Reviewer: Yamini Vijendran
Many writers write books about the rosy world of love; full of romance, joy and happiness of being with the one meant for you. Most of these stories meander through rough terrains of adversities and jagged rocks of opposition but finally emerge to find the bliss of the ocean of ‘lived happily ever after’. Vijayendra Haryal has taken a different stance in his book and has attempted to show the not so rosy face of love. This face of separation, despair of loneliness and the heartache of betrayal is something many lovers do not want to think about, but are invariably forced to confront in their relationships. Not all love stories have a happy ending, a large number of them end in the barren desert of ‘The Break Up’. This collection of short stories from Vijayendra Haryal is a chronicle of a number of such tsunamis that wreak people’s love lives.
The book ‘The Break Up’ consists of 21 short stories and 7 poems. Of the 21 stories, 15 are about a separation between lovers, through either break up or death. The rest showcase the other aspects of love, love for one’s motherland, love for one’s dear ones, love for community and love for God. Almost all these stories bring out the pain caused to the protagonist by separation from their object of love, be it a lover or a spouse or a family or motherland. All the 7 poems talk about separation from one’s lover.
Most of the stories take place in the backdrop of an IT company set up. Probably, since the author comes from that background, it was easy for him to relate better to this set up. This is a good strategy too, since given the size of the IT industry today, I am sure many people, especially the young, would easily relate to this set up. However, many of the stories talk about the girl deserting the boy and the boy becoming the victim of the break up. In many stories, especially, ‘Sex, Not Love’, ‘Chocolate Cookies’, ‘Most Helpful Sandeep’ (and a few more), the girl is portrayed as someone who uses the boy for her own purposes and dumps him because she is supposedly too modern to be with him. I feel such a cliched portrayal of women could have been avoided. Interestingly, there is not one story where the man dumps the girl because he found another girl or because he loses interest in the girl. The book would have been a rounded attempt if such aspects were also explored.
The language in the stories is weighed down with grammatical mistakes and erroneous use of words. For instance, the absence of commas where they should have been and their presence where they are not necessary makes reading the stories a bumpy ride. The story whose title forms the title of the book, ‘The Break Up’ does what it intends to do, give different versions of love between the girl and the boy, but it abruptly stops at that. It would have been nice to conclude both the versions.
The plots of many of the stories have been devised quite well. The author scores high on this point. The plot of few of the stories like Visually Challenged and Blessing are different and refreshing. Similarly, the climax of Near Death is unexpected. Good turn of events there. I really liked the way the final story has been written. It kind of sums up the whole exercise that Haryal embarked on at the start of this book and has brought the whole effort to a logical conclusion.
One thing that I felt the author could have avoided was the way women are described in the stories. Women have been referred to as ‘female’ in many places. Though of course that is their gender, I feel it is less respectful to say ‘a beautiful female’ than to say ‘a beautiful woman’. Also phrases like “The most sought after but rarely found beauty with brains” (A Bottle of Booze, A Box of Chocolates) suggest a chauvinistic tinge which the author could have avoided.
All the poems have a sad note about them. They are about love gone sour or love lost, with reminiscence of the happier times. They leave an emptiness and a deserted feeling in the heart of the reader. The author has succumbed to that irresistible temptation of forced rhyming, making some of the lines look contrived. Despite this, some of the poems were quite moving.
To sum up, the book ‘The Break Up’ is a sincere attempt to show love in a different light, covering all the angles of the emotion. With better editing and word choices, the book would have been much more enjoyable than it already is.
About the reviewer
Yamini is an engineering graduate having 7 years of experience in the software industry. She has worked with industry giants like Infosys, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. Yamini has experience in writing analytical reports, reviews and technical documents. Currently a homemaker, she regularly writes stories, essays and poems which are updated in her blog.
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