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A review by kartik
Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat
3.0
While working through the book "How to Read Better & Faster", I needed "a short, interesting, fast-paced, readable novel" for one of the exercises -- "read the entire novel through in one evening". I have never attempted to read a full-length novel in one sitting before; Half Girlfriend, lying around in my house, as I just discovered yesterday, seemed to fit the requirement.
Bhagat seems to have taken a lot of flak for this book, especially considering the following stats from my 209 friends on Goodreads which indicate most *mature readers* don't care about reading this book:
1. Five Point Someone (73 ratings)
2. One Night at the Call Center (45)
3. The 3 Mistakes of My Life (41)
4. 2 States (57)
5. Revolution 2020 (35)
6. Half Girlfriend (4)
Mind you, one of the 4 reviews is satirical and was written before the book was eve published: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1020522621 (go read it, it's actually a decent, well-balanced review). And, for those who might want to read the book for guilty pleasure, or as a light weight read to kill time or just for a challenge (like in my case), it can even turn embarrassing, as can be seen here: https://www.goodreads.com/read_statuses/933689374?comment=136647309#comment_136647309 :D
Coming to the book, overall it did feel like an old wine in a new bottle, considering many a familiar tropes are reused from Bhagat's previous books. Written like a recipe for a romantic Bollywood masala film, it lives up to being a page turner as is common with CB books. As a bonus, I ended up learning a bit each about Bihar (regret never traveling to Eastern part of the country) and NYC (which I hope to explore soon enough). Long time fiction readers are bound to starve for novelty (perhaps it affected me a bit less as the last CB book I read was 4 years ago and have avoided all of the works from wannabe-CB writers propping up from Indian engineering colleges); but the primary audience of this book is certainly not the intellectual-types.
I am avoiding commenting on the use of stereotypes in the novel, as being near Delhi and having lived in a multicultural environment for 4 years in college, I have experienced some myself and feel that they aren't always entirely wrong. But a writer does have a responsibility to use them effectively in the work.
In closing, it passes for an enjoyable one time read, hence deserves 3 stars. And for those worried about how much time I wasted on this, yes, I managed it within 4 hours. :-)
Bhagat seems to have taken a lot of flak for this book, especially considering the following stats from my 209 friends on Goodreads which indicate most *mature readers* don't care about reading this book:
1. Five Point Someone (73 ratings)
2. One Night at the Call Center (45)
3. The 3 Mistakes of My Life (41)
4. 2 States (57)
5. Revolution 2020 (35)
6. Half Girlfriend (4)
Mind you, one of the 4 reviews is satirical and was written before the book was eve published: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1020522621 (go read it, it's actually a decent, well-balanced review). And, for those who might want to read the book for guilty pleasure, or as a light weight read to kill time or just for a challenge (like in my case), it can even turn embarrassing, as can be seen here: https://www.goodreads.com/read_statuses/933689374?comment=136647309#comment_136647309 :D
Coming to the book, overall it did feel like an old wine in a new bottle, considering many a familiar tropes are reused from Bhagat's previous books. Written like a recipe for a romantic Bollywood masala film, it lives up to being a page turner as is common with CB books. As a bonus, I ended up learning a bit each about Bihar (regret never traveling to Eastern part of the country) and NYC (which I hope to explore soon enough). Long time fiction readers are bound to starve for novelty (perhaps it affected me a bit less as the last CB book I read was 4 years ago and have avoided all of the works from wannabe-CB writers propping up from Indian engineering colleges); but the primary audience of this book is certainly not the intellectual-types.
I am avoiding commenting on the use of stereotypes in the novel, as being near Delhi and having lived in a multicultural environment for 4 years in college, I have experienced some myself and feel that they aren't always entirely wrong. But a writer does have a responsibility to use them effectively in the work.
In closing, it passes for an enjoyable one time read, hence deserves 3 stars. And for those worried about how much time I wasted on this, yes, I managed it within 4 hours. :-)