Book Review : ‘Serving You' by Jaydeep Banerjee

‘Serving You’ is all imagination. The story began in an imaginary town, which is up in the north and begins with the protagonist cycling to school. Johnny Django and his entire activity including his school life, complete with his adventures are included, in this time frame. During a holiday, the family is at an imaginary hill station which is wonderfully described, by the author.

Johnny is on a walk into a graveyard, which would play a major part in his life in the future. After the holiday, his family moves to an imaginary city, where he is at a college and where he meets his future wife, Shirley. Shirley, who belongs to a business family, is very keen on entrepreneurship. As soon as the two of them are done with college, she pushes for setting up their own book store.

The two of them work together and marriage keeps the two together. The two have children of their own, before life takes a new turn. Johnny, at his board meeting has something new to share with his wife and colleagues. Picking the right words to say, he finally spills the beans.

He wants to open a restaurant, which serves human meat. He has an audacious plan, which includes clean carcasses, the wonderful spices, the beautiful waitresses and a chef, who is willing to serve human meat. How he convinces his wife and the board members is all a part of this time frame. Johnny’s entire life is divided into four time frames.

I do not know what to make of this story. Everything has been very well described, and therein was my problem. The love story and the life story are alright. Am guessing, that all the words used in the beginning, which made me pick up a dictionary was done to show the difference in the use of language, nowadays. And then, as the time frame changes, the language dies too.

Moving on, the descriptions are very well done, I mean really well. Probably, a little too well, for my stomach. Do read it, to understand the author, Jaydeep Banerjee thinks of, as his descriptions are probably a part of his own life. Except the human meat, of course. He does have a rather radical view.

The journey of Johnny’s entire life is probably a little boring. But he starts off on the human meat bit, and everything picks up. How well or not, is something which is up to the readers. The book is free of grammatical errors and effortless in its use of the English language.

Author: Jaydeep Banerjee

Genre: Fiction/ Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Frog Books, An Imprint of Leadstart Publishing

ISBN: 9789383562626

Price: Rs 225/- (India) $7 (Elsewhere)