The Sun Shines Down - Sankha Ghosh
What do you do when
you run into a book that is both excellent and yet leaves you dissatisfied? A
book that touches all the right spots right from page 1, and yet leaves you
searching for more; A book that is fascinating, fast paced and thrilling… but yet
leaves you with a kaash feeling; A
book that is full of myriad sub-plots, and yet leaves you feeling that more was
needed? How do you rate it, and more to the point – what words do you find for
its review?
THE BOOK
The book is
supposed to be a political thriller {note my use of words, please} – and I
concede that it does have a political background; so in that sense, I suppose
it is a political thriller of sorts. It opens with a Corruption Scene, A Crime
and a Chief Minister and closes with an Intelligence Agent {two of them, in
fact}. So, I suppose, yes – it is political plot-based and it is a thriller –
and of this there is actually no doubt at all. This is the story of, in a
nutshell, the rise of a young educated lady to the position of Chief Minister.
Or is it?
Well – no; not
really. It is also, in equal measure {if
not more}, a story of Organised Crime, Corruption, and Espionage. {Wow, what an
imagination! Who would have thought Crime, Corruption and the rest of the
points are connected, isnt it? Earth is such a utopian clean transparent
society J}. I don’t mean this previous line as a derogatory
observation; quite the reverse, in fact. Check the analysis section, please.
Anyway, these are the 3 distinct storylines that are involved in this
fascinating plot – the story of how these 4 distinct stories come together to propel
a Lady to the position of Chief Minister. This is the story of the intersection
of these 4 that leads to both good tidings and havoc…
THE ANALYSIS
First, the story.
The Chief Ministerial candidate sets about planning for the election campaign, and
is approached by a PR Firm {Enter Corporate India! Boy, I missed you guys in the plot outline above… how
can your 4 brothers be present, and you not be present?}. This snowballs into
events, or this brings events to a head – and propels things to a rapid climax,
as the corrupt, dependent on political patronage; the criminals, ditto – are left high and dry. There
isnt a thing wrong in the plot – it is a flawless plot, and is fascinatingly
complex. {Espionage –no mention in my review. And, I aint telling either. Read
the book!}
The flaw lies in
the execution – I shouldn’t be saying flaw, really; for the end product is very
good. But it could have been better than it was. The only 2 points that were
ignored were character development &detailing / filling in the story– {again,
note my choice of words… ignored is different from weakness or forgetting a
point in writing a story}. The author could have made a superb complex thriller
novel had these been attended to.
Proper detailed
character plots including good background development would have filled out the
characters much better. And, instead of hitting the highpoints of events, a
more comprehensive details storyline of how the events played out in detail should
have been there, rather than jumping to conclusions and hitting the highlights.
A good chase, the complexities of a hunt, the unraveling of the plot, the precision
detail in the execution of the plan by all players are among the things I
missed. This would have fleshed out the book, increased its pull, making it more satisfying, in place of the short version we have here.
The rest is
flawless – fast paced racy story progression which makes for easy rapid reading,
with prose to match – simple, easy to comprehend language, devoid of vulgarity
for the most part. This absence of vulgarity is a rare trait in today’s breed of thriller
authors, worldwide. There is actually no need of adult scenes or vulgarity in
novels, they – all of them in all novels, bar none, actually destroy the flow
of the story. This is a suggestion –the one small scene in this novel could
have been deleted, doesn’t add anything to the story. Any novel, any story. All
in all, a good one time read, 4stars .
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