For someone who is from the engineering background or for that matter anyone, this book is a worth read. Five Point Someone makes for wonderful reading, but somehow I think its been over-hyped! The author, Chetan Bhagat, sure has a style and brings out the characters very vividly. So much so that I could visualise Hari, Ryan and Alok right in front of my eyes.
As always I wont be shedding any light on the plot.Lets talk about the book and the author then....
The best part is the way the author has succeed in describing each character. The book is almost autobiographical in the sense its a narrative in the first person. The narrator is Hari and the readers are taken through the lives of Hari, Ryan and Alok from Hari’s point of view. Well that’s interesting way of writing.
Coming to the book....the character I loved the most was Ryan. He’s this studly guy who has a rather practical approach towards life. And he’s the intelligent one. When I say intelligent I dont mean topper or the one with higher academic grades. By that I mean a creative person who likes to do what he wants and more importantly knows what he is doing. Of course he goes off the board sometimes and as a result Hari, Ryan and Alok land up in trouble....screwed up lives and Five Point Something grades.He’s a kind of rational person. I mean he has this very logical reason of hating his parents.(Well you guys need to read the book to find out what am I blabbering here).
Five Point Someone: Although the book largely is meant for fun reading and entertainment....it has this very important message to convey.....’The flaws in IIT system’. As an outsider one really doesn’t know whether to agree or disagree with the author’s views....but then the author compels us to think when he says something like, ’Name a single engineering marvel India can boast of ever since the inception of IITs’. Well lets not enter into that territory but the book has some message to convey.
Five Point Not So Someone: I didnt like the way the three characters viz Hari, Ryan and Alok sometimes react to certain situations. They are just too casual in their approach. I didn’t like the way Hari laughs at Alok and his mother. And even
after screwing up their grades and careers big time Hari still kind of remains calm about the whole thing. I mean he takes this neutral stand throughout the book and that bugged me a lot. On the other hand Ryan and Alok are too different ends of the same stick. Ryan is this studly, cool guy and Alok is this fatso-average-constantly-in-tension-guy.
But no matter how screwed up their lives become, our three heroes do manage to transform themselves from a meagre Five Point Somethings to Five Point SomeOne. And thats the most important thing, ins’t it?
Overall: I would recommend this book for reading atleast once. It makes you feel nostalgic about the things you have done, the things you should have done and the things you didnt do.....during your college lives. I loved it.....