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Cough Syrup Surrealism
"Charlie's not a depressive. He's certainly not suicidal; the boy's too big a coward to even cut himself while shaving. He may be delusional, he may sincerely wish that he were depressed, but he's certainly not a depressive."
That's Mao; nobody listens to him. But that's probably because he's a figment of Charlie's imagination.
An unwitting Charlie - rudely interrupted in the middle of typing out his umpteenth suicide note - is hurled into a brave new world of addiction, rock music, and debauchery in this tale of growing up and going down. From rolling joints to rolling in drug money, from backing out of life, to fronting somebody else's rock band, he's in for a bumpy ride. Charlie divides his time between being in love with Paloma and hating himself, betweein living out Nineties music video fantasies and wishing he were someone else.
The problem is it's 2006 and MTV is not Music Television anymore. Mixtapes are passé, self-loathing is cliché and Charlie's world is fast deteriorating into caricature. At the end, Charlie is forced to figure eout which one of his many lives he really wants for himself.
Question: You can take a boy out of the Nineties, but can you take the Nineties out of him?
That's Mao; nobody listens to him. But that's probably because he's a figment of Charlie's imagination.
An unwitting Charlie - rudely interrupted in the middle of typing out his umpteenth suicide note - is hurled into a brave new world of addiction, rock music, and debauchery in this tale of growing up and going down. From rolling joints to rolling in drug money, from backing out of life, to fronting somebody else's rock band, he's in for a bumpy ride. Charlie divides his time between being in love with Paloma and hating himself, betweein living out Nineties music video fantasies and wishing he were someone else.
The problem is it's 2006 and MTV is not Music Television anymore. Mixtapes are passé, self-loathing is cliché and Charlie's world is fast deteriorating into caricature. At the end, Charlie is forced to figure eout which one of his many lives he really wants for himself.
Question: You can take a boy out of the Nineties, but can you take the Nineties out of him?
273 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 31, 2014
Cough Syrup Surrealism is the story of Little Charlie who refused to grow up because it didn’t make sense. Charliebum from Trivandrum moved to Chennai – for college – in search of Central Perk. Tired of the constricting world of ‘nineties’ parents eager to delegate their ambitions, he was searching for a clique from whose collective womb, life would take birth.
And take birth it did. A chance encounter with a beautiful girl and a dubious tryst with love transport the repressed nerd boy into the drug world – something that seems an alarmingly ubiquitous subculture. The story of discovery that follows purports to be the biography of a generation that finds itself off-centre, recognising the futility of the empty values that it was brought up on. This is the story of an entire generation that is tired of differences and prefers meaninglessness to artificiality. The ‘nineties kids,’ unfamiliar with narrow walls erected by cultural differences and ‘branded’ snobbishness, fervently seek happiness – or at least the meaning of it.
It is easy to write about the distant past, about a history whose strands have played out their roles and have settled down into a neat fabric, having been combed, catalogued and filed away by historians. But it is difficult to write about a history that is not yet dead. It is difficult to explain away – with easy logic – events and popular perceptions of an era whose consequences we’re still living through. Because the strands of such a history are still tangled up in an unyielding mess akin to the (now extinct) cassette tape depicted on the cover of this moving book. Cough Syrup Surrealism attempts such an analysis, and offers a moving explanation felt painfully.
If you see the sex and the drugs in the book as merely an expression of libertarianism, you might miss the greater point that Mao, Charlie’s itinerant alter-ego, is trying to make. This is the story of a generation of displaced individuals – the nineties kids – who see the futility of the world. The voice is new and unsettling, and threatens to speak from the heart. Truth flows abundantly in discomforting gushes from a source generally presumed dead. The plot begins with promise but becomes nebulous in the second half as the supposed turning point is followed up by no real turn, predictability writ large on the fate of the protagonist. But the story is seasoned with witty new metaphors and is punctuated by an unlikely inspired wisdom on a range of subjects: sex and intimacy, parental expectations, culture and literary taste, and of course music and its bittersweet relationship with pharmaceuticals.
