Review : The Hope Factory: A Novel by Lavanya Sankaran

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15798326-the-hope-factory



My rating 2/5
Goodread rating 3.39/5









I was on 100th page of this book and the story looked hopeless. I wanted to give up. Since I have taken the challenge of reading 50 books this year. I picked this book again to give a last try.

The main issue with this book is, author uses very common Indian name for all his main characters. And also he introduces so many new characters with very common name in the subplot. Because of this the whole thing becomes a mess. I usually get lost which character belongs where. I thought Shanta is wife of Anand and Vidya is maid. He could have gone with different name or given a good impressing back story for each character so we can associate the character with some incident.

Gist: This is the story of Anand  a businessman and his maid Kamla a widow. Don't get excited, this is not a love story, this is the story about the struggle they both go through to achieve their dream. This is about, how Anand is muscled by his father-in-law and a politician for buying a 10 acre plot. and how Kamla raises her son through all the hardship.

The other thing irked me was the way authors "high society" people conversation. I have very limited knowledge from the movies and TVs,and i can vouch they don't match with authors depiction.

The two star is for authors true narration of the Indian society. He narrated very well about the political influences on  the businessmen and how election are contested.