book: Families at Home by Reeti Gadekar

Posted on July 8, 2010 by murali


It is the debut novel by Reeti Gadekar. The book was shortlisted for Manasia literary award. The plot is set in Delhi . There is police, business families, middle class and the rustic rural characters. The paragraphs describing the various localities and the people living there in delhi are quite accurate and hilarious. the main characters include juneja the ACP, who sees the world through the eyes of the privileged class with feudal values in personal life and liberal view on everything else. Joseph is a keralite, totally at sea in Delhi, unable to understand the psyche of a delhiite . There is Sajjan Kumar , the ‘thug’ in the police team and then NK and RK talwars along with NK bhabhiji and RK bhabhiji of the typical punjabi business family.

The murder plot pans out like a B grade detective novel, the language is of Hindusthan Times and vulgarity generally passes for humour, may be that reflects the NCR culture. Probably the subject calls for such a style of writing. one example “….Nothing like the Delhi Policeman to wax eloquent on the orifices of the female body and what could be best deposited there…”
About editing, the less said the better it is. There are fragments of sentences, spelling mistakes, repeated words, and generally the book seemed to have been published in a hurry, when the deadline was more important than quality.
This entry was posted in Books. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *