Neon Noon by Tanuj Solanki
Generally, book reviews are quite easy; you either like the book or you don’t! With Tanuj Solanki’s Neon Noon, it’s not that simple. Though I managed to read it in a day and a half, it took me two whole weeks to mull over it and get this review done. How would I rate Neon Noon?… I still don’t know!
Neon Noon by Tanuj Solanki starts with a letter from (Ms.)S to (Mr.)T, both adrift in their own complex worlds. What brings them together is their shared love for writing. Both writers- one successful and one wanting to be successful; a casual online friendship and two drunken meaningless nights.
S’s ‘brief encounter’ with the suave T, leaves her wanting to know more about his inner complexities, the forbidden room and the European woman, whose photos adorn the wall of the forbidden room. Thus restarts the enigmatic exchange between them. T’s story, in response to S’s email, is a tale of lost love, inner struggle, unrelenting angst and his aimless quest for closure, which he finds in the ‘Neon’ streets of Pattaya, with a prostitute called Noon!
This debut novel, with its shades of darkness and despair, has a very urbane feel to it. There is no intricate plot to make you wonder what happens next. I don’t know why I kept reading! The story within the story, with the protagonist trying to write, made me empathise with him. There were times when the monotonic ramblings irritated, but as I journeyed along with T, it did give some form of semblance to his aimless wandering.
Would I recommend it?…Not for the story, but for the sophisticated, intense and experimental way of writing. He definitely is a new voice on the block and I look forward to reading more of his work.
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