The unusual title of the book prompted
me to pick this up.‘Two O’clock on an
April afternoon the color of dusk.’ The opening sentence itself gives you a
taste of poetic style of writing of Anjum Hasan.
The book opens with the life of Firdaus
Ansari, a college lecturer of English literature who fails to see any purpose in
what she is doing. Like Firdaus , the
numerous other ordinary characters in the book Aman , Mr and Mrs Moondy, Ribor,
eight years old Sophie who has discovered that she is an adopted child , Mr and
Mrs Das, timid and insecure Aman who is a civil services aspirant but has his heart is music, go about their
lives wondering at the same time the very profundity of their lives.
Effortlessly written and
beautifully crafted, Lunatic is about the ordinary lives of ordinary people each
one struggling to find its meaning. The
story unfolds emotion by emotion yet it is a fast moving book. The book virtually
transports you to Shillong where it is raining and misty all the time. Anjum
Hassan has reiterated that a good book need not always follow the conventional
route of proper intro, gradually building of characters, body, conclusion and climax. The description, narration and
the treatment given to the characters rule the roost.
There is no single protagonist in Lunatic. Only in the sequel Neti Neti Not This Not That Sophie Das emerges as the protagonist of the novel. The mistake I made, I read Neti Neti before I read Lunatic.
A thought provoking book which leaves a bitter sweet lingering taste in your mouth making you
wonder why most of us fail to take
control of our lives .
