Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

Dead Souls By Nicolai Gogol  Rating : 5/5 Genres : Classics,Social Message, Satire,Humor,Philosophical Fiction, Russia This is a story with profound spiritual and philosophical message. I loved it so very immensely. For a deviation, the main character (the hero) of the plot is not glorified as a man of all virtues but is exposed for all his deep flaws, dishonesty and his very imperfect soul is laid bare to the reader so that he may become the one important lesson of how not to behave/act in life - with immorality. It depicts so well that what one should try to save and cherish cannot be stolen by another person - because it is not of a materialistic nature but rather spiritual. It is also a call to each one of the humanity to awaken their sense of self justice and honesty and not fall into the temptation despite peer pressure. 💜 So, so, so enchanted with the depth of human character and nature the author was able to uncover through the several other different personali...

Nausea By Paul Jean Sartre  Rating 4/5  Genres : Classics, Existential Reality, Satire, Freakish. This is not the kind of a novel that we come across everyday. It has some very weird thoughts expressed in real honest ways and they are rather abstract and hard to grasp. The protagonist seems to be fast spinning down a spiral of insanity and is also fully aware of this fact. He rambles at length without making much sense and then becomes extremely lucid and clear like glass. To really understand what he is saying, to really feel what is he going through, I think one has to stand in his very shoes and walk the length and bredth of his existential reality. Otherwise is is just plain insanity and nonsensical. :(  For my part, I understand him completely. I could figure exactly what he is trying to convey and although he is only perhaps a figure fiction, I sympathize with him.  The protagonist is a thirty year old man who finds no meaning and purpose to his lif...

Candide by Voltaire  Rating : 4/5  Genres : Satire, Classics, Novella  This is a really short book. But it covers huge ground - i mean literally! The main character in the story, Candide, walks/treads all over multiple continents and lands facing mishap after mishap with a singular pursuit in mind - to reach and unite his lover. It is a satire on the philosophy that says 'everything happens for the best'. The narrative is outright hilarious at places even where one is supposed to be moved to compassion and tears at the bad luck that strikes the main characters in the play. It goes on in a totally un-serious vein where we see people dead in earlier chapters springing back to life in the later ones. 🤣🤣 Candide gets thrown out of his kingdom because he has fallen in love with the king's daughter. He had a teacher who drilled into him the philosophy that everything that happens is for the best and as life takes him through different twists and turns throwing him...

Death With Interruptions Jose Saramago  Genres : death, speculative fiction, humor, satire,2021-read Rating 5/5  💕💕 Loved it!! "Death" is conquered. By Love!! This is an abnormally endearing book. Its ripe with impossible hypothetical possibilities and they are just mind blowing!  The reader along with the citizens of a lucky/unlucky country are taken for a ride by Death which wants to test human fragility. Then Death comes up with some ideas of her own - because she can and who is there to question or deter her? Yeah! Its a very hilarious write up and the comical timing is so apt!  I didn't anticipate this to be a love story but that's what it has turned out to be and a pretty touching one too - in its authenticity, honesty and it just had my knees go weak. I waited with baited breath as to how it would end - for how many can have a successful love affair with Death? Little bit into the story. For a brief period of seven months, death takes a break. People of a ce...