It Must Have Been Love by Jigar Prajapati
Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi
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| It Must Have Been Love by Jigar Prajapati |
Author: Jigar Prajapati
ISBN: 978-9390441068
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 168 Pages
Publication Date: 8th December 2020
Publisher: Srishti Publishers & Distributors
Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/3y8WHM0
Jigar Prajapati holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. Having finished his schooling in regional language, writing a book in English seemed like a distant dream. But writing became his passion during his post-graduation in Construction Management. Now, along with being a well-known builder in Ahmedabad, he is also writing to his heart’s content.
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| Jigar Prajapati |
Instagram: @jigar_author
Facebook: @JigarMPrajapati
It Must Have Been Love, as the title and cover suggest, is a contemporary romance book written with the plainest of words that stirs up a storm of thoughts, questions, opinions, and judgments regarding the characters’ actions; whether they are right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, good or bad. While some dramatic fragments seem to be inspired by Bollywood and daily soap operas, other segments are creative, fun, and cleverly plotted that keep you rooted in the story being told.
The book starts with chapter zero called ‘The Beginning’ where Jigar has used author surrogate to narrate the chapter with humour. However, that doesn’t last long as he finds one of the lead characters Maan crying at the airport. The rest of the chapters are narrated by Maan, telling his story until the last chapter, which is again narrated by the author surrogate.
Maan’s story starts with his first day at college followed by the making of friends and their hostel adventures. Here, he becomes best friends with Naaz, who is a brilliant character. While they are still not sure about their feelings for each other, Maan decides to marry the girl he met in the process of matchmaking upon his parents’ insistence. This results in subsequent imprudent choices that they both are going to regret later. Maan and Naaz are pretty decent characters but confused AF nonetheless. This makes them classically tragic hero and heroine.
What I liked:
My most favourite part of this book is the ending that starts shortly before the author surrogate takes over the narration once again. The end makes it up for the mess that has been created by these two. Again, Jigar and his wife, Mona steal the show with their humour-filled venture.
Secondly, I liked many scenes that could be viewed independently of the storyline, character arcs, etc. These are mostly witty situations sprinkled throughout the book. For instance, Hostel Diaries, College Fun Moments, Attending Marriage and Other Functions, Friendship Goals, etc.
Lastly, I admire the fact that this book is balanced in every way. For instance, I think there is the presence of karma, which serves the characters well. There is also a balance of misery and pleasure, love and deceit, f-ups created by Maan and Naaz, etc.
What I disliked:
The book is written in plain language that obviously goes to follow ‘tell, don’t show’, which is quite understandable, although it leaves the onus on readers to wholly interpret and comprehend the storyline, scenes, character arcs, and most importantly, relationship dynamics with the text constrained by limited creativity and exposition.
Another thing that I didn’t like about this book is that I found Maan to be an unreliable narrator.
Lastly, the typical dramatic stuff, particularly, the ones that went to an extent to make you believe that it’s not the choices of a person but the destiny that is to be blamed.
Happy Reading!
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