Centripetal by Rohit Shukla – Book Review

Some novels are to be read within hours and some are to be read first few chapters and left alone for good of everyone! However, there are the novels that we like to read but, somehow, cannot finish it in one go and we have to take breaks, come back again, start reading and take another break if necessary. Centripetal by Rohit Shukla is one of the latter. A reader must want to accept the challenge and keep reading to the end but the complexity of the text does not allow it to be done in one simple go. The layers of the storyline and angles with which the plot can be interpreted are many… The author has fused various timelines, various styles of narrative, various devices to distract the readers from the major course of action… and thus, Rohit Shukla has almost succeeded in keeping his readers engaged to the text and divorced from the facts that he wants to keep secrets hidden… till the last!

There are a few major characters in the novel and they appear in a sequence. Once we are exposed to all the major characters in the novel, flashbacks and daydreams take us to major episodes that readers should ideally know. There are songs and music in the background and the narrator, who is unknown, is very careful in setting the scenes and telling the readers of every minute detail before the action begins. The language might be crude sometimes but it perfectly synchronizes with the flow of the text and the characters who are uttering those words. Yes, the characters develop very nicely and readers will certainly have curiosity about certain characters and their history, present and even future.

Centripetal, as the name explains, does not display any characteristic that might lead the readers to believe that all the actions lead to one central goal. Every character in the novel have their separate goals and they are busy achieving the same. One is longing to be coupled again with his love and vice versa and another character is eagerly making sure that his writing comes to life… yes, a struggling author. Another one tries to make a living and keeps himself up doing the same. All characters somehow come across each other on different occasions and on those occasions only, major actions in the novel take place.

I truly appreciate such works of fiction by modern Indian authors. This is mainly because we need to come out of the cocoons of simply-read starter novels that have a lead female and a male character and that’s done. No, we need to get out of the teenage romance phase and authors like Rohit will certainly pose challenges in front of other young authors to think about something new… something beyond the usually selling semi-juvenile love stories that may attract the teenage readers for an hour or so. Centripetal, as a novel, will not let the readers rest for a while unless a resolution is met and this is what an author should aim for.

On the other hand, it should also be taken care of that authors do not cross all the limits of textual and contextual unity and make the text entirely unreadable or out of the ambits of comprehension of the readers. At some points in Centripetal, Rohit might have overdriven the plot to the blank spots that might lose the grip of the readers’ attention and the accumulated interest that comes running in the previous pages might be lost in a flash. That is something many readers might experience in the course of the novel.

At last, reading this novel will surely be an interesting job for many readers and I wish them the best! You can get a Kindly copy from Amazon India and start reading the novel right away. It is not costly as well! Click the link below to get a copy right now.

Buy the novel from Amazon – click here

Review by Nishant for The Book Blog