Sultry? Its only the name. Review on Sultry Days - Shobha De

One of the few books I had to struggle hard to complete. I have read De's earlier titles - Snapshots and Speed Post and found them decent enough to spend a weekend with and so went on to buy an original copy of'Sultry Days'. But it just proved to be a trap, a conspiracy to destroy my weekend MISERABLY. There are only two things that are truely sultry about the book - the coverpage flashing the photo of a trendy and gutsy-looking foreigner and the summary, which seems to be the main culprit behind whatever sale the book has made. The books is a sheer waste and seems to be written only to make a show-off of the so called'high-life' the lead protagonist(or the author, I am confused) lives. At no point in the book was the author able to even remotely connect to the reader and there was nothing absolutely no thing you can relate to and feel you are reading something worldly(Perhaps, this is what I call the Baap of all fictions).

Ok, so the story starts with a college going girl, Nisha, describing her average and not-so-cool lifestyle(however, her thoughts and actions nowhere testify that). She is infatuated by an unconventional guy strangely called GOD(i cant figure out why this name) who is shown to be poor - poor in social status, poor in looks, poor in personal hygiene, poor in his attitude and poor in his shallow view of the world. Still he has got the charisma that attracts people towards him and one of them is Nisha. Till this point, the book was readable but as it progressed over to give insights of the relationship shared by these two people, it went on becoming cosmetic. The characters morphed themselves with each chapter to an extent that you can never form their mental image, which sort of helps in connecting with the author's idea. The story progresses with the two trying to install themselves in their respective careers and the author's introducing of new characters every now and then without actually establishing as to where they touch the main story(that of Nisha and God). There were a good number of pages that were absolutely redundant and verbose - like describing just how some collegue of the protagonist dresses herself, giving minute details of what lipstic she wears and what's her husband's take on the African Lion. At times this became horribly boring. Alongside the description of many unconnected incidences, the story ends giving a brief on the final stage of Nisha and God's relationship. This is the time when you feel the grief of your money wasted on the book and also relaxed that finally its over.

To summarize it all, the least I could say is that its a literal torcher and a sheer waste of time. DO NOT READ IT.