AUGUST READING: THE ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE by Vikas Swarup
Didn't we just love the movie Slumdog Millionaire! Heavily based on this author's first novel, Q&A, it gave us a glimpse of what contemporary Indian society and life is like. Controversial because it didn't show things in a positive light, this movie and book introduced many of us to the huge extremes in wealth and living standards, corruption, exploitation of women and children, Bollywood, rackets, and the power of good over evil. Q&A is an absolute page turner, well written, great story, and believable characters and very deserving of all its success. You could almost believe such a story could really happen. Plus, anything translated into 44 languages has to be a tale of universal appeal.
This latest novel is the author's third, and follows much the same themes and way of storytelling as the first one. His Jamal is Sapna, a young woman from a very middle class family, with an honours degree in English, who lives in Delhi with her unwell mother and younger sister. As the breadwinner for the three of them, she works as a salesperson in an electrical applicance store, a job she loathes, with people she doesn't like, but which she can see no way out of. One day, completely out of the blue, she is approached by one of the wealthiest men in India. Bizarrely, he wants her to take over as CEO of his conglomerate, provided she passes seven life tests. Sound implausible? It is.
Sapna eventually agrees to be his 'apprentice' and over a period of months the seven tests take place. Are these tests random events or are they contrived by the billionaire? During the tests Sapna discovers that she has the qualities of integrity, courage, leadership, foresight, resourcefulness and decision making - all of which her benefactor is looking for. Much like Jamal in Q&A, during this testing time, she comes up against various facets of modern Indian society - Bollywood and the casting couch, an arranged marriage in rural India, police corruption, a kidney donor selling racket, child labour, and reality shows. At the same time she is trying to hold onto her job, and deal with a myriad of dramas within her family.
The seventh test, however is quite a different kettle of fish from the others in that her life depends on passing it. It is at this point the book moves up a gear or two to become a real page turner. A satisfying conclusion is reached, naturally, but an alarming number of coincidences, set up at various stages during the book, occur to make this happen. Much like in classic fairy tales really!
And I think that is the key to enjoying this story. It is a modern day urban fairy tale, and I don't think you can see it any other way. There is the plucky smart young thing, a strange fairy godmother like figure, a possible prince, annoying family members, strange and unexplained events and encounters, evil and good. Great package. It is not, however, as well written a story as Q&A, not as tightly plotted and not as well rounded. It is almost as if the author is trying to replicate the formula, but he has hurried the process and left it a bit loose and untidy.
I also found the character of Sapna very annoying and unrealistic. Male author writing about young woman - not the easiest transplant. I might be speaking out of turn, but I doubt very much if there are young women in India like Sapna. As a sheltered middle class girl, I really don't think she would have the life smarts or worldliness to deal with most of the people she encounters - most of whom have some sort of hidden agenda and, who we as the readers immediately know are going to be trouble. But like I said, it is a fairy tale... The other thing that bothered me - the India in this story is too clean. In Q&A, we got a sense of the poverty, the desperation, the squalor, the random ugliness of the lives of the majority of the population. The author touches the surface, for example the arranged marriage or the kidney racket, but it is not raw enough.
Nevertheless, this is a good bit of escapism, easy to read, and no doubt will be a movie one day too.
And I think that is the key to enjoying this story. It is a modern day urban fairy tale, and I don't think you can see it any other way. There is the plucky smart young thing, a strange fairy godmother like figure, a possible prince, annoying family members, strange and unexplained events and encounters, evil and good. Great package. It is not, however, as well written a story as Q&A, not as tightly plotted and not as well rounded. It is almost as if the author is trying to replicate the formula, but he has hurried the process and left it a bit loose and untidy.
I also found the character of Sapna very annoying and unrealistic. Male author writing about young woman - not the easiest transplant. I might be speaking out of turn, but I doubt very much if there are young women in India like Sapna. As a sheltered middle class girl, I really don't think she would have the life smarts or worldliness to deal with most of the people she encounters - most of whom have some sort of hidden agenda and, who we as the readers immediately know are going to be trouble. But like I said, it is a fairy tale... The other thing that bothered me - the India in this story is too clean. In Q&A, we got a sense of the poverty, the desperation, the squalor, the random ugliness of the lives of the majority of the population. The author touches the surface, for example the arranged marriage or the kidney racket, but it is not raw enough.
Nevertheless, this is a good bit of escapism, easy to read, and no doubt will be a movie one day too.
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