"A treat for hungry readers." -Me.
Amitabh Manu, an IT professional is a self confessed argumentative guy, when occasion demands. His first work "The Blogging affair" which was a murder mystery, got huge appreciation by the audience. Exploring the dark sides of life, he has come up with another story which is more experimental in its own way.
The story of "Surprise me Gentlemen" is a story of a bored dictator who captures twelve writers and asks them to write the best stories of their lifetime with only condition that it must have a twist in the end. The best story won't have any rewards while the worst of all will result in the death of the writer. This begin a series of stories by all the writers in their particular fashion and style of storytelling and a discussion about the story in the end.
The story starts right from the first page, and the writer has managed to hold the interest and excitement of the reader throughout the book. The story runs in two tracks one of the twelve writers and the dictator while other is the story told by each writer. The perfect description of characters in minimum yet ample words makes the reader not only enjoy the story but also takes him into the world that it creates. Another plus point is that the writer has managed to portray the psychologies of twelve different writers differently.
As a reader, this book has almost every thing for everyone though in very small quantity. Though in this quest sometimes the narrative becomes redundant as the story progresses. In the word of developing digital cinema and short films, the content of this book is definitely going to find interest of many film makers. As the writer himself have already stated in one of his interviews that the core place of storytelling is going to flourish in near future with more creative writers and different stories, I thing this is the first outcome of the same. I personally have enjoined the overall read and writing for more stories from him. I'll give four stars out of five and recommend to all the hungry readers who want to read new and different stuff.
