The Hilly Billy
Author: Shivdutt Sharma
Publisher: India Impressions
Rating: 3/5
A mango ensures the birth of a son…
Ghosts hoot and cackle in a forest…
A tiger strikes terror in the heart of a village…
A boy experiences the first stirrings of desire…
On trips back to his hometown, memories appear, cling, and then fade away like the mist in the Himalayan foothills. Tracing the pangs and pleasures of growing up during the time of missionary schools, wind-up gramophones, hand-pulled designer rickshaws, maharanis in their imitation castles, busty film stars of the black-and-white era – a lone, all-brown boy in an all-white American school comes to grips with his coming of age.
Fast-paced and furiously funny, The Hill Billy zips up the otherwise tranquil, languid, laid-back life in a hill station that hasn’t quite got over the hangover of its British past.
My opinion
‘The Hilly Billy’ is basically a memoir/ autobiography of the author. Reading this book is more like walking down the memory lane and re-experiencing your childhood. The cover of the book is apt. The blurb is catchy. The best feature of the book is the division and presentation of content in the form of short chapters that are easy to read and time friendly.
The font (style and size) are fine. Happiness lies in smaller things- and this book proves this correct. Another positive aspect of this book is the use exemplary vocabulary. But this might come as a negative point for the not-so-avid-readers. Acting like a cherry on the cake, are the real-life experiences that the readers can find interesting and relate to.
Overall, a new concept to savour the reading buds of your mind.
Best wishes to the author!
Drawbacks
There are punctuation errors which can be spotted time and again. The use of Hindi Dialogues could have been avoided as not all find this inclusion interesting.
Buying Link: Amazon