The story, its setting and its language are shockingly familiar because it’s the expression of the zeitgeist we have lived through as ‘nineties kids.’ There is here a nostalgia for a not too distant past which we have hastened to change (I have probably watched Kal Ho Na Ho on the same day and at the same screen as the not-so-hypothetical protagonist of the book). It deals with some of the existential questions that we’ve struggled with, and is always an interesting read. I look forward to more unsettling truths through more fiction from this author's pen. Recommended, especially and of course, to my fellow nineties kids.
And take birth it did. A chance encounter with a beautiful girl and a dubious tryst with love transport the repressed nerd boy into the drug world – something that seems an alarmingly ubiquitous subculture. The story of discovery that follows purports to be the biography of a generation that finds itself off-centre, recognising the futility of the empty values that it was brought up on. This is the story of an entire generation that is tired of differences and prefers meaninglessness to artificiality. The ‘nineties kids,’ unfamiliar with narrow walls erected by cultural differences and ‘branded’ snobbishness, fervently seek happiness – or at least the meaning of it.
It is easy to write about the distant past, about a history whose strands have played out their roles and have settled down into a neat fabric, having been combed, catalogued and filed away by historians. But it is difficult to write about a history that is not yet dead. It is difficult to explain away – with easy logic – events and popular perceptions of an era whose consequences we’re still living through. Because the strands of such a history are still tangled up in an unyielding mess akin to the (now extinct) cassette tape depicted on the cover of this moving book. Cough Syrup Surrealism attempts such an analysis, and offers a moving explanation felt painfully.
If you see the sex and the drugs in the book as merely an expression of libertarianism, you might miss the greater point that Mao, Charlie’s itinerant alter-ego, is trying to make. This is the story of a generation of displaced individuals – the nineties kids – who see the futility of the world. The voice is new and unsettling, and threatens to speak from the heart. Truth flows abundantly in discomforting gushes from a source generally presumed dead. The plot begins with promise but becomes nebulous in the second half as the supposed turning point is followed up by no real turn, predictability writ large on the fate of the protagonist. But the story is seasoned with witty new metaphors and is punctuated by an unlikely inspired wisdom on a range of subjects: sex and intimacy, parental expectations, culture and literary taste, and of course music and its bittersweet relationship with pharmaceuticals.
The story, its setting and its language are shockingly familiar because it’s the expression of the zeitgeist we have lived through as ‘nineties kids.’ There is here a nostalgia for a not too distant past which we have hastened to change (I have probably watched Kal Ho Na Ho on the same day and at the same screen as the not-so-hypothetical protagonist of the book). It deals with some of the existential questions that we’ve struggled with, and is always an interesting read. I look forward to more unsettling truths through more fiction from this author's pen. Recommended, especially and of course, to my fellow nineties kids.
September 14, 2013
By Tharun James Jimani. Grade A
Dear Indians, prepare yourselves for a new kind of genera in book writing, which stabs in the heart of romantic bullshits. Prepare yourself for the arrival of Tharun James Jimani with a single mission to erase the line between reality and fiction. Prepare yourselves for Cough Syrup Surrealism which can be defined as an illegitimate child of Chuck Palahniuk and Loera, bleeding and breathing out of Tharun’s pen. This is not cough syrup, ladies and gentlemen, this is a molasses of philosophy fermenting brilliance in two hundred and seventy pages. This is Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. YES! Drink…but…very carefully.
Cough Syrup Surrealism is a rallying point for a man of a generation who feel isolated and burdened. In some ways, it’s a quarter-life crisis that all of us go through at some or say, most part of our lives. God created man and left him to his own devices. Now humans are left to guide themselves. This leaves most people confused with no well-defined meaning or structure in life.
Charlie is one boring byproduct of this belief, whose life for him is just random suffering. And then it happens.
