Doesn't go down well!. Review on Johnny Gone Down - Karan Bajaj

No one can miss spotting this book, for it seems to be everywhere. Piled up, fanned out, shelved, stacked this book adorns not just every bookstore, but footpaths and railway platforms as well.

My'Johnny Gone Down' came free along with a John Grisham book and out of curiosity I picked it up first to find out what all the hype is about. I was however disappointed. The story, in spite of every effort of the author to shock the readers fails to excite or amaze.

I didn't enjoy reading it at all with some ludicrous phrases like'Cambodia as as big as a whore's c., ' and some vivid descriptions of torture by the Khmer Rouge on the hero of the story who has to eat rice mixed with blood and sleep in a cell with a decaying corpse. There are many more shocking stuff dotted all over the book like a fa. offering blow. with a toothless mouth for his fix, and injecting narcotics into his eyeballs.

The hero of the story Nikhil, an Indian but with an American passport and an MIT graduate lands up in Cambodia with his friend Sam and suffers at the hands of the rebels and even looses one of his arms. He then manages to escape and travel all over the world from Thailand, where he becomes a Buddhist monk to Brazil where he becomes a druglord to America where he becomes a software programmer and finally lands up in India. He gets married to a Brazilian model as well and fathers a son.

Finally, in India he meets Sam, whom he had helped to flee Cambodia. Here he suddenly changes his name from Nikhil to Johnny while watching the movie, 'Johnny Mera Naam'. But shortly again he goes back to his former self and calls himself Nikhil or Nick. This may be symbolic but really makes no sense.

There are, however two fabulous paragraphs in the book:

-'Jesus always creates a pattern, ' he said unexpectedly.'When you are close you only see unravelled threads, but with time and distance it will reveal itself as a mosaic. Just wait and watch. Everything was meant to be exactly the way it is.'

and

-'We all make choices son. I made the wrong ones. But that's the past, let's not get there.'

Johnny Gone Down will surely be touted as a bestseller but it has no material to be one. One can give it a pass even when it is available with a 50% discount at just Rs. 50/-.