The Great Indian Bust by Rishabh Bhatnagar is the latest novel by him and it has been the talk among book lovers for a few weeks now. With a good rank on Amazon and good feedback on Goodreads, it was my turn to get a copy of this work and find out what’s inside. The full title of the novel is The Great Indian Bust: A Coming of Age Fiction and the subtitle clarifies many things at once – the novel is about someone’s life as he moves ahead and ages. And true, the novel is about a certain guy named Sidhartha Sharma (who represents the author himself) and his experience as a child and as a teenager. In simple terms, the novel is an attempt to write an autobiography in selections in a fictionalised form but it sounds more like a non-fictional work as you read it. However, there are the day-saving descriptions packed with punching humour and you only find such artistry in novels…

“The school principal, Mrs. Hardeep, was a cheerful Punjabi woman in her early fifties, had a small oval face, and small round eyeglasses that wouldn’t cover her eyes properly so she would have to bend her head in order to see clearly.”

The novel begins with the description and life of the protagonist’s grandfather and it moves on to the parents of the central figure in the novel who is also the narrator of this book himself. When it comes to the protagonist himself, the novel becomes more interesting as the readers get to know about someone’s life in his own words. Yes, at times, there are the occasions when, as a reader, you might not get the comprehensive picture of events because you only see how much the author’s mouthpiece wants you to see.

The overall reception of the novel among book blogging and critics community has been superb. It has generally received positive reviews with a few drawbacks that have been posited by the critics. Many top and best book review websites in India have rated the book with favourable approvals…

There are many hilarious, interesting, serious and casual occasions discussed in the novel and many of them will keep the readers engaged with the work by Rishabh Bhatnagar until it’s done. Like the excerpt shared above, there are many humorous descriptions in the book and one of them is certainly the short-lived love affair between the protagonist and one girl who studied in the same school. Moreover, on serious notes, there are a few things treated in this work which will make the readers think. How much do we expect from our loved ones? How much do they deliver? Do we understand the people around us? And so on…

Rishabh Bhatnagar has raised serious questions in the unconscious that will need some digging by the readers and maybe by the author himself. He has clarified in his preface as well as the postscript that he did not want to write fiction about call centres or youths making love. He wanted to write something different and it has been written. Now it’s the time that readers read his work and judge it!

I am impressed by the art of narrative building of the novelist. There is a world ahead of him and he will learn with time to become better and maturer. Meanwhile, you can certainly enjoy his work by getting a copy of The Great Indian Bust: A Coming of Age Fiction from Amazon by clicking the link below:

Buy the novel – click here

review by Shikha for Active Reader Book Blog