Scan barcode
A review by caterinagberti
Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
2.0
I kept reading about the terrible horrible, no good, very bad plot twist, but nothing could have prepared me for it.
It's one of those literary moves that could make or break a novel and I'm not completely sure whether it breaks it or it makes it.
It shatters every single thing you have come to believe about the main character, Jas, turning a quite superficial novel about adolescence and stupidity into a very uncomfortable piece about identity, perception and, I suppose, mental illness.
So, why the two stars?
The plot twist's timing and execution.
Although I don't know how Malkani could have done it any differently, I think it's the gem and the fatal flaw of this book. Its purpose is, if possible, too of open for debate.
At the end of Londonstani I'm not shocked by the intrinsic existential void it depicts, I don't feel any urge to gain a better understanding of our consumerist society and I'm left unable to empathize with an unlikable main character that is all there is to the book.
On the back it says: "'breathless - hilarious and convincing' The New York Times".
I say: long-winded, occasionally brilliant, sometimes deeply disappointing, ratty, coward. A con of a book that I'm unwilling to praise but certainly can't ignore.
It's one of those literary moves that could make or break a novel and I'm not completely sure whether it breaks it or it makes it.
It shatters every single thing you have come to believe about the main character, Jas, turning a quite superficial novel about adolescence and stupidity into a very uncomfortable piece about identity, perception and, I suppose, mental illness.
So, why the two stars?
The plot twist's timing and execution.
Although I don't know how Malkani could have done it any differently, I think it's the gem and the fatal flaw of this book. Its purpose is, if possible, too of open for debate.
At the end of Londonstani I'm not shocked by the intrinsic existential void it depicts, I don't feel any urge to gain a better understanding of our consumerist society and I'm left unable to empathize with an unlikable main character that is all there is to the book.
On the back it says: "'breathless - hilarious and convincing' The New York Times".
I say: long-winded, occasionally brilliant, sometimes deeply disappointing, ratty, coward. A con of a book that I'm unwilling to praise but certainly can't ignore.