Genres: Fiction
Pages: 284, Paperback
Published: 2015 by Niyogi Books
Cover Rating: 5/5
Kochery Shibu’s debut novel Men and Dreams In the Dhauladhar is a mesmerising tale. Set in the lesser Himalayan Ranges around the peaks in Dhauladhar, this book is a perfect companion on a wintry night to get cozy.
The plot majorly revolves around the lives of three individuals who in return somehow get intertwine with each their. It starts at a hydro power project in Himalayas where an engineer running from his past, after losing almost all of his family. Another individual, a Kashmiri boy displaced in his youth from his family, gets involve in terrorism and some how lands working as a labour at the Dam construction site. Lastly, a doctor with passion for classical dancing arrives at the construction site through the medium of love. Each of their story involves drama, passion, skeletons in their closet and extraordinary hardships and struggles of their lives. Like an eternal spectator, the Dhauladhar peaks watches as these beings risk their lives to full fill their dreams.
The storyline is somewhat different, unique in its own wa and in terms of contemporary fiction. It is smooth, using the element of third person narrative. There is flip of narration as it changes almost every chapter but in the end, the author does combine to drive the forward story. As a reader, I realise how important the role of this multiple narrative format in not only driving the plot forward, but keeping things interesting for the reader as well as development of characters. It touches various themes such as love, tragedy, and monologue of multiple protagonists. Use of local and regional dialects makes the dialogue formation more interesting and a proper translation is given for the reader to understand the context better.
The characterisation contains multiple characters. Most of them are like satellites that revolve around our main protagonists. The characterisation is well organised as the characters are developed through out the story with a steady pace. As a reader, I did enjoy this part very much. Rare to be seen such an element used by modern day Indian writers. Another impressing thing is the fragments of scenic places and in-depth knowledge of a dam construction site are taken by the author from his own experience. Though some readers might argue that there too much in-depth context provided and I agree with that but I also understand that the author likes to put touches from his own reality. The writing style is mature, carried with grace and engaging. There are traces of thrill in between the subplots, another enjoyable moment for a reader. The climax is good, a bit too late in my opinion.
If you like to read a contemporary Indian novel, this one is for you.
4 out of 5!
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