Tharun knows the inherent madness of the plot, so instead of wasting time with courtesies or finding a possible explanation of how a hot girl enters right into Charlie’s life, he gives us a complete dose of cough syrup with the gentleness of an apothecary. What Tharun gives is an escape from reality and that pleasure is far more important than any rational logic. Let me go forward and call him Coolzsche.
Coming to the plot in brief: There are three narrators in the story – Mao (the alter ego of Charlie), Charlie and the readers.
Charlie becomes a drug dealer. Charlie and Paloma have sex. Charlie becomes a stoner. Charlie’s parents want him to be an IAS just like his papa. Charlie doesn’t give a damn for papa’s dream. Charlie becomes a lead singer of Paloma’s boyfriend’s band. Charlie jams. Charlie becomes a local star. Charlie and Paloma continue to have sex. Charlie becomes a drug dealer. Charlie falls in love with Paloma. Charlie’s parents are upset. Charlie leaves his parents. Charlie becomes a narcissist. Charlie hates himself. Charlie falls out of love with Paloma.
Tharun leave us oscillating in disbelief and awe. Though CSS falters just a bit near the end into a bit of melodrama and clichéd formula, for the most part it is sheer brilliance. If Nietzsche and Schopenhauer would have been alive, I think they would have fought like sissy boys over this one. Discussing, dissecting and abusing Tharun with expletives and nods of appreciation. Cough Syrup Surrealism fondles with your grey matter and makes you question your beliefs.
If libraries were a giant philosophical brothel, Cough Syrup Surrealism would be my favourite whore I would have love to sleep with every night. And I mean it in the most respectable way.
Originally reviewed at Vaultofbooks.com, a close-knit community of fanatical readers. We are looking for perceptive readers who can write well, and we are eager to provide lots of free books in exchange for reviews. Shoot us a mail at contact@vaultofbooks.com
Dear Indians, prepare yourselves for a new kind of genera in book writing, which stabs in the heart of romantic bullshits. Prepare yourself for the arrival of Tharun James Jimani with a single mission to erase the line between reality and fiction. Prepare yourselves for Cough Syrup Surrealism which can be defined as an illegitimate child of Chuck Palahniuk and Loera, bleeding and breathing out of Tharun’s pen. This is not cough syrup, ladies and gentlemen, this is a molasses of philosophy fermenting brilliance in two hundred and seventy pages. This is Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. YES! Drink…but…very carefully.
Cough Syrup Surrealism is a rallying point for a man of a generation who feel isolated and burdened. In some ways, it’s a quarter-life crisis that all of us go through at some or say, most part of our lives. God created man and left him to his own devices. Now humans are left to guide themselves. This leaves most people confused with no well-defined meaning or structure in life.
Charlie is one boring byproduct of this belief, whose life for him is just random suffering. And then it happens.
Tharun knows the inherent madness of the plot, so instead of wasting time with courtesies or finding a possible explanation of how a hot girl enters right into Charlie’s life, he gives us a complete dose of cough syrup with the gentleness of an apothecary. What Tharun gives is an escape from reality and that pleasure is far more important than any rational logic. Let me go forward and call him Coolzsche.
Coming to the plot in brief: There are three narrators in the story – Mao (the alter ego of Charlie), Charlie and the readers.
Charlie becomes a drug dealer. Charlie and Paloma have sex. Charlie becomes a stoner. Charlie’s parents want him to be an IAS just like his papa. Charlie doesn’t give a damn for papa’s dream. Charlie becomes a lead singer of Paloma’s boyfriend’s band. Charlie jams. Charlie becomes a local star. Charlie and Paloma continue to have sex. Charlie becomes a drug dealer. Charlie falls in love with Paloma. Charlie’s parents are upset. Charlie leaves his parents. Charlie becomes a narcissist. Charlie hates himself. Charlie falls out of love with Paloma.
