Book Review: KADRINCHE beyond words

“KADRINCHE beyond words” is a debut novel by Mr. Kinley Wangchuk who works for a private sector and who also happens to be a friend of my mother. So it was kind of inevitable for the book to land in my hands. First and foremost I would like to thank Mr. Kinley for the autographed copy and would also like to congratulate you on the debut novel and hope to see more of your work in the near future. As a person who aspires to write a novel of my own it is really inspiring whenever I read a book especially by a Bhutanese author. It helps me move closer to my dream even if it’s just a step.

As it says on the back cover of the book, “KADRINCHE; beyond words” is a story of a family overshadowed by an unfortunate turn of events. This story is about Wangchuk and the ever changing journey of his life. It tells about how uncertain things are in life and how they keep changing. For one moment you think everything is alright and the next moment everything in your world turns upside down. When you think you lost it all, you see a flicker of hope. And if you are wise enough to keep that flicker alive then you find that everything turns out just fine in the end. The story doesn’t just show the change of fate in one’s life but it also shows how people are also subject to change especially in a developing country like ours with the exposure to television and internet and top that with bad friends.

The novel traces the life of Wangchuk from finding a job to settling down in a new place, from a meeting by chance to tying the knot, from a successful rise in career to a sudden fall, from a state of misery to a realization and redemption, and ultimately to an eventual end.

For me I felt that it was a good read and it really did give me an insight into how other people think and express themselves. The book is really worth the time.

It’s not like I am trying to blow my own trumpet or look down on others but there are certain things that were a little off for me. This is just my honest opinion and is in no way intended to undermine the author or anyone else connected to the book.

First of all as a reader I really like suspense. I think that the suspense creates a kind of curiosity in the reader and making them want to read further into the story to find out what happens. And of course some people like to know beforehand what they are getting into too. In the novel, the chapters are titled like “to the East”, “the meeting of two souls”, “from moth to butterfly” and so on. This, for me, killed the suspense at the beginning of each chapter. I kind of got the gist of what was coming in the following pages. But that’s just me.

The other things that was off for me were the few silly mistakes spread through the book like missing words, inconsistent spelling of names on the same page, sudden change of the sex of the characters from time to time. I am not blaming the author or the editor for such silly mistakes at all. I just think that the finishing touch of the book not good because of these mistakes.

 

 

The titling of the chapters is just my opinion and I am in no way trying say that it is wrong just because I prefer it otherwise. I think that the mistakes are a little discouraging because after all the work put into bringing the novel to life if someone points out such mistakes, I am sure the author and the editors alike wouldn’t like it.... at all.

Lastly I want to clear out that I meant no offence to the author or the editor. It is because of people like you that people like me want to keep on reading and writing. With more Bhutanese authors on the rise I must say that it is really inspiring and I feel a kind of pride surge up in me when I hold onto and read books by Bhutanese authors.