Oscar for Loving, Grammy for Not-Priyadeep Kaur

Book: Oscar for Loving, Grammy for Not

Author: Priyadeep Kaur

Publisher: BookSoul Reads

Choices are something that can make or break us, for we are nothing but a sum total of our choices. Everyday in our lives, we make a choice. Get up early to go to college, take a bus or a metro, and that kickstarts a series of events that takes a different path with the choice we make.

Oscar for Loving, Grammy for Not by Priyadeep Kaur is a story of choices. Udi is a force that is to be reckoned with. A strong, independent young woman and a journalist, she is someone who takes charge of her life, until she bumps into Garv, a senior in college, and a sweet and romantic person and thus begins a story of a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Udi shares her flat with her best friend Rupali who’s in love with Siddharth and that was the love story she saw. While things were not very good in the planet where Rupali and Siddharth resided, it was dragged down by Siddharth’s love and Rupali’s material desires. In the gamble called life, will their choices propel them ahead or will the desires overpower their sense of judgement to maintain it?

Oscar for Loving, Grammy for Not by Priyadeep Kaur has a good storyline. She has separated incidents by creating short rules that are engaging and prepare the reader for what is to happen in the story. The storytelling is easy and understandable. Set in my city of Lucknow, this was another journey as I got to take with the eyes of the characters, and it was an interesting one at that. The parallel storylines of Udi-Garv and Rupali-Siddharth is a study in contrasts yet parallels and that has been addressed nicely. The climax of the book was predictable but treated nicely so that gets a point there. The one thing that took away a part of the fun was a myriad of grammatical mistakes in the book. It needs a through proofreading and a second round of editing to deliver the punch it was written to give.

Talking about the characters, Priyadeep has created 4 very different characters for the story. Udi is fiercely independent, making her own choices, outspoken and unabashed in expressing herself, whether in life or in love. We see the way in which her character arc matures and how fiercely she loves the way she loves and leaves no stones unturned to get the one she loves, but at the same time proves the adage, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Garv is created as a mirror image of Udi wherein he is unable to make choices when is needed and stumbles at multiple points in life due to this. In the character of Rupali, the author creates a gold digger for whom money matters more than love and that her character arc is one of self-realization and understanding the value of love. Siddharth, on the other hand, is a beacon of hope, the unrequited lover who despite being scorned, is at the beck and call of Rupali and this is one of the important plot points of the story.

Overall, an engaging read, but could have been better.

The book scores a 3.25 on 5 for me.

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