3 out of 4 stars
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This is a review of the book The Last Bloom by Poulomi Sengupta which is available in Amazon under the 'Young Adult' category.
Priya, the protagonist of the story, is a well-bred English-medium educated girl from India’s Bengal state. She decides to excel in her college studies and becomes determined not to be deviated from her goal by things like having a boyfriend or spending time in activities that are not related to her studies. Unfortunately, she lands up in a college that is deeply polarized by political affiliations. There is also widespread resistance towards college functioning, studying, getting good grades and even speaking English. The reader is motivated to find out what Priya does under these circumstances.
The story setting is in the Bengal state of India and thus comes with its cultural and regional nuances. There are several narrations about the region’s history, culture, leaders, the Naxalite movement, the political unions, the suburban and the slum areas of the Kolkata city, and Bengal’s legacy. Priya summarizes Bengal as thus: “We have a great legacy but no future.”
The book discusses at length the college politics, its effect on students and their studies. The political squabbles between the parties, the 'ragging' process that the first year students undergo, student leaders giving sensational but dumb speeches about petty issues and issuing veiled threats to the students to join their political party, are all narrated well. There are also events in the story that describe the hatred among the students towards using the English language, how the students are attention-seeking for immediate popularity rather than working towards their long-term goals, how the professors don’t teach the classes, and how the frequent protests affect the classes and exams.
The importance of learning, conversing and using English has been highlighted well through the Priya character. The guidance about how to learn a language and the role of English and Hindi in India's development are beautifully narrated. The author stresses her point by saying "Language is the greatest catalyst in building human relationships."
There are several good figures of speech. This reviewer liked especially this simile: ‘a middle-aged woman thatched herself, almost like indolent hay stacked upon bullock carts.’ The dreams scenes in which Priya talks to a voice are nice. The character analysis of Priya's classmate Gautam by her another classmate Renela has been done in a very elaborate fashion. Some diagrams and graphs are interspersed in the story to illustrate author’s viewpoints.
There are detailed narrations on the current state of the education system in India and its challenges, how to bring about the necessary changes towards the development to India, and about personal values and building one’s character. There are extensive narrations on Jabalpur, Chandipur, and Siwaliks regions motivating the reader to visit those places. The glossary of terms is helpful for those who are unfamiliar with the Indian culture. The references at the end are helpful to the reader to further explore the topics that are written about in the book.
The story moves at a moderate pace although in one chapter there's an exhaustive discussion among Priya's friends about classes being boycotted. The author has good command over English. The first few chapters are full of rich and tough vocabulary which would make a reader with an average vocabulary uncomfortable. The formatting looks fine overall. The proofreading has not been done well. There are grammar errors like missing articles, spelling mistakes, duplicate words, usage of scientific terms like ‘pseudo-mirror’ in wrong contexts, and wrong word usages. There are several punctuation errors like missing space between words, missing commas, missing hyphenations, missing period marks, wrong punctuations, etc.
Overall, this reviewer finds this book a great read for all audiences, especially Indian. This book has 394 pages and can be read in a week’s time at a leisurely pace to soak in all the contents. The book has several great points like how to improve the study and employment situation in Bengal and in India, how to develop one’s character and personality, how to appreciate one’s local culture while broadening one’s horizons by learning additional languages, etc. The book will resonate well with the geology enthusiasts because of the many references to the related terms. This reviewer would have rated this book a 4 out of 4 stars. But because of the bad proofreading and the tough vocabulary which might make an average reader uneasy, this reviewer rates this book a 3 out of 4 stars.
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The Last Bloom
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