House of Cards

House of Cards
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                      House of Cards

Rating: 4.5 /5
Author: Sudha Murthy

Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: Penguin India; 1st Edition (15 July 2013)

Language: English

Genre: Indian fiction

ISBN-10: 0143420364

ISBN-13: 978-0143420361

Cost: Rs. 206 (Paperback) , Rs. 80 (Kindle edition)

Description:

House of Cards is the story of Mridula, a bright young woman with enormous enthusiasm for life who hails from a Karnataka village. A chance meeting with Sanjay, a talented but impoverished doctor, leads to love and the couple marry and settle in Bangalore. The more Mridula sees of the world, the more she realizes how selfish and materialistic people can be, but she does not take the ups and downs of life to heart and lives each day with positive energy.

Trouble brews when Sanjay quits his government job and starts an immensely successful private practice. With affluence comes the neverending ambition for more and the inevitable slide into corrupt practices. For a long time, Mridula has no idea that Sanjay has sold his soul. When the truth hits her, she has no recourse but to walk out on him, but can she really find a space of her own?

This intricately woven novel explores human relationships in telling detail and holds up a mirror to our society with candour and with conviction.

Review:

In a nutshell: simple, well thought out, romantic as ever and soul stirring.

One thing that can be said indefinitely for Sudha Murty’s books is its beautiful scenic descriptions; Like this one -

"The Full Moon day was celebrated with great joy and all relatives and friends came together for moon light dinner at the side of the lake or mango groove."

House of Cards is a story about a simple village girl Mridula, who migrates to Bangalore city along with her husband Sanjay. Actually, Mridula and Sanjay fall in love during a wedding and Mridula marries him despite a deformity in one of his hands. Sudha Murthy sticks to her favorite theme - the clashes between the husband and wife when the husband becomes highly successful and rich.  The story starts with a dedication "To all the Mridulas who suffer silently." The character portrayal of Sanjay's mother Ratnamma who lives in her own world of money lending is really good. Sudha Murthy shares her wisdom about marriages and what men and women expect in a marriage.In fact, she lets out all the trivial information of all her supporting characters in the plot.

But in the plot, she explores relationships in depth. It shows the love between daughter and father, in Mridula and Bheemanna; love between husband and wife, in Sanjay and Mridula; and a whole lot others. It is a light read book.

About the Author:

Sudha Murthy was born in 1950 in Shiggaon in north Karnataka. She did her Mtech. in computer science and is now the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. A prolific writer in English and Kannada, she has written novels, technical books, travelogues, collections of short stories and non-fictional pieces and four books for children. Her books have been translated into all the major Indian languages. Sudha Murty was the recipient of the R.K. Narayan Award for Literature and the Padma Shri in 2006 and the Attimabbe Award from the government of Karnataka for excellence in Kannada literature in 2011.