The only reason I chose to actually review this book is because I took a lot of pain to read it. And that is not because it had obstinate English words which wouldn’t explain their meaning despite their usage in a sentence or because it was a thousand pages tedious novel, but simply because it is not available in the market. Even if you are determined to purchase the book, you won’t find it. Not now at least. As it is, I can say for sure, there aren’t many people interested in reading the book because it obviously wasn’t a path breaking extraordinary story, just one of those middle- brow pulp fiction compositions. But it was withdrawn from the markets because the poor author(a simple seventeen year old high school graduate) was accused of having picked up portions from other books(Sophie Kinsella’s, Meg Cabot’s and even Salman Rushdie’s!) and fittingly copy pasted them in her story. How much of it is true and how much of it is a allegation is genuinely not my worry because like most other pointless young adult fictions, I enjoyed this one too.
So, how exactly did I manage to get hold of a copy? E-book! Yes, that’s how. But it’s not as trouble-free as it sounds. Firstly, downloading beyond bitlord or limewire is not my kind of downloading. I usually get lost on those various sites. However, nothing would deter me. I successfully(and finally and thankfully and luckily and mercifully) found a rather messy version of the book which I downloaded because I decided that was the only option left. But the worst was yet to come. Little me couldn’t read the book on the computer screen. It was too “uncomfortable”. So I sent my dad an email with one hell of an attachment. And I wore the “my daddy best” smile(if not the tee or the baba suit) when he printed and got me the entire market-and-book store-forsaken book. And believe it or not it came out in four voluminous volumes. Go, Daddy! Sheer wastage of paper, you’d call it. But did I mention that I was determined!
Phew! Now that I have publicly announced how much trouble I took to read this book, I feel the purpose of writing this review is solved.
And yet the book is something. Quite something.
The central character Opal Mehta(Surprise surprise) is an overachieving young girl who unlike most other girls her age is much focused. The Mehta’s have raised their only daughter to believe that her only purpose in life is to get into her dream college. So, while other kids in school did what they wanted to do just for fun Opal worked hard for what she wanted and could not even distantly relate to this F word. Her every movement and every action was defined by tentatively planned out schedule charts which she devotedly followed. Every activity she took up at school was only with the intention of increasing her credentials in her resume which would come in handy when she applied for Harvard. So, essentially, Opals life revolved around Harvard. In fact, her parents even concocted a plan with the objective to make Opal a perfect prospective Harvard student. HOWGIH, they called it. How Opal Mehta Will Get Into Harvard. Subsequently, Opal turns out to be the ultimate genius kid. How about I tell you, Opal recites prime numbers when she is nervous?! 733, 739, 743, 751, 757, 761
But the interviewee at Harvard seems to be looking for more. Because contrary to what opal would have ever imagined, the first question Professor. Anderson hurled at her was “ what do you, Opal Mehta, like to do for fun?” . Opal had not prepared for this and this was not what the Dean was supposed to ask. He was supposed to gaze at her resume, look impressed, and ask her a few questions on the lines of “what is your social service experience?” or “wow.how did you develop such an interest in applied physics?” and finally end the interview on a optimistic note saying “look forward to your acceptance letter”! But what the hell! This is not what she had been preparing for, for all these years.
Now, the only way Opal can make it to Harvard is by proving Dean Anderson that she can have fun and she is a lot more than an alleged nerd. Opal’s life is turned upside down when her parents launch HOWGAL- How Opal Will Get A Life! Opal does what she had never done before…and sees what she had been missing out on all this while. And the rest, is what every other YA book is…
And this review is not written with the purpose of informing or recommending the book to the readers, but just to put a point forth that this is* a good book despite its title, the controversy which once surrounded it and the genre to which such books are usually reduced to. Now, this is in defense of chick lits or pulp fiction in general. The whole idea is- Fun. They do little good to your wisdom and barely titillate your wits. But fact is, they are just not meant for that purpose. Amongst all such books, I would say, this is one of the finest. And you do have to acknowledge that the author is just *a little girl. And oh, you might want to know, Kaavya did manage to make it to Harvard and I am sure the mention of this book in her resume helped her a great deal!
For some weird reason, I dedicate this review, to my father!