Book Review #8: Summer Holidays By Koral Dasgupta

Book Name- Summer Holidays

Author- Koral Dasgupta

Publisher- Rupa Publications

Buy it from- Amazon

Blurb:

Three cities—Mumbai, Bangalore and Shimla. And a big family feud spanning over sixteen years. Summer holidays is a fairy tale for adults with a comic take on modern families, their ideals, beliefs and prejudices.

My view:

‘SummerHolidays’ by Koral Dasgupta is a light, funny and entertaining read. It’s a story about love and not a love story. I know this sounds cliché but its totally true. The story is bout different kinds of love- love between siblings, love between friends, love between a boy and a person whom he considers his mentor. It also includes love between two people. If you pick up this book thinking that it’s a love story and that you’ll be able to read/see the regular romantic scenes between a couple, then sadly you’re mistaken.

Written in simple and easy language, ‘SummerHolidays’ is mostly a story about sibling love and rivalry. As the blurb of the book already suggests Mira’s father and Rishi’s mother were siblings who were in a fight for the last 16 years due to which Mira and Rishi both had to grow up separately. Even though shy, introvert Mira was happiest when she was with her loud, extrovert cousin Rishi she had no choice but to let go of him in her childhood. However, in the modern world due to the advancement of technology and obviously facebook, both Mira and Rishi are able to connect with each other once again and they decide to live together in Mumbai where both of them were completing their respective studies.

Set in three cities- Mumbai, Bangalore and Shimla, the author has portrayed the difficult familial relationships in a simple yet elegant manner which is simply praiseworthy. It is a story about joint family and how other people in the family are affected if two people within the same family fight with each other. The writing style of the author is funny, the characters are vividly interesting and the well placed humour and wit just adds on to the list of why you should pick up the book to read. The author keeps in mind of all people, making the book simple and relatable. Koral Dasgupta shows, through her writing, that not every book should be written in hard language to make it a good book. A simple book with a simple storyline and language is just as great as a book with difficult language and plot.

Even though I have not read other works by the same author, I definitely would love to read them as this book has touched my heart and I expect to love all the other books by her. I would recommend this to all who want to a relaxing, light hearted read or someone who’s in need of a book with a humorous take on relationships.

Overall rating: 4/5