Book Review: Lemon Girl

Lemon indicates freshness. The freshness that woos the mind. The freshness that emanates the energy of a bustling star. The freshness that soothes away the painful drudgery of prosaic bartering. And, her smile had all those. Yes, the real, robust, fresh laughter of our Lemon Girl had all the wonders to be more than lime fresh. The Lemon Girl by author Jyoti Arora is by no means less than a fresh and a wonderful addition to the Indian Writing section.

The plot revolves round the cover character and the male protagonist who fell in love with her at first sight. The sweet saga of smiling reminiscence finally rooted to ground at the second meet. The crush succumbed to some cognitive bias or halo effect. The lime fresh charm has now grown into intense darkness . Desperate. Vulnerable. Dead. And, then as usual the stars and galaxy now conspires desperately to inject that killer freshness back into her. Not very unusual. But, that doesn’t matter really here. As the critics say, even if a simple story can be told with the heart in place – it wins hands down. Same is here. The writer seemed to have poured all her heart to create the characters. To create the moments. To create the narrative.

The author has woven a fascinating drama with a feeble dose of Rashomon effect in an interlocking criss-cross way of narrative. It is interesting to note that despite taking an alternative narrative style – the author never let the grip off the plot. Adhering to the main plot – the author has rightly unleashed various social complexities and hypocrisies in a sharp way. Taking the first person route of the either sexes in alternative chapters – she put through some deep insights into human psyche and how it varies in a gross level. After a long time, there is an Indian author who dared to showcase her excellent vocabulary throughout.

The story had all in place. To be precise, like any mid-budget multiplex-goers targeted Hindi movie, the plot has all ingredients in place. To say a few, it projected some middle class if not affluent characters. The backdrop of the plot was equally classy. There is a girl, interrupted. And, her affluent well-to-do lover. Another beautiful lass.  Another affluent guy. All, these are pretty prescribed. In many instances of the story, the author rightly pointed out many issues also. But, at some point, after finishing the book, I was wondering – does a victimized weakened character helps us relating to any social issue or a strong and rebellious character help us do better? May be, here, in some cases, the tears win us all. And, of course the emotional umbrella of romance – a ‘national’ respite.

Keeping those entirely aside, the book at some point wins your heart. It kicks at the warmest nook of the heart may be. With sensible humor, intelligent narrative – the author brings in a classy portrayal of excellence. Be it with her romantic moments. Or her robust characterization. Or her emotional descriptions. Her Lemon Girl is classy enough to fall for.

Details of Lemon Girl:-

• 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