Greed Lust Addiction by Ravi Dabral

Ravi Dabral’s newly launched novel Greed Lust Addiction has been quite popular among the readers and critics. It has been in the buzz for quite some time now as many readers are expressing their opinions after reading it. I heard about the book as well and could not resist myself from reading it – Hindi as well as the English versions of the novel. Though the novel is a little longer than the usual fiction pieces these days, I still enjoyed it because it’s no lesser than a page-turner by any means. I will share my review of this novel, Greed Lust Addiction, in this post. As it has already been appreciated by many book reviewers from India and abroad, I will try to keep my critical appreciation and points limited to my own conscience. 

It was truly a different experience – reading a novel with a purpose and a certain agenda – establishing the connection between what we think oblivion and mainstream. Ravi Dabral tries his best to connect the lives of different personalities, Guruji and Suraj first and then Guruji’s leadership along with Vijay and the team of Human Welfare Party. As the author suggests, we have to look into the spiritual realm for the problems that we suffer in the world these days. One thing should be made clear that the author comes from Uttarakhand and we all are very much aware of the facts that Uttarakhand is known for its natural beauty and Yogis – a land of Devas. So, Ravi’s personal experiences with Yogis and Sadhus come into play in this novel.

Talking of the thematic and narrative aspects of this novel, it takes the readers into a cobweb of corruption, den of evils and into the guiding light of a fine balance that one should strike in life to remain unaffected from the viles and come victorious. Suraj’s struggles as an investigative journalist and Vijay’s discoveries of the jewels of life – these two things take the spotlight in the novel’s plot. Moreover, the vices of human life come into play more often in the novel – greed, lust and addiction. The novelist has tried to give the readers an escape route and teach them how to stay away from these enemies of the human soul. However, that is a little too much at times and young readers might feel it too tough to cope with that.

The novel is almost complete in terms of characters, the plot and a very comfortably dealt theme. It was a case of near perfection save some attempts by the author that derailed instead of reaching the right junction. The novel ends satisfactory and it will help the conventional fiction readers rejoice their time spent with this book of fiction. I appreciate the language – both Hindi and English versions are rather simple to read and understand even by average readers. That is a boost!

I am rating this novel a 4.3 out of 5 available stars in my pocket. I am sure this novel will be liked, read and critically appreciated by most of the readers and critics in the future as well. If I am right in saying, only novels like these are capable of changing the direction of Indian fiction in English!

Get your copies – click to buy the Hindi Edition
Click here to buy the English edition

review by Rahul Anand for Book Reviews Lab