Book – A Dowryless Wedding
Author – Merlin Franco
Publisher – authors UPFRONT
First Published – 2018
Ideal for – Casual readers, occasional readers, regular readers as well

A Dowryless Wedding is a very alarming book (alarming in the sense very high at amusement, very pungent in satire and very sharp in observation aka realism) written by a debutant named Merlin Franco. An NRI, originally from the Southern body of India, Merlin’s book arrived at my desk this week on Monday and it took me three days to have the complete read of the novel. First impressions – a very very interesting read!

The story:
It’s a first-person account of Franklin’s journey into marriage and then his disaster that he meets after deciding to go dowryless in his marriage. Nisha, his wife, turns out to be someone he could not imagine during their outings, romance and fun that they had before their marriage. Franklin is a comrade, a staunch communist while Nisha is a simple God-fearing girl and a student with confused aspirations. She values her papa’s gifted car more than the wants of her husband and then, the things become too interesting for the readers.

The catch in the novel – A Dowryless Wedding
It begins with the thoughts of marriage and fears and concerns associated with it. It develops gradually and it catches the eyeballs of the readers. Further progressing, the readers come across amusing as well as interesting incidents in the novel which keep their expectations entertained. What do you need to find out in the novel? Well, if I am to give you all the task to do something, you need to find out who was at fault – Nisha or Franklin.

The theme
The theme revolves around a husband and a wife and their conjugal life. Social commentary is also there – how does a society make things difficult for the people. Issues of employment are raised tacitly and also the issue of donation, bribery and corruption in the education system are also there to serve the realistic causes of a fiction.

Critical Overview
The novel is sarcastic, amusing and serious only to the extent that makes the reader feel not bored but actually entertained. Merlin Franco, as a debut author, has managed to pull out a great debut for himself and he has given what he could give – way better than many recent debuts I have read in the recent past. On the scale of language in the novel, he has managed to do very well. His novel has the language that can suit the simple readers who are teenagers as well as serious and learned readers who are pros in reading.

What should you do with it?
If you are thinking to read a book which offers you entertainment with some meaningful content, you are right there on the point. Go ahead and but this book and give it a read – you will surely love it. If you are a critical reader who wants to test the authors on the various fronts, Merlin is ready to be tested! Go ahead and give him a judge…

Below is the link to buy the book from Amazon. The link will open in a new tab:

Buy the book by Merlin Franco – Amazon India – Click Here

review by Rajeev for Active Reader book blog