Review of The Symbol by Varun Gautam

About Author:

Varun Gautam, engineer by profession and writer by passion. ‘The Symbol’ is his debut work. His aim is to bring change in the mind set of people through his works.

Writing Style: 3/5.

The trend was started by CB and continued with many engineers. Writing about their experiences in IITs and IIMs or else any common engineering college. Market is flooding with these kind of works and it’s rare to find something unusual to read. By God's grace there are some writers who are differentand this work and writer is one of them. Few days back, I got work ‘The Symbol’ by Varun Gautam for review. Cover page of the novel gave me ‘Dan Brown feeling’ with symbols, numeric dancing here and there, with hooded person and fire element. I must say cover page of the novel is quite attractive. However, Blurb of the novel says a story, totally different from cover page. It reads story of a boy whose passion of clearing exam for admission in IMS is scattered and locks himself in a room of despair. All of sudden he finds a Symbol, which is claimed to change people’s life. This Symbol is given to Arjun by his friend Mohan, who once was a total failure. He gets success overnight and reveals to Arjun that the Symbol was the secret behind his success. After possessing Symbol, Arjun too, like Mohan gets success. There is one more character in this story, Dhruv, who is narrator of the story. Character of Arjun’s father is the lighter part of novel. He represents real life parents, who would sing songs of praise of their children. For failure and success, they would have long descriptions and valid arguments. 

Storyline of novel is quite good one and inspirational one, however, writer has tried his best, and he fails at some points. The very first chapter seems so enthralling and promising that the novel would be the best one, touching every nerve. Somehow, few points remained unexplained and felt like the novel ended abruptly. The theme selected by writer is really a good one. The despair and agony of a student is presented very well and confusion for selecting right path is presented through Dhruv. His decision of following heart seems perfect at ending. Arjun’s response to the failure is quite natural and he gets success by overcoming his fear of failure. He gets the Symbol from Mohan, which changes his life. This thing called Symbol is quite confusing. This black object, which beeps and produces blue light, appears from nowhere and disappears all of sudden. The end left many questions, which are unanswered by novel. Really a good attempt, though author could make it more impressive and effective. The use of the object does not seem much appropriate, though only if it is symbolizing inner voice. Death of Mohan, raises many questions like, was his departure from the symbol responsible for his death? If yes then, was the same fate for Arjun? Narrative style of author is satisfying one. His concept of following heart is really good one. Some decisions must be taken from heart. As this is debut work of Varun, I wish him best future and waiting for more works from him. If one brushes aside these minor drawbacks than this novel is a good read. 

   

My overall rating for this work is 3/5.

Genre: Fiction

Paperback: 229 pages

Publisher: Authorpress

Language: English