Search This Blog

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Book Review



Title-The Puppeteers of Palem
Author- Sharath  Komarraju

The Plot-The very title of the story has an air of curiosity which drives the plot of the novel. The whole story revolves round the village of Rudrakshapalem, the native place tells her own story. Avadhani being the story teller narrates the story to the village children. Apparently nothing seems to have changed in the village but a deeper delve into the story reveals a contradictory tone, everything has in fact changed.

 It revolves round the story of  “Lachi”, a woman who killed her husband and went absconding.  Palem's old man who is a  Bramhin landlord, his childhood story teller makes all effort to save the village from devastation at "her" hands. Avadhani keeps a sub-tone underneath, his fascination for the lady. Lachi has a haunting presence in the village, Lachi is said to appear in the village of Palem quite often leading the villagers to insane behavior  losing their prudence. Venkataramana and his friends take the bold step to visit Shivalayam to have a glimpse of Lachi but their hopes are marred.

The story moves in its own pace gripping the readers with twists and turns. The ever so protruding mystery plays a vibrant role in absorbing the reader attention. Venkataramana, another character of the novel returns back to the village though he is not in his best of spirits, like his friends. All of them return back to the village, Why? What initiated them to return back after so many years leaves a mysterious tone.

Palem became a hot spot in the news headlines with all its gruesome murders. The story takes baby steps towards the climax. Every page has a new twist which enraptures and enthralls the readers. The unpredictability quotient is what gives it an upper edge, with readers anticipating about multifarious causes behind the mystery. The mystery of  Palem?

The plot has a rustic touch entwined with an air of suspense with many characters. The characters sketched by the Author have their own role in the story. Bringing justice to so many characters surely seems a   tough task but the Author has justified it with his crisp narrative and unique story line.

 Imagery-The imagery in the book has been depicted in an illustrative manner which is an important ingredient while writing a story. Each character with their surroundings, soliloquy, monologues and dialogues  triggers the reader to understand and visualize the whole story in a better way, in a greater way.

Language-The language is crisp, lucid and has an easy flow as the story.

Unique Quotient-Mystery and   suspense has been invested to the right proportion to hold the audience. The readers are served with adequate tinge of thrills.  The Author creates ripples just when the   readers are set for the climax, they are aptly served. That’s what a mystery Author knows best, his tact’s in writing manages to do so.

My view- I completely had my eyes glued and my mind doing the entire task to analyse the story and be gripped at the same time with awe “Who is the culprit?” A book  speaks volume when a reader is all gripped to take on to the last page to crack down the mystery without a halt, that calls for good mystery story and I found that in this Book.
A story to think, a plot enwrapped with mystery, crisp narrative, language lucid and imagery just lets you envision the whole story in a better way. Story telling is an art and this has been done splendidly.

Only that the characters could have been narrowed down into few, that would make it more simple for pleasure reading.

Carrying our world in our little pockets

As humans do we all think alike? Or as humans, we have some basic traits of behaving in a similar way because we are of the clone ...