#281 : Of Marriageable Age by Sharon Maas : Review

GENRE: Fiction

NUMBER OF PAGES: 520

FORMAT: Paperback

SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone

HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: Review copy from the publishers – Fingerprint! in exchange for an honest review. Thanks a lot guys!

REVIEW:

A story set in Madras, Guyana and London in the British era – enticing for a reader like me. The publishers decided to surprise me this time by sending across this book without a mail and I’m extremely glad they did. It’s a beautiful book which I would have purchased as soon as it was published had I known about it earlier. This book is one of the most soulful books that I have read in recent times. With eloquent writing, this book turned out to be an absolute pleasure to read.

The story, set across three locations is about three generations of women and men who are bound together by one woman who is the actual protagonist of the story. Savitri is that woman who binds all the threads of this story. Writing anything more than this about the story line would actually qualify as a spoiler as all the characters eventually point to one character – Savitri in one or the other way. There are so many surprising twists and turns in the book that elaborating the storyline simply results in spoilers.

In the age where writing is more and more becoming like instant coffee – tasteless and bland, this book seemed to a welcome change. With vivid description and extraordinary characterization, the book bewitched me from start. With exemplary writing, the story was just too perfect. Though one character – Savitiri was the show stealer, the writer managed to give equal importance to all the other characters. In fact, she managed to show all shades for all the characters which I know is an extremely difficult job. Slow character building is tricky and there is there is a big room for the story turning into a deadbeat one. Obviously, this writer mastered the art of slow and gradual character building. In spite of the having a lot of characters, multiple time lines and geographical boundaries, the transition between all that was smooth and effortless.  A well written story that was deeply moving!

MY SAY: Phenomenal writing, Magnetic story line.  Nothing short of true literary beauty.
RATING:

PLOT : 4 /5

NARRATION: 5/5

CHARACTERISATION: 5/5

BOREDOM QUOTIENT: 1/5 (Lower the better)

OVERALL RATING: 5/5

AUTHOR LINKS: Goodreads

BOOK LINKS: Goodreads

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