Book Review, Circle of Three, By - Rohit Gore

My Impression, three-point-five star book.

Circle of Three is the story of three people who have lost all hope in life. One day, their paths cross and their destinies are forever changed.

Thirteen year old Aryan Khosla has no friends, rarely meets his busy and quarrelling parents, and is tormented by a gang of school bullies.

Thirty-three year old Ria Marathe, a successful scriptwriter, lost her husband and only son in a terrible accident, and later came to know her childhood sweetheart husband was cheating on her for a long time. 

Sixty-three year old Rana Rathod, a long forgotten author, has carelessly lived off the trust created by his wealthy family and feels betrayed by his two children who sided with his wife during their brutal divorce thirty years back.

Will Aryan lose his childhood to his loneliness? Will Ria lose her life to her tragedy? Will Rana lose his dignity to his past sins?

The author has put down a simple and honest tale, which is very readable. If that is what Rohit set out to achieve, he has done an excellent job. As I took the book in, I was drawn to reminiscence the simple writing style of RK Narayan, it was almost like reading a RKN book, except that the settings and characters were very urban. Overall the book is an excellent read.

The greatest victory of this book in the story itself, well managed, with a few characters and the weave of their lives. Rohit has kept the characters true, throughout the narrative, which means that the behavior and the reactions of the characters are preserved and logical all through the book, not easy to do, since a lot of books tend to create characters that diverge from their own integral nature, as the events unfold. The story is full of hope that the reader is promised, and, awaits. The characters themselves are conceived as unhappy, living through a life that is slowly pushing them towards the promised rays of hope, and, a resurrection from their sorrow. The reader too is left with this feeling of hope through out the narrative.

Rohit's writing is excellent. However, if there is one downside, it is that the writing is a bit long winded, and, a bit hackneyed as far as the use of phrases are concerned. I thought that the book could have been lighter by about twenty percent and that the author could have steered away from overused and common place phraseology. His writing seems to thrive in simple and short sentences. In a few places he probably attempts to diverge from that simple style and somehow that jarrs.

Overall a wonderful book! Pick it up and read an Indian author who deviates from the formula of campus life, corporate life, fictional mythology etc. You will see, that largely, he wins.