“Almost Single”, Advaita Kala, HarperCollins India Original, Rs. 195

A lot of people believe they have a book in them. Many dream of writing it. Some do it. A few jump in too soon.

Almost Single is the story of a 29 year old fat woman, a smoker with an alcohol problem and gay friends. The cheesy tale begins with a desperate spinster and ends with her landing a well hung, rich dude. It is a pretty funny book, with the funny part missing and hardly a surprise. One knows, for example, when a character named Mahadik is introduced that a word play is on the cards (maha-dick ?).

The first sentence of the book itself comes across as very amateur, an instant turn off. Advaita Kala appears to be a desperate writer, weaving a story around a few almost funny one-liners. Most of the book is almost a criminal waste of words.

Almost Single is not really a bad book; It’s more like a badly made movie. A neat travel read with not too many editing errors, Almost Single almost (Damn! the word play is getting to me.) lives up to the expectations from Chick Lit.