BOOK REVIEW: One Enduring Lesson by Jamal Merchant

One Enduring Lesson by Jamal Merchant
Genres: Fiction

Pages: 280, Kindle Edition/Paperback
Published: July 2017, Rupa Publications
Cover Rating: 5/5

One Enduring Lesson by Jamal Merchant is a tale of reclaiming lost love. It is a tale of 27-year-old Anglo-Indian boy, Rahul, who arrives in Mumbai from London dreaming to achieve his goal of studying filmmaking. The city of dreams, Mumbai, from the start of his journey turns out to be a series of setback for him. From dark corners of streets being a professional rat-killer, finding a 9 to 5 beggar, Rahul finally settles to provide pleasure for the city’s rich women in exchange of money that is essential for his survival.

With this secret the protagonist finds love of his own and then comes the struggle of making his loved one understand the actions his life took course of. Inspired by India’s synergetic religious traditions, Rahul fights back internal and external demons to write his own destiny.

The storyline is captivating and with few pages in, will draw any reader’s attention. It is not an ordinary romance fiction even though it might seem at points but the author has surprise for you. The way the plot forms without any exceptions is thought-provoking. The narrative voice is calm and constant. I am surprised to find myself enjoying the narrative voice.

The plot is in sync with theme of one’s struggle in life, religious traditions and few norms of Indian society it touches. Even the portrayal of the protagonist’s roller coaster ride after arriving and his determination to survive in India seems realistic enough for a reader to imagine. Many books in the same genre of romance fail to achieve the level of splendid and satisfactory story-telling this book possess.

The characterisation is well developed and the growth of characters is observable as the plot moves forward. Even though the scope of the novel is 280 pages, the reader will enjoy it thoroughly as there is no flaw in that. The writing style is good and is exactly what I expect of Indian writers. Overall, the book is a page-turner and a reader will be able to finish this one in no time.

I will recommend you this book if you seek Indian flavour of writing and story-telling or are a part of romance fiction fandom.

5 out of 5!

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Note: I received this book from the author but that doesn’t mean my review is breaking any reviewing rules and I thank them for their effort with all my heart.

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