Book Review: The Boy Who Loved by Durjoy Datta

Book Title: The Boy Who Loved
Author: Durjoy Dutta
Format: Paper Back
Total Number of Pages: 297
Publisher: Penguin Random House Indias
Publishing Date: 29th May 2017
ISBN-10: 0143426575
ISBN-13: 978-0143426578

The only thing you cannot plan in life is when and who to fall in love with . . .
Raghu likes to show that there is nothing remarkable about his life—loving, middle-class parents, an elder brother he looks up to and plans to study in an IIT. And that’s how he wants things to seem—normal.
Deep down, however, the guilt of letting his closest friend drown in the school’s swimming pool gnaws at him. And even as he punishes himself by hiding from the world and shying away from love and friendship, he feels drawn to the fascinating Brahmi—a girl quite like him, yet so different. No matter how hard Raghu tries, he begins to care . . . Then life throws him into the deep end and he has to face his worst fears.
Will love be strong enough to pull him out?
The Boy Who Loved, first of a two-part romance, is warm and dark, edgy and quirky, wonderfully realistic and dangerously unreal.

The story of an insecure teenager, Raghu Ganguly, who is hung in the dilemma of committing suicide, boy who contemplates suicide, a boy who falls in love, a middle-class boy who lives in the Bengali Hindu family still too consumed with the superiority and purity of their religion, a boy experiences things that push him to the edge... There's guilt, grief, love, momentary happiness, sorrow and so much more in this boy's life who writes his diary as a sort of his last notes before he finally ends his life.

Deep down Raghu harbors a secret guilt. My interest deepened at the moment when questions emerge about the next plot. I liked the story line, there are various subplots too which run parallelly to the main plot. The story is told in the first person by Raghu. It traces his life and the story of people around him. There is a lot of drama and gloom and both the elements are delivered quite well. Author has ventured into a fine genre and the subtlety shows through the writing.The characters of the book are amiable. No distinct character did I find a flaw in. They all are well thought of and have a certain profoundness. I found it quite brilliant that despite the overwhelming number of dramatis personae, all tend to invoke to the reader and blend in perfectly. Even the slightest absence of any character would make the book loose the knot. The story seemed a little stretched in a few places. It could have been completed in a couple of less pages.The book, tho, maintains a killing pace throughout the initial chapters but later prolongs a bit and that was one thing which I did not like about the book. There were a lot of plots when the storyline was stuck and what moved were just pages.The climax of “The Boy Who Loved” was distinctive and uncertain. I didn't expect the unexpected and a magnificent end. I surely find it to be a bonus. The last few chapters felt dragged somehow and that was another drawback.

Reading that book ,that how author balantly and in insane manner told the truth of depression, suicidal feelings and religious beliefs , this book is more of question towards parent's love that becomes toxic and lead to separation of child from a mother,and how our religious beliefs control us and lead us to wrong judgements and how the parent's aspirations for their children become the thing that breaks the family apart and how easily we raise fingers over other children , without thinking what impact it is having and how a book can be brought to end by just a sentence "She Jumped" and how love is not just about completing each other but getting broke together , that's what love is between Raghu and Brahmi and how greedy a mother can become and turn insane for the religion of her grandchild who was not yet even born,this story is brutally honest and shook the foundation of two religions making us question whatever beliefs we are carrying is it correct in literal sense,we just blindly follow that same belief. Author perfectly captures the tensions and reactions of Hindu parents hearing about a muslim love interest of their son. The language of the book is simple which will make it easy to read for the reader.

Overall 4/5 stars.