Book review – My Clingy Girlfriend

Author – Madhuri Banerjee

Publisher – Westland Ltd

Genre – Fiction

Pages – 249

Price – Rs.295

Sneak from the cover

Bestselling author Madhuri Banerjee brings to you an uproaringly howl-arious account of a simple Bengali boy in Mumbai who copes, mopes and hopes to find logic and reasoning with his clingy girlfriend. Its writing she’s never done before.

The Cover

The first sign of a clingy girlfriend finds its way on the cover – a mobile screen showing 43 missed calls. Even before I began to read the book, I was filled with sympathy for the poor boyfriend. How would a guy cope up with a girlfriend who pesters him all the time with her demands and tantrums?

A book penned by a lady from the view point of a guy? Now that’s not something usual that you spot on the bookshelves. I was all eager to know how effective was this portrayal…

My View

Someone has rightly said relationships are like butterflies, hold them tight and they suffocate to death; but give them space and see the beauty of their colours.

My Clingy girlfriend is a funny sad tale of a Bengali boy who is stuck between an over possessive girlfriend and his desires. Obrokranti Banerjee leaves the cocoon of his big family in Kolkata and come to Mumbai to make it large. He gets everything that a cool city dude has – a good job, friends to hang around with and even a girlfriend. But, soon he realizes that merely having them all doesn't guarantee happiness. There is dirty politics in the air in his so called promising job; his friends are mere hang out buddies and his girlfriend is just an albatross around his neck.

Few pages further, I realized Obro deserved what he got, for he wanted a girl in his life just to satisfy his physical needs. In a rush to send a triumphant message to his Casanova cousin back home, Obro hurriedly got involved with the first girl who came his way. Soon he figures out Radha is the biggest mistake of his life, for she hijacks every other aspect of Obro’s life. The next 100 odd pages had me in splits, reading about the cat and mouse relationship between Obro and his girlfriend. Obro makes his best attempt to escape the clutches of his clingy girlfriend however, the more he tries, the tighter the knot gets. After all, who would like a girlfriend who calls him 40 times a day, interferes in his decisions, forces herself into his boys’ night, doesn't let him visit his hometown? Ironically, Obro bears it all, for the pleasure of physical intimacy.

Soon, the feminist in me was all filled up with hatred for Obro due to his cheap approach. On one hand, he wanted to get rid of his clingy girlfriend and on the other hand, he leaves no chance to get close to her. I was even angry on Radha for being such a doormat. Perhaps, she too was one of those girls who love being a parasite on their men and choose to take it easy in life. Everytime Obro tells her she is a burden on him, she too gives it back citing all the household work she manages for him. Tit for tat, and what a perfect match of two imperfect, silly people, I wondered. But, then that’s the beauty of writing…Madhuri gets us involved in the story and I smiled in her appreciation as I realized it.

Something else too tickled my funny bones. While Mr. Obro himself has a hard time managing his girlfriend, he leaves no chance to drop in his silly pieces of advice – 5 ways to get your girlfriend to have sex, 5 ways to get out of discussing marriage, 5 tips to ask a woman out, Five ways to get out of work, 5 ways to win a woman over and make it look easy, ten facts about men that men don’t know (ahem!) You might wonder, if Obro has so many bright ideas, why is his own life in a total mess?

Does Obro finally manage to get rid of his clingy girlfriend? Well, yes he does and it was surprisingly easier than he thought. How? Well, go grab the book and find out. No matter how much you might hate Obro, you will definitely enjoy and laugh your way through the book!

What I loved about the book

·         The author knows how to strike the instant connection with readers.

·         The language is simple and no unnecessary drags

What could have been better

·         There are frequent references to how Bong boys are. One enjoys initially but after a while they get irritating

·         I was expecting more drama in the ending but then the author didn’t want to drag further without anything new to offer.

My rating

2.5/5

About the Author

Madhuri Banerjee is the bestselling author of five novels. She is also the writer of Bollywood film, Hate Story 2. She has a blog on CNN IBN called Chastity Belt. She has her own production house and is an ad film director. She was a columnist with the Asian Age for two years and currently has a column in Maxim magazine. She has also won a National Award for her documentary on women’s issues called Between Dualites. Curently she is the face of Revlon as their Relationship Expert.

This is review for Writers Melon. The views expressed are my own and under no influence.