Book Review- It's For You Mihi- Md. Asif

Author- Md. Asif
Titile- It's For You Mihi
ISBN- 9789383023042
Genre- Fiction
Publisher- Parlance 
Price- Rs 150
Pages- 215

This review is much delayed mostly because I didn't know how to go about it. It is review I am doing on request and before and after this book, I read books like 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and 'A Narrow Road to The Deep North' so, when this book came in the middle of all those instant classics, it got more cringe-worthy than usual.

I will try not to be an intellectual snob while doing this because high chances are that my own beliefs will get in the way. First of all, stalking is glorified, then the filmy romance is the main masala of this novel. The theatrics and drama are high and the dialogues are your regular conversation statements. It would have been much nicer had the author written the novel in Hindi as the main flavour of the novel is very small town North Indian type.

It is a love story and a pretty sappy one at that. The book has flashbacks and romantic epiphanies abound. For someone as skeptical as me, it was difficult to sit through it so I would definitely not recommend it to those who don't enjoy that sort of stuff. Moreover, the books makes a lot of assumptions which are actually okay if you think from the writer's perspective but dialogues like, 'She made another boyfriend? What kind of a girl is she?' are not gonna be a hit with the feminist lot.

I am intellectualizing a simple novel I know. Anyway, let's talk about the language. It is nothing florid, just regular talk. Even the narrative is dull and unimaginative. The syntax is way off the mark and you'll find sentences like 'Among oceans, seas, rivers, ponds, swimming pools, dams, wells, pits and pots, eyes have the most powerful drops of water to shed.' There are good ones in there too but, some bad ones just ruin the narrative. The novel needs editing.

The pages are nice and crisp and the font is the right size. The cover design is better than the actual novel. The author actually had a good story but he didn't give it enough time to ripen. If only had he put down that thesaurus and actually thought more about the art of writing, probably attended a workshop, the novel could have been better.

The novel will appeal to teenage girls and boys who don't care much about the quality of English and share the small town sentiments about love and all the theatrics associated with it. I give it one and a half star.

*1/2