Tharun leave us oscillating in disbelief and awe. Though CSS falters just a bit near the end into a bit of melodrama and clichéd formula, for the most part it is sheer brilliance. If Nietzsche and Schopenhauer would have been alive, I think they would have fought like sissy boys over this one. Discussing, dissecting and abusing Tharun with expletives and nods of appreciation. Cough Syrup Surrealism fondles with your grey matter and makes you question your beliefs.
If libraries were a giant philosophical brothel, Cough Syrup Surrealism would be my favourite whore I would have love to sleep with every night. And I mean it in the most respectable way.
Originally reviewed at Vaultofbooks.com, a close-knit community of fanatical readers. We are looking for perceptive readers who can write well, and we are eager to provide lots of free books in exchange for reviews. Shoot us a mail at contact@vaultofbooks.com
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August 5, 2014I'm not sure I really 'got' this book. The obvious story line is not really complex - Charlie, a Mallu boy in Chennai, whose dad expects him to become an IAS officer just like him, gets sucked into a world of drugs, music and sex every fifth page. He also has an identity crisis, and like Peter Pan, refuses to grow up, despite quite a lot of self flagellation and advice from his parents and friends. A nineties kid who refuses to acknowledge let alone accommodate the noughties, his relationships are anything but simple.
Mao (a figment of Charlie's imagination) might get irritated, but I wondered if this was the only level this book was operating at. The narrative (and this is not necessarily criticism) is very Charlie-like. I always had this feeling that there was subtext I was completely missing out on. On many occasions, I plodded through text - the Charlie analogy I'd use is that it's a bit like smiling at pop culture references you haven't really got. Charlie's thoughts - for example, mixtapes and body parts - would make for a great conversation when stoned. I wondered quite a few times whether that condition was a prerequisite to reading the book! I'm not even sure if the author meant for this to work that way, but when we have a title that has cough syrup and surrealism, that thought is bound to cross your mind.
Meanwhile, I liked the understated humour, and the occasional, almost shy, wordplay and wit. There was something endearing about that. There are only a couple of places where I was willing the author to get on with the narrative, otherwise the pace is trippy and racy at the same time.
If you want something radically different from standard fare, this might not be a bad idea.
Mao (a figment of Charlie's imagination) might get irritated, but I wondered if this was the only level this book was operating at. The narrative (and this is not necessarily criticism) is very Charlie-like. I always had this feeling that there was subtext I was completely missing out on. On many occasions, I plodded through text - the Charlie analogy I'd use is that it's a bit like smiling at pop culture references you haven't really got. Charlie's thoughts - for example, mixtapes and body parts - would make for a great conversation when stoned. I wondered quite a few times whether that condition was a prerequisite to reading the book! I'm not even sure if the author meant for this to work that way, but when we have a title that has cough syrup and surrealism, that thought is bound to cross your mind.
Meanwhile, I liked the understated humour, and the occasional, almost shy, wordplay and wit. There was something endearing about that. There are only a couple of places where I was willing the author to get on with the narrative, otherwise the pace is trippy and racy at the same time.
If you want something radically different from standard fare, this might not be a bad idea.
July 21, 2017
I was out of stock and was Googling.. Books To Read. That was when I came across this book. I thought it must be some moral policing. Cough Syrup Surrealism... Name was itchy. May be is this why?? Title matters the most. After reading some reviews. I decided to buy it and charlie kept me on the hook till the Page No. 273.
