Book review - I am Life by Shraddha Soni, reviewed by Dhruv

As an aspiring author, I am always interested in other people’s first books. It is this first book that transforms normal people like me into “Authors”.  

Recently I got a chance to read a book titled “I am Life”, it was the first book of the author and in paragraphs that follow, and I will try to convey my view of this book.

This book deals with an ambitious topic, philosophy, meaning and purpose of one’s life. For a first book, this is mighty ambitious a topic, but to author’s credit it is nicely justified through the micro level story of its protagonist, Siddharth Khanna.

Book starts like any other first time thriller initially but soon turns into a dense and heavy read because of the inquisitiveness, tensions and turmoil experienced by Siddharth.  Siddharth loses his job, wealth, home, family and every other possession overnight, when his wife separates from him through divorce to end an unhappy marriage.  He is shown to be extremely upright and individualistic, in the beginning, not caring about anyone but himself. The sudden loss shatters his veneers of strength, he wants to find god and ask him why such a thing has happened to him.

In his quest, he goes back to India; he roams in various Ashrams and visits many Gurus in order to find the mental equilibrium, the poise which can help him understand purpose of his life.  However nothing seems to be helping.

The more he tries to question life and expect answers in return the more complex and messy it gets. His struggle seems to be reaching nowhere, he even thinks about suicide, and then he meets Myrah. Myrah, initially, seems to be one of the women with whom Siddharth will eventually share bed and move ahead, part in regret part in fun.  

However, later readers realize that Myrah is a figment of imagination from the author. She teaches Siddharth to open up to life, to let life take control and steer his way through.

The message that book gives out is really good one, all of us at times try to control life way too much by focusing either on past or in future  - this approach can steer us away from life way too much. In times like these we must connect to life, surrender to the plans it has for us rather than fighting with it.

There are some parts where this book doesn’t really live up to expectations. Names of characters, turns of events, their psyche and way of thinking is too stereotype and lacks freshness. There are lots of threads which are left loose and author really has to conclude everything in last few pages using summary of end results. Ideally it would have been wonderful had the end been woven into the story and not separately.