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A review by lauraeydmann82
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
2.0
Well, what can I say. Fairly easy to read, I got through this pretty quick and it kept me interested throughout. The story was engaging, although far fetched. The writing style was not the best, I struggled with some of the dialogue that I found so cheesy or simple it took me out of the story one or two times. The story had a lot of cliches but for the most part was fairly enjoyable… if a little predictable.
We follow the story of Ram Mohammed Thomas, an orphan in India who makes it onto a TV quiz show similar to “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and he manages to answer every question right and win a billion rupees because each question somehow relates to a part of his life. Each chapter is based on a question, the part of his life, then the question itself.
I had a little bit of a problem with the murder and violence – it all seemed a little easy for him in the end to have got away with everything he had done wrong, and whilst I was totally on his side and wanted him to prevail, the explanations at the end were a bit too easy. I also found the portrayal of the gay actor a little difficult, it seemed to have a negative view on homosexuality in general. The gay characters were ‘bad guys’ and abusers in every situation. The stories involving religion and class were interesting, with the attacks on Muslims and the divide between rich and poor sticking out in particular. I did like the non-linear structure of the stories, they aren’t all in order, and we jump around Ram’s life finding out more and how he managed to answer each question. The twist in the end is fairly good as well. However, the coincidences are just a little bit too much and I struggled to suspend my disbelief.
If you put that aside, and read this as more of a fairytale, it’s a good read – the good guy wins in the end, marries the girl, wins the money, gets rid of all the bad guys and lives happily ever after, and hey, who doesn’t like that? I’m looking forward to seeing the film as well, although the last Danny Boyle book to film I saw was The Beach and he ruined a fantastic book for me… so, we’ll see.
We follow the story of Ram Mohammed Thomas, an orphan in India who makes it onto a TV quiz show similar to “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and he manages to answer every question right and win a billion rupees because each question somehow relates to a part of his life. Each chapter is based on a question, the part of his life, then the question itself.
I had a little bit of a problem with the murder and violence – it all seemed a little easy for him in the end to have got away with everything he had done wrong, and whilst I was totally on his side and wanted him to prevail, the explanations at the end were a bit too easy. I also found the portrayal of the gay actor a little difficult, it seemed to have a negative view on homosexuality in general. The gay characters were ‘bad guys’ and abusers in every situation. The stories involving religion and class were interesting, with the attacks on Muslims and the divide between rich and poor sticking out in particular. I did like the non-linear structure of the stories, they aren’t all in order, and we jump around Ram’s life finding out more and how he managed to answer each question. The twist in the end is fairly good as well. However, the coincidences are just a little bit too much and I struggled to suspend my disbelief.
If you put that aside, and read this as more of a fairytale, it’s a good read – the good guy wins in the end, marries the girl, wins the money, gets rid of all the bad guys and lives happily ever after, and hey, who doesn’t like that? I’m looking forward to seeing the film as well, although the last Danny Boyle book to film I saw was The Beach and he ruined a fantastic book for me… so, we’ll see.