goes missing. And he suspects his ex-wife to have a hand in it. The rest of the story unfolds the truth that I am not going to reveal. But it takes you through the entire life of the protagonist. What he was, what drives him at different points in time in life, what he had, what he lost and what he is today. There is a nice re-creation of the college time friendships and relationships. And of the days of early career when the world seems to belong to you. And of course, the life when realities come your way.
It somewhere highlights the class divide but in a very subtle way. In the end, all is well and you can go home happily – yes I say go home because I can see the plot of a mystery movie in this book.
It is a beautiful story that has been very well presented, that reveals layer by layer as if you are opening a secret box. There are enough surprises and punches packed to keep the reader not only curious but also engrossed. What I loved about this story was the writer’s style of writing. A style that makes the point in a very entertaining yet impactful way. A style that shows his natural knack for storytelling and a style that is not very common in the contemporary authors. The plot is also intriguing, twists and turns come through the styling of the storytelling.
Where I got impatient was when the author goes into the past to set the context for his current hypothesis. And then ends up filling more than half the pages writing things that are nice to read. But are not really relevant to the story or the plot. He could have pruned it to the minimum. And kept the story very crisp. All the while, when I was reading those 80-90 pages, I wanted to skip to the present. At the very least I wanted some clue in those pages that would provide some keys for the present situation but there were none. In the end, I felt all these were written to fill the pages and convert a novella into a novel.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book Where the Rainbow Ends and would not mind reading other books by the author.
Fun, light read.
You may buy this book – Where the Rainbow Ends by Anurag Anand at Amazon.
