Johnny Gone Down

Personally I do not quite love the new age fiction writers of Indian origin, except Chetan Bhagat and Jhumpa Lahiri, none seemed to inspire me. Even Chetan's "three mistakes.." or "one night..." was too much of Bollywood stuff.

I tried one or two crappy ones before, mostly on, love, breakups, girls, single and affair-full life..all crap. Honestly I wanted to try out some Indian author, who have written a value-for-money stuff. I ordered "Johnny Gone Down" because it costed only about Rs. 64 after discount on Flipkart. This time I can gurantee it was a worthy purchase. I completed the book in about 6 hours flat. It is filmy stuff, yet it has a pace, a quest and zeal to learn about the whole adventure of "Nikhil Arya", the hero. I liked it. I kept it. You must try it, if you want try out a genuine writer stuff, in all those crappy Indian wannabe writers junk.

I read this book on recommendation of a friend and here is my review:

PROS
1) Thrilling storyline, will keep you on the edge of your seat.
2) Good enough twists and turns.
3) You get to know the culture prevailing among the downtrodden and underbelly of South East Asia, Latin America (Brazil) and USA.
4) Can be made into a movie.

CONS
1) Reads like a B Grade potboiler.
2) Situations are just too over the top.
3) Protagonist's goes thru a roller coaster journey which many people do not achieve in a lifetime. I mean its just too improbable.
4) The ending is a bit drab.
5) The tile is misleading.

Read it if you are looking for a good passtime. Johhny Gone Down is not a classic but its not to be missed either.

The book is one roller coaster ride where the fall is deep, eminent and lasts for what seems like eternity. The protagonist- Nikhil Arya takes a sharp dive, headstraight, right after graduating successfully from MIT, a dive that makes him assume many avatars, perform many sacrifices, commit acts, most involuntarily, in a jiffy. The book conveys one thing very well - the myriad events and turns in one's life might appear like unconnected, unraveled threads but somewhere they join piecewise to make a meaningful mosaic in the end. Racy read, good book for a train journey or an extended weekend at home, has all ingredients required to be made into a Bollywood movie.

Not sure why this book did not catch the public fervor as in Chetan Bhagat's novel releases. May be it was because this book seems more like a bollywood movie than Chetan Bhagat's more realistic one. You can relate more to Bhagat's novels. They are set ( very clevery ) to current situations.

However that is not to take away anything from Karan's Jhonny Gone down. A definite good read. Gripping storyline. Thrilling. He(author) has the ability to keep up the reader's interest ( which very few Indian writers have ).

Value for money and I can bet you won't regret buying it.

Bought this book after reading reviews on flipkart. Fast-paced, well written thriller and I finished the book in one stretch.

the plus:
1. beautifully inter-woven philosophy
2. narration brings a visual picture in your mind-that to me, is a sign of a good book
3. quick read, ideal for journeys

the minus:
1. hated the title. gives the feel of a cheap thriller when the content is actually much better
2. sags a bit towards the end