This is a short and sweet easy reading book by Vrushali Telang.
It’s about childhood sweethearts Jimmy Cooper and Mehro Nasarwanji who are trying to cope with adulthood.
Both Jimmy and Mehroo are in their early to mid-twenties, but they still behave like irresponsible teenagers.
Jimmy is 25, and spends all his time daydreaming about life as a movie star while doing precious little to achieve his dreams.
Mehroo is 23 and does a little glass painting to make some money. The majority of her time though is spent reading Pizzazz – a Cosmopolitan style magazine with tips on getting your man. She is madly in love with the handsome Jimmy Cooper and is willing to do anything it takes to marry him.
Do these two grow up and get their happy ending with each other?
My Review:
This book is fun and enjoyable. The two main characters – Jimmy and Mehroo start out really blah, I mean really, really blah, but the secondary characters and the setting are very enjoyable. I loved all those sections where Jimmy’s and Mehroo’s fathers crib about the failings of their children. I loved the environment of all the elderly Parsees doing their early morning walks, and the fun neighborhood gossip. Vrushali Telang has really captured the atmosphere correctly in this book.
How do I know this? Well, in the dim and distant past eons ago, I lived in a very similar setup in then Bombay now Mumbai. Reading this book reminded me of those good times in Jam-e-Jamshed Road in Parsee colony where I grew up knowing so many very similar Parsee uncles and aunties. So, yes, Vrushali Telang won me over with the very authentic atmosphere itself.
But what about the story?
I liked the story very much. It isn’t memorable or anything like that, but it’s nice, very well written, and quite different from other books in this chick-lit genre. In fact, it’s so very different that I would categorize it more loosely as New Adult (the hot new book genre for 20-somethings) than chick-lit.
This is because the focus is on both the characters and their growing pains equally.
I was quite contemptuous of Mehroo and Jimmy at the start of the novel. They are so very unlikable. Mehroo is a total door-mat and Jimmy is the stereotypical user boyfriend.
However, the progression of the story is really interesting. Both Jimmy and Mehroo learn some hard lessons and develop a backbone.
I was surprised to find myself very invested in Jimmy’s coming-of-age story. I really liked how he had to rework his ideas and ambitions and finally manages to make his life in a totally unexpected way. Mehroo’s story too is nice, but I was a little taken aback at the sudden change in her character and lifestyle. Possibly because a lot of her story takes place in the background, her story moves forward very abruptly, and in a not-very believable way.
But that’s the only gripe I have against this book. Overall, it’s a pleasant, quick read (I was done in 2 hours), well-written and unexpected for such a genre book.
Highly recommend!
Thanks to Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.