This Books is a peak into the lives of people into intoxicants. Who are termed the unwanted children of our society. They do not fit into the rules. Booze, Sex, Music and Friends lost in their little world. Away from the heavy expectations of their family and struggling to find a meaning to their lives. Lost in the oblivion created by Movies, Music, Weed and other Chemical drugs. Fascinated by the temporary pleasures. When they are not high enough reality strikes them back and they revert back to the oblivion. Charlie-bum, Has been raised to become his fathers dream. Many of us has been but problem starts when we do not want to be. We start searching for a meaning to our lives other than being a slave to parental and societal needs. When they do not find one intoxicants provide them a adobe. Frustrating path of life haunts them no more. They find happiness in doing nothing and end up in oblivion. we are the middle children of history, No purpose or place. we have no great war, No great depression, our great war is a spiritual war - Tyler. Charlie-bum, is happy to leave his family for his little world were he find happiness but for how long. And what than??? And what is this life all about pleasures or like Kabir put it... "we all will die one day, Only Name would remain behind". And why are we obsessed with society??? why can't we follow our self rather than following any other ism??? Many Questions Charlie-Bum leaves you with.
This Books is a peak into the lives of people into intoxicants. Who are termed the unwanted children of our society. They do not fit into the rules. Booze, Sex, Music and Friends lost in their little world. Away from the heavy expectations of their family and struggling to find a meaning to their lives. Lost in the oblivion created by Movies, Music, Weed and other Chemical drugs. Fascinated by the temporary pleasures. When they are not high enough reality strikes them back and they revert back to the oblivion. Charlie-bum, Has been raised to become his fathers dream. Many of us has been but problem starts when we do not want to be. We start searching for a meaning to our lives other than being a slave to parental and societal needs. When they do not find one intoxicants provide them a adobe. Frustrating path of life haunts them no more. They find happiness in doing nothing and end up in oblivion. we are the middle children of history, No purpose or place. we have no great war, No great depression, our great war is a spiritual war - Tyler. Charlie-bum, is happy to leave his family for his little world were he find happiness but for how long. And what than??? And what is this life all about pleasures or like Kabir put it... "we all will die one day, Only Name would remain behind". And why are we obsessed with society??? why can't we follow our self rather than following any other ism??? Many Questions Charlie-Bum leaves you with.
August 13, 2013
What a fabulously refreshing read that was! Alright, for those of you who've read about the plot (the whole IAS scene, uninterested son, disappointed parents and so on), do not drop the book just yet, because that's totally not what this book is all about. On the contrary, it takes you on a wild wild ride (as clichéd as that may sound), into a young guy's (almost fantasy) world conjured up by a constant ingestion of drugs and rock 'n' roll. His dreams and plans step aside for a while, for him to finally be what he thinks or wished he is.
For a début author, Jimani totally kicks ass! With its constant ammo of laugh-out-loud moments, consistently (sometimes very rudely) interrupted by thaw-deep-inside-you retrospective moments, it is a fascinating début novel by a talented writer. As far as I'm concerned, this young littérateur is hear to say and lets just say some mainstream 'very-Indian' authors should be hearing some serious alarm bells ringing. Its time to step it up folks! Take a bow Jimani!
For a début author, Jimani totally kicks ass! With its constant ammo of laugh-out-loud moments, consistently (sometimes very rudely) interrupted by thaw-deep-inside-you retrospective moments, it is a fascinating début novel by a talented writer. As far as I'm concerned, this young littérateur is hear to say and lets just say some mainstream 'very-Indian' authors should be hearing some serious alarm bells ringing. Its time to step it up folks! Take a bow Jimani!
December 28, 2016
My incentive to read 'Cough Syrup Surrealism' was the fact that the author is from Thiruvananthapuram and that somebody from the 90s era would be documenting life as we know it here. I felt ambiguous wading through numerous US and UK pop cultural references in terms of sitcoms and music. On the one hand, it's very close to what I experienced growing up as well, but in my own nascent efforts to put together some words on how life was like at that time, I wanted to make sure that the narrative wouldn't be overcome by the heavy reference to an alien culture which we have so readily adopted here as our own. The author does well to keep you hooked with some fairly interesting characters, but when I finished reading it, I felt like I just watched an Anurag Kashyap film, say, something like Dev D, rather than a book about 90s mallu guy in Chennai. But maybe I am putting my own hopes into the novel rather than take it for what the author offers. Overall it is a fast-paced, drug-induced rock opera of a fun-read.
