I was excited from the moment I heard that there was a new
Ashok Ferrey book was out and it was a full novel instead of a collection of short stories. My
excitement was at fever pitch when I got the book into my hands and started
flipping through the pages. The start was excellent and all it did was to whet my
appetite to devour the book.
But as I was getting deeper in to the book something kept gnawing
at the back of my head. Believe it or not it was a video of (one) of my
favorite comedians Papa CJ.
However there was nothing funny about this video as
this was a serious presentation he was making at a TED conference on “Being
Yourself”. The sad thing was that this gentleman who was so used to making
jokes could not make a serious presentation without drifting into comedy mode.
To such a degree it diluted the point he was trying to get across. It was ironic.
This book made me feel the same way.
It was a beautiful story about a young man who has to resort
to being a male gigolo to make ends meet while he is in the UK. The way the
book started I believe he intended to write a dark, deep, serious story quite similar
to Colombo by Carl Muller - but somehow he could not help but digress into the
funny quirky humorous Ashok Ferrey we all know and love to read.
And therein lay the issue with this book. At least in my
eyes and make me refer to it as a book with an identity crisis. Having said
that I must confess that I did thoroughly enjoy reading the book and have no
regrets in purchasing it.
