#20 Book Review: Life in the Sunshine

Title: Life in the Sunshine

Author: T. Satish

Genre: Autobiography, Memoir

Publisher: Notion Press

Publication date: 25th February 2019

Pages: 230 pages

Read on: Paperback

Reading time (approx.): 4-5 hrs.

My ratings:

Blurb:

Sat, Sam, and Trib (a.k.a Triple sundae gang) are teenagers and they love cricket. They spend most of their time watching and playing the sport they love. They dream of making their living in the sport.
When they are not playing the game, they put on their thinking cap and come up with alternate versions of important matches or provide parodic answers to questions that have plagued cricket fans over the years.
However, fate intervenes in their idyllic life. On 18th April 1986, Javed Miandad hits Chetan Sharma for a six in Sharjah and leaves their cricket viewing life in tatters. The after-effects of this fateful event, continue to haunt them for many years.
Their problems don’t end there. 
Sat fails to graduate from school level cricket to state-level cricket. He is heartbroken by the loss of his dreams and faces a mini identity crisis.
How do the boys solve their problems?
Will the boys ever recover from that Javed Miandad incident?
Will Sat get his mojo back? 
Come, join the heartwarming ride and find out the answers, as Sat takes you through his nostalgic memories of the sport and narrates his coming of age story, which is deeply influenced by the sport!

My thoughts:

Cricket is a game loved by all the age groups in India. I remember being a kid and also today the wave of craze and excitement which rushes over all the Indians when you talk about cricket.

About the cover it’s average could have been better.

The story revolves around three friends Sam, Sat and Trib who aspire to become cricketers but not all can become cricketers. The story is from the pov of Satish who in the process of bettering his game comes across some major life lessons. Then be it love, hate, friendship, aspirations etc.. it’s a rollercoaster ride on which you are all set to board.

The one thing I really appreciate about this book is that the author has clearly written about the struggles of becoming a cricketer. Cricket being a sport loved and cherished by all is sometimes portrayed as a easy field but here in this book the author has clearly put down the struggles which I really appreciate.

The plot seems to be interesting as well as the characters, but the character development is the are where the story lacks other that sat I couldn’t really connect to the other characters, maybe that could be improved.

There is a repetition of incidence also which makes the book a tad bit slow paced. Other than these the other aspects of the book as awesome the storyline made me nostalgic and took down the memory lane which is a win-win situation. The writer has also added so fun elements which bring a big big smile on your face.

Writing style:

The writing style is the only place I’d like to see a improvement in. The character development as I said lacked structure and depth. In a book like this I feel it’s the character who weaves all the magic in the story. Other than this the writing style is lucid and use of simple engEngl makes it ideal for everyone to read.

Overall an amazing read.