November 19, 2013
A good read, nice book from Tharun, a refreshing story.
The story of a boy who ruins his life by getting into the world of drugs, finding frnds with similar kind of addictions, how he ends up in music bands, clubs, fights... crazy life of a teenager.
The core story seemed to be little slow and repetitive reminding of hollywood movies.
The best thing that I would recollect from this read was the feelings, expectations, their worries of parents about their children, their condition when they come to know that the prodigal son has shattered all of their expectations, some insight to human psychology.
Overall a good read.
The story of a boy who ruins his life by getting into the world of drugs, finding frnds with similar kind of addictions, how he ends up in music bands, clubs, fights... crazy life of a teenager.
The core story seemed to be little slow and repetitive reminding of hollywood movies.
The best thing that I would recollect from this read was the feelings, expectations, their worries of parents about their children, their condition when they come to know that the prodigal son has shattered all of their expectations, some insight to human psychology.
Overall a good read.
November 17, 2013
A very good start from a promising Malayalee writer Tharun James. The author covers few months in the life of a disillusioned teenager Charlie. Charlie is bored with life in Chennai when he starts trying out all sorts of drugs, falls in love with Paloma, befriends her roommate Sania and joins a music band. From then on his life of sex, drugs and music starts to unhinge a little every day.
The themes dealt with in the book are not new, but the writing is refreshingly good - the language and the construct of the novel.
Will look forward to more from Tharun.
The themes dealt with in the book are not new, but the writing is refreshingly good - the language and the construct of the novel.
Will look forward to more from Tharun.
July 19, 2013
3.5 stars....
my review: http://goo.gl/Av9c6
I feel this is a book that has a lot of philosophy, thoughts on life etc. Good narration, justice done to the perspective and emotions involved and some things that quite a few of us would be able to relate to. It also takes topics that are usually uncomfortable or taboo for writers at times. I like it for the most part, but few things didn't gel well with me. It's a good debut, and I feel Tharun's future novels can only get better after it.
my review: http://goo.gl/Av9c6
I feel this is a book that has a lot of philosophy, thoughts on life etc. Good narration, justice done to the perspective and emotions involved and some things that quite a few of us would be able to relate to. It also takes topics that are usually uncomfortable or taboo for writers at times. I like it for the most part, but few things didn't gel well with me. It's a good debut, and I feel Tharun's future novels can only get better after it.
May 11, 2016
Not only did this book remind me of my being a Malayali, but it also told me about the experiences of college that I missed. I was too much into books to explore drugs and alcohol and sex fueled by these substances. In hindsight, did I really miss anything...?
However, this book is a perfect, light read and a good reminder of being young and foolish. A must read for everyone who considers themselves a dreamer.
However, this book is a perfect, light read and a good reminder of being young and foolish. A must read for everyone who considers themselves a dreamer.
August 12, 2013
A very different kind of book that is like a breath of fresh air. It is not preachy or glorified but it is a straight forwarded look at some of the issues that are prevalent among youngsters.
http://esotericphoenix.wordpress.com/...
http://esotericphoenix.wordpress.com/...
May 23, 2015
A completely different take on Youth Dilemma and what some of the college going kids of today go through! The best part about this book is the easy and smooth pace...the writing style has a subtle humour and never goes overboard...it is a very fresh book and a very nice debut by Tharun...hope young people who read this book never take Charlie's route and learn from his mistakes!
May 2, 2014
I read 'Cough Syrup Surrealism' recently. And then I re-read it, that being the fault of the Epilogue entirely. To write a non semi-literary review of such a book would have been a challenge, which I did not take. It is an unusual book and in a very good way.
Here's the full review:
http://www.sakshinanda.com/2014/03/bo...
Here's the full review:
http://www.sakshinanda.com/2014/03/bo...
July 8, 2014
A fun trip!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews