SUSANNA'S SEVEN HUSBAND (BOOK REVIEW)

BOOK NAME: SUSANNA’S SEVEN HUSBANDS

AUTHOR: RUSKIN BOND

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

COUNTRY: INDIA

GENRE: FICTION/ NOVELLA

PUBLISHED DATE: 2011

PUBLISHER: PENGUIN

WRITER’S INTRODUCTION

Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian author of British descent. He lives with his adopted family in Landour, Mussoorie, India. The Indian Council for Child Education has recognised his role in the growth of children's literature in India. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra, his novel in English. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Ruskin Bond had sent ‘Susanna’s Seven Husbands’ to Vishal Bhardwaj. How and why would somebody get married seven times? Curious, Vishal immediately began reading the story. The character of Susanna captivated him, and he was amazed with Ruskin’s ability as a writer to sketch a character who was so interesting, wicked, but at the same time endearing. So, Vishal made the movie.

PLOT SUMMARY

Arun, 12-year-old boy first saw Susanna when he was living in the bungalow next to her spacious estate on the outskirt of Meerut. The story is written from the perception of Arun.

Susanna first met Arun while he tries to steal guava from the tree of her permises and in return, she sent him a basket full of guava next day.  She has three loyal servants, Maggie, Gaanga and Shah Rukh.

The character Susanna is beautiful romantic and full of mystery. Susanna is much older than Arun he finds her beautiful ‘Wicked Beautiful’ as her seven husbands get mysterious death. She was in search of true love and has an instinct of falling in love with wrong men.

 MY PERCEPTIVE

The story is written in the simple words and language. Moreover, it holds the reader with the content. This story came into limelight when ‘7 Khoon Maaf’ get released. Author has worked hard develop the story from 4-page short story to 200 pages novella. I love the story and had a wish that the story could have been more longer. The book has a humour and mystery. The character of Susanna is very strong. But I didn’t like the part of screenplay. It could have been better if the book had no screenplay.