Of Chicklit, Manpreet Singh Goni and Meenakshi Reddy Madhvan

There's no such thing as the perfect person, only idiosyncrasies that cancel out other idiosyncrasies and that too for a brief magical time that's bound to end - Meenakshi Reddy Madhvan in her new book You Are Here

Am not much into reading chicklit but picked up Meenakshi Reddy Madhvan’s much hyped first book “You Are Here” from Crosswords yesterday. Reddy is a blogger who blogs compulsively on http://thecompulsiveconfessor.blogspot.com/ and from what one hears, its her writing on the blog that got her the book contract from Penguin.
So why did I pick up the book? Well to be very honest I liked the first fifty pages of the book, that I happened to read at the bookstore. The logic being if I am to be seen around reading this book, it at least be interesting.
From what I read I could see things happening in the same way all around me. (You Are Here is a story of Arshi, a public relations professional who is seeing a journalist, till she of course breaks up with him, and all the bigger questions in life start popping up in her head. And then she meets another guy, who is confused about her or at least pretends to, when he doesn’t feel like kissing her).
Also I am a sucker for good one liners, and the first fifty pages, had some good one liners (like the one at the start.)
More than all this most first books, which come out of personal experience are not a bad read. Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone, is a very good example and so is Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram. And of course, Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things which largely chronicles her growing up years in Kerala. Bhagat has gone from bad to worse with his second and third books and Roberts and Roy haven’t gotten around to writing another book.
Ok. I think I am deviating. Back to Madhvan and her writing.
Let me give you an analogy that will best explain Madhvan’s writing. One of the best performers in the Indian Premier Leauge was Chennai Superkings player Manpreet Singh Goni. He bowled fantastically, fielded well and even batted well in crucial situations. MSD could easily back on MSG. The Indian selectors were clearly watching. And when the squad for Asia cup was announced Goni was a part of the team. He played two matches in Asia Cup and in both the matches his bowling was insipid and dull to say the least. The point I am trying to make is that it is one thing bowling four quality overs in a twenty twenty match and totally another trying to bowl ten goods overs in a one day international. And forget playing test cricket.
Similarly writing a 500 word blog which the world reads and goes gaga over is one skill and writing a two fifty page book which has 100,000 words is totally another thing all together. Writing blogs is like twenty twenty cricket. Writing a novel, is at least like playing a 50 over one day international, if not like playing a test match.
So the writing for the first fifty pages (the portion I was able to read at the bookstore and that made me buy the book) is interesting. After that the book becomes boring and the writing pretty mediocre. Her lucid style of writing on the blog is clearly not visible in much of the book.
And that brings me to my learning from the whole issue. I have been pondering on writing a book for sometime (you know if what Reddy has to write can make for a story, I surely have more profound experiences in life). Having read this book, I have come to the conclusion that its one thing writing 500 word blogs and 800 word newspaper articles (which I write for a living) and its totally another thing writing a 100,000 word book. I am not ready for it as yet………..