Book Review: Hottest Summer Night

Indians especially are romantics. We have always heartily welcomed the blooming love and also shed tears for the dooming love. Be it the light-hearted 2 states or the heavy-souled Devdas – we have gleefully gasped them all. And, then, overdosed with procedural romances – spiced up relationship dramas also started enchanting us. Post-marital. Extra-marital. Lost-love. And, many other orthodoxically once inhibited emotions started surfacing. Dark. Tearful. Heart-touching. With such a drama as a plot – Rony Dasgupta comes up with his debut novel – Hottest Summer Night.

The plot commences with two old class-mates re-uniting over a mere call and then SNS and then long phone calls. Finally, the plot falls in line with hundreds of melodramatic Indian dramas that has a similar plot-line. There is a married but emotionally unfulfilled girl. There is a loner and love-craving boy. And, there is a sweet romance spoiler husband. There is every spice for melodrama – which Indians have seen over ages. And, the story also follows the traditional path of “good wives return home” category. Nothing overboarding. But, the author has spurted a lot of emotions here and there to make it an enriching experience however.

Hottest summer night – does not specifically take the route to embark on some complicated, dark human emotions. Nor it gets into some sleazy ‘unfaithful’ realm. Rather, the author tried heart and soul to keep it chick-lit. Only with a heavy heart. And a melancholy overtone.

The narrative is decent. But broken sometime. the author made an attempt for a love story with a drama in his plot. Many important incidents or moments of the plot are being skipped off only in a single line. There are several build-up to nothings. And, most importantly, the tragic overtone never surfaced or changed routes. It remained as an ignored background score composed by an immature music-director.

But, as a debut book – the attempt was decent. The words spoke of many tears and emotions spurred of the pen. The momentary illusions of mirage and its disappearance were penned here in an acute emotional state. May be not very literary. May be not very dramatic. But this book is a personal journey. Of love. Of shattering emotions. Of broken promises. Of obscured happiness. Very personal indeed.

Book Details:-

Author:	Rony Dasgupta
Publisher:	PartridgeIndia	Language:	English
ISBN-13:	9781482836530	ISBN:	148283653X
Cover:	Paperback	Year of Publication:	2014
MRP:	Rs. 250	Buy From:	Flipkart.com Amazon.inAmazon.com

• About the Author

About Sankha Ghosh

Sankha Ghosh was never born in that 'City of Joy', never was a banker, never watched a Godard, never loved Kafka, never fell for that Solitary Reaper, never danced on a friend’s wedding, never fought for human rights, never had a crush at college and never ever aspired to work on a novel! Never was he as simple as this! #He wishes