18 Aug 2017

#284 Book Review

The Highway Man


Author: J Alchem

Genre: Fiction

Format: Kindle Edition

File Size: 1708KB

Star: 4.2/5 (Self)

Review: It’s a collection of three short stories with title, “Catherine”, “Sidzy; for a day”, “The highway man”.

Catherine is the story of a 62-year-old physician Dr.Rusenvelt who once gets a call from Nicholas Will, the father of bestselling author of Genre-Romance; Nicholas Sieum. He decides to meet him and comes to know about the shocking obsession of the author with one of the lead roles of his novel, Catherine. The story revolves around the measures adopted by Dr. Rusenvelt to help Nicholas Sieum to get rid of his obsession but ends on a pessimistic note!

Sidzy; for a day is a love story of a married couple Jihan and Sidzy. The plot revolves around the decision of Jihan to play the role of Sidzy on an occasion of International Woman’s Day to express his gratitude.

The Highway Man’s plot contains the main character as Rohan, an employee of an MNC and his 7-year-old-son Ayaan.  His girl-friend-turned-wife Sunaina has been dead for about a year now in a severe road accident and it has affected his life in the most drastic way. One day he decides to visit Agra with his son and on their way to Agra ,he is requested for a lift by a stranger on Delhi-Agra Highway. The stranger who introduces himself as Jihan Zahir describes the similar situation of losing his family in a road accident. He accompanies their loneliness and boredom throughout their journey through his silly jokes and departs at the end of the journey. After few months, they come to know about the main culprit of the accident featured in the newspaper, Jihan Zahir, who used to ask for lifts, irritates the passengers and changed their lives due to which he’s regarded as The Highway Man.    

My experience- First of all, the cover of the book is very well designed. I would like to contradict the famous quotation, “Don’t judge the book by its cover” as the illustration on the cover lends some impact on the choice of the book. I’m sure its brilliant design might have certainly attracted readers. I was also impressed by the unique presentation of acknowledgement in which the author regards himself as the mother of his babies; creations. This certainly adds an extra touch for his words. I expected it to be a novel but it’s not. Among the stories, my favourite is Catherine and I expected it to never end.
I like the narration and the simple yet lucid way of formation of sentences which glues the readers to it. The humours side of the author comes to limelight through his #kuchhbhi jokes. I was kept under the emotion of suspense for first story.  It’s difficult to guess why the author has chosen the title of the book based on the title of the last story. It would have been better had the last story been elucidated as the main story of the novel.

Overall, it’s an entertaining book to be read.

©Swati Sarangi

18.08.2017

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