Finished reading this book called – JOHNNY GONE DOWN.
I purchased this book thinking it would be just another novel for time pass. Plus it was only. Rs. 100. So I thought why not buy it cause even if I dont like it I would have wasted only Rs. 100.
But it turned out to be much more than a run of mill novel, which has given me much more than I had asked for. It has one single underlying theme. Never ever take life for granted. If this moment I am enjoying the luxury of sitting in the comfort of my house , writing this piece on my laptop, next moment my whole world could come crashing down due to some unfortunate event.
It begins at a normal pace and you dont get hooked onto the book till you come to the turning point. And the turning point is where during the vacation, the protagonist Nikhil Arya gives his passport to his friend Sam to save Sam's life. After that there would hardly be a place where you would wana put the book down. And Even if you put the book down for some reason, when you pick it up you transported back into Nikhil’s world. The descriptions and writing are so lively. Nikhil’s whole journey form Cambodia to Thailand to Brazil to US and back to India is truly a lesson as to how we should be happy with what we have, how we should not judge people, that if something unfortunate has happened today it can be for something good to come. And most importantly it teaches us how to just live even if there is nothing to live for, no family no friends nothing. Its amazing Nikhil doesn't think of ending his life in such circumstances.
The only part where I feel the book loses its grip is towards the end. Its like you are waiting atleast now Nikhil’s life should stabilize, atleast now the book should end peacefully. I would rate it atleast 4 on 5 and a total paisa vasool thriller. I am bad at writing what the book is all about so heres the summary written at back of the book.
"""Nikhil Arya has fallen.
Once, he was an Ivy League scholar with a promising future at NASA; now, at forty, he is broke, homeless,and minutes away from blowing his brains out in a diabolical modern-day joust.
It wasnt meant to be this way. An innocent vacation turned into an epic intercontinental journey that saw Nikhil become first a genocidesurvivor, then a Buddhist monk, a drug lord, a homeless accountant, a software mogul and a deadly gamefighter. Now, twenty years later, Nikhil aka Johnny is tired of running. With the Colombian mafia on his trailand his abandoned wife and son ten thousand miles away, he prepares for his final act, aware that he will have lost even if he wins.
Or will he? Is there any greater victory than living a life that knows no limits, a world that has seen no boundaries?"""
