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Imagine reading a book which doesn't tell you one story, but 14 different ones, a varied mosaic of multi colored, multi textured pieces. The thing you would want most definitely, when you plough through the winding curves that make up the complicated lives of each of the individuals, is a base that connects all of them and a roof that lends meaning to the stories. What we have then is a beautiful house, diverse inside with its many rooms, each with a different view of life, each with its own experiences, and each with a different scent that leads to different places. However, all these rooms would be connected with a perspective and a message that would be very much obvious when you finished the book.
In short, it is like 14 short stories with a theme and the theme is something we all know and have heard about again and again, love. Since it is indeed, such a common theme, it is all the more difficult to write about it, in a way that is not mundane, or stereotype or clich?d. The author should be commended for his effort to talk about our favorite theme in a different tone. In fact, a mixture of tones, with overtones and underlying notes blending into the theme nicely and lending a beauty that couldn't have been conjured otherwise.
So, on the outset, there are three good things about Broken which good books usually must possess. The first is distinct characters. It is true, that most stories have one or two protagonists. It is very difficult from a reader's perspective to absolutely and equally focus on more than a couple of characters in a book. So how is this book different? In the words of the author himself, in one of the interviews, most of the readers will identify themselves with at least one character in the book, as there has been such generosity in his style in creating so many vignettes from the perspective of the present generation. The beauty of the book hence, is that the protagonist of one reader might be totally different from the other. This is healthy, both for the interest that the author generates in the minds of the readers and the thought process that starts while the readers try to make their own inferences from the story. The characters are not perfect. They are nowhere close to it. In fact, some of them would be labeled failures in the present society. The tone that describes them is dark and grave, with the backdrop of drug abuse, sexual abuse, turmoil, pain and scarred memories. But if love can come out clean in such a situation, and mend to some extent, if not fully, the broken pieces of what was once a good heart, there is definitely hope for most of us, who fortunately don't possess such a scarred and scary past.
The second good thing about the book is its theme. Over the years, when I have tried to analyze books and stories to find out why some have been successful with the readers by touching a chord and some haven't been, I observed that books that remind readers of themselves or someone they know very closely have been far more successful. Books that have gone one step ahead are those which make one identify about the many problems that exist in the present world and have given a ray of hope and highlighted a silver lining to the cloud. 'Broken', falls in the latter category. This might come as a surprise for those who tried to guess about the book from its name. The title doesn't intend to highlight the all-drowning pessimism around us.
It would be gloomy, dark and depressing if it tried to do so. The title only intends to give a theme that connects the mosaic, the fabric on which each of them fit, adding their own tint or hue, making the fabric ever so beautiful. It talks about how love is the greatest healer and how human beings differ from the rest of the species in their ability to understand, share and balm each other's pain. In the words of one of the characters, "We were two broken people who needed each other." Without a unifying theme, that lets the reader gain something, that enriches a reader's thought process and emotions that extra bit, a book would merely remain as a story that could be read to while away time. A good theme makes all the difference by creating memories, impressions and reminders. Broken does that with its simple, yet, beautiful message.
Last, but not the least important ingredient that makes this book a good read in my opinion, is the narrative. How, the characters talk to the readers makes a big difference. Is it through events, is it through a story someone else wrote about them or is it directly, as their own account, lending it a totally personal touch? The narrative of Broken is mostly in first person. Most characters speak to the reader directly. It feels almost as authentic as listening to it from a friend across a coffee table. The melee of voices, considering there are so many characters, each with their own failures, ambitions, dreams, nightmares, could sometimes be confusing. However, it was the only way the story could have been told. The honesty in the voice and the truth in the pain could come only if the characters speak to you. Examples of that could be seen in one of the characters, escaping with a child from a dangerous man, even as her feet were bleeding; and a guy accidentally bumping into his idol at a bar, yet not being able to say anything smart to hold on to his attention. But all is not about deprecating or gloom. The story has many humorous sequences that would make the reader sit back and smile, may be even laugh at one point. The description of two friends, one talking on the phone while the other increasing the volume of a song, finally tempting the friend on the phone to sing along too, was a creative and sweet moment. It ends with the whole crowd in the traffic jam joining the party. It was a beautiful ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, a sequence that could keep you upbeat and on a high on even the most difficult days.
All in all, Broken doesn't drain you of all the energy you have, like some books with heavy themes do. It doesn't make you shake your head at the stupidity of the characters or the plot, like stories about troubled teenagers and young people sometimes do. It has a beautiful concept. The author hasn't created the characters, rather based them on various interesting people he met during his journey. This makes the characters real. This makes the tone authentic. I believe this is enough to make readers get hooked to it and finish it without much ado. I am sure, at the end of it, their thoughts and appreciation would be coherent and not broken.
