Book Review: Perfect | Imperfect, by Ravi Bedi
Pages: 171
Buying Link: Amazon
A ‘caper’
novel is a rarity these days, though movies tend to explore the genre more
often. Ravi Bedi’s Perfect | Imperfect
takes a shot at pulling this off in the form of a tightly-constructed story
about two wannabe hustlers from Jaipur trying to stiff a major jeweller by
pulling off what they hope will be the perfect crime.
As so often
happens, however, their plan is not quite perfect, and what ensues is trouble,
with a dash of Schadenfreude-que
comedy.
Plot
The story
is narrated in first person, mostly by Jimmy
Bhasin, a salesman at Gokuldas Jewellers in Jaipur. Jimmy has a sort-of friendship with his
immediate boss, Samarth Jain, whose
father owns the shop, and is a not-quite-mute witness to Samarth’s shady
practices, both in business and in dealing with women.
The other
POV is of Jimmy’s long-term girlfriend, Farah
Batliwala, a salesgirl at a fashion boutique in a mall who aspires for
something more than a life in the middle-class. Breezily unprincipled, she
allows herself to go along with Jimmy’s plans to rob his boss.
Characters
For a
fairly short novel, both Jimmy and Farah are well-etched, and their POV’s
display their different personalities. Samarth is the only other major
character, and we see him in contrasting ways through Jimmy’s and Farah’s perspectives,
but the composite is fairly representative of a certain archetype.
The Other things
As a short
book, quite tightly focussed on the plot, Perfect
| Imperfect does its job quite well. The dialogues are well-paced and the
humour in the story is brought out well. At times the language in the book can
get repetitive, particularly the number of times Farah’s cleavage and Samarth’s
fascination for ‘two-legged birds’ is mentioned. There are times when the
language can get a little ‘locker-room-ish’, to use a Trump-ism, but in a
first-person narrative this is obviously character attribution.
Conclusion
For a quick
and easy fun read, you could definitely pick up Perfect | Imperfect, with its effervescent blend of humour and suspense.
Note
And then there remained only one...
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Wow! I must be a very lucky man to have received two wonderful reviews from none other than Percy Wadiwala, perhaps the best reviewer I've come across in my short journey into the most confounding world of literature in India. I salute you (Air Force style), Mr Percy, for your kind words and useful observations.I sincerely hope you reverse your decision to stop reviewing books and enlighten the less-informed with your expertise and wisdom.
ReplyDeleteI wish you the very best. CHEERS!