Hi Chetan
I don't write book reviews but you are special as One night at the Call Center was the first book that I finished in one day. Before that I always thought books were supposed to be read over a complete year.
I am going to compare The 3 Mistakes of My Life with the earlier books of yours (Five Point Someone and One Night at the Call Center) on three parameters.
Comic Sense: Chetan I like you for your style of writing, the way you make those sarcastic comments on everything in life. 3MOML is nothing in comparison to FPS or ONACC, I still use dialogs of Bakshi at my workplace (believe me) or FPS's while with my classmates. 3MOML has no such lines and for the first half of the book I hardly found anything amusing, while last two books were hilarious especially the first half.
Understanding of Girls: Chetan I feel you did not express relationship with girls properly in the first two books. I mean somehow all the stories with girls seemed superficial to read. In 3MOML you have expressed it really well. Not only it feels far more real also, you are at your funny best when writing about the relationship with a girl.
Climax of the story: In ONACC the climax was too much over the top and FPS ends just like that. 3MOML you have penned the best climax according to your own standards. The story is stronger than the other two and you have complemented it really well with a fine ending.
Overall it seems you have worked on your weak areas but you have compromised a lot on your style of writing. This book is not Chetan Bhagat funny and that is a big let down. Somehow I feel that you are more interested in writing movie stories than books. You wrote FPS just as a book and that's why it is your best work till date. In ONACC you were clearly writing a movie story and went too much overboard, still the book was really funny. In 3MOML you are clearly worried about writing a better movie story and you succeed at that but, somewhere I missed my favourite writer.
Tarun Chandel
A fan of your funny style of writing!
Search iThink... (Tarun Chandel's thoughts)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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10 comments:
Tarun, you find Chetan Bhagat Funny? Calvin and Hobbes is by far funnier. And you can read a single strip in one hour. Or if you want a small, one day , sacastic (cynical)sort of book, try "Catcher in the Rye" , by J.D Salinger.
Understanding of Girls- You can pardon him for that. Who could claim to have understood girls and still lived to tell the tale!!
--> Gaurav: Chetan Bhagat was funny in his first 1.5 books but then he lost it. If I have to say in the words of Bakshi, "he is focusing on the big picture; may be has identified the strategic variables."
Hey good one about the girls, wisdom I guess :)
Of the three books i have only read first two... And as you said FPS is the Best, while ONACC went over my head.. i only finished it because chetan bhagat has written it.
After reading your review i am not sure if i will bother reading it..
Even if to just draw people to good substantial reading... you will make me write a blog on books now!!!!! :)
last part - i think he has deliberately exaggerated the whole thing!! methinks, he thinks, this will also become a movie!!
Hi tarun,
Commenting here after along time...
Chetan bhagat writes good... but his standards are falling.. FPS was the best... the other two just above average and average respectively...
I like his style, simple, sarcastic and none of those bombastic words...
As long he can keep to that .. he can sell any crap he dishes out...
And the latest one is surely...a semi crap...
--> Amit: if you have extra time ...
--> Manjari: I noticed the list of books on your blog. I have read only 3 or 4 of them.
--> Moksh: It is a movie material, I agree.
--> Falcon: good to see you around :)
I agree even I missed my fav writer...
Well... A good review or should I say comparison. Frankly, I found Chetan Bhagat a touch boring and repetitive in his second book. While FPS was refreshingly different, he has failed to evolve into a better one with ONACC, and I'm not so sure about 3MOML. Might read it to kill time... but will definitely not but it.
Call me a demanding reader if you must, but I like to see an author evolve into a better one with each passing book. A good plot is not enough for me.
ONACC, overdid in the end with the "God calling" funda.
--> Rahul: You can read his FPS again ;)
--> Sam: Fiction :)
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