Skip to main content

Book Review: Bare Chest on Everest by Jay Vikram

Bare Chest on Everest by Jay Vikram is a thrilling novel staged against the beautiful backdrop of Nepal. The story features three bold and badass men: Jay, Tobias, and Chris. Among all Jay is the youngest one, thus, he is also a sort of protagonist in the novel. But the storyline seems equally divided among these three men. They hail from different countries, Jay from India. Chris is a photographer, and Tobias and Jay are sort of consultants roaming the world.


One odd day Jay gets a message from Tobias about climbing the base camp of Everest. The protagonist reaches Cat Man Do (Kathmandu) to join the team. When these three men meet in Kathmandu, the narration and pace of the novel is charged with amazing momentum. Ironically, the trip is not simple as they thought initially. Difficulties begin pouring as soon as they come out of the Kathmandu airport. The novel is divided into two layers – first is how they struggle at each step while climbing up – second is the mystical element that almost threatens their lives.

As the story picks up, readers will find that Jay and his team are enjoying the trip but getting irritated by weather and lack of basic amenities in Nepal. The author has weaved a powerful yet adventurous story. In snatches, there is a lot of philosophy that goes like banter in the book. At times, the same philosophy looks like a motivational factor for Jay and others when they feel numb and cold and totally exhausted.

The narration is humorous and so witty that at one point of time readers may think it as an adult novel. But the liveliness in description of events, customs, and weather is a way captivating and readers might feel as they are with them. Pemba, donkeys passing over the makeshift bridges, Sherpa beer, NPR, lodging discomfort, helicopter plight – at every turn of the page the author make us realize that we are there, with them climbing the world’s tallest mountains.

At façade the novel may look like an adventurous one based on just Everest climbing, however, a close look reveals something else. The guys, later in the story, are bamboozled by monks to perform one ritual that can eliminate a mountain demon. The curiosity builds right from the start of the novel – one might think of reaching the ending excitedly – but we would recommend you to savour this book in your own pace.

The pace of the novel is measurably fast, but, at times, the writing seems long-winded and complex. Despite that the author kept the total focus on the journey and its allied adventure it enthuses in the story. The story is beyond the mountains of mighty Himalayas of Nepal. There is a smuggling angle involved…there is mystic angle along with demons and monks. Pick up the novel to find out the truth behind their journey. Will they be able to complete the journey and their purpose?

Buy from Amazon/Kindle.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more