Was this book edited, or even proofread before it was published? I ask this question before commenting on the story because the book is practically riddled with grammatical errors; the tense keeps changing from sentence to sentence (at times within one sentence) and there is a continuous gender confusion..! Once I decided to ignore these obvious errors and try to focus on the story, I found it drama packed. This book could easily be adapted for a blockbuster Bollywood movie, if there already hasn’t been any movie with similar theme yet. The story is about a disgruntled woman, Aarti, stuck in an unhappy marriage with an infidel husband and a son of 15, struggling to come to term with the maturity his age demands. Aarti wishes to break free from the male chauvinism of her husband that throttles her feminine rights and ambitions and carve a new identity for herself. In this pursuit, she comes across Sahil, a young, enthusiastic man who happens to be her guitar teacher. With Sahil’s entry, Aarti finds herself struggling with her morality, virtues, responsibilities as a mother and a wife and amidst all the chaos, asserting her right to a respected, self-defined life. ‘The Closure’ is essentially any woman’s story who chooses to challenge the traditional, patriarchal society protocols; about her battle against the regressive chauvinistic attitude.
For those who enjoy typical family drama, the book is a right pick. The pace of the story is good and keeps one glued to it. At times, certain incidents appear to be strewn randomly, providing no connection to the story at all. For example, I couldn’t understand why Aarti moves to Jaipur, what does she do there, what was her connection to the roommate and her daughter, and more importantly why was she not with Sahil. There are more such gaps in the story, but that probably is something that went wrong with the editing.
Nevertheless, Sweta Sureka, strikes all the right cords in spirited, ambitious women willing to battle all odds for self-preservation. I would recommend this book for a light read.