Book Review: Toke by Jugal Mody - ROFLMAO

Title: TOKE
Language: English
Author: Jugal Mody
Genre: Fiction – Humor
Publisher: HarperCollins (2012)
ISBN – 10: 9350293404
ISBN-13: 9789350293409
Binding: Paperback
Price: Rs. 160 (Buy from Flipkart or buy from Amazon India at Rs. 107)
Pages: 224

Synopsis:

The kind of book you instantly fall in love with, TOKE, falls into a unique genre of geek humor. Right from the design of the cover in a weird Technicolor print that reminds you of the graphics of the 80’s to the words on the first page of the book, this one keeps you entertained and interested throughout the 200 odd pages. The writing is crisp and down-to-earth and should make this book an instant hit with the present generation that’s brought up on instant messaging!

Read it to believe it. For those caught up in the busy, competitive chaos or mundaneness of life, this book is an ultimate escape to a crazy, fantasy world for a relief of sorts.

Detailed Review:

When I received Toke, a first novel for author Jugal Mody, I did not know what to make of the title, or the weird story that the blurb on the back of the book mentions. The book was unlike any other I’ve read in the past 15 years (ever since I fell in love with reading) except may be Sidney’s Comet by Brian Herbert. But what makes the book click is the pretty simple story line and the can’t-miss-any-line-humor that laces the entire novel from beginning to end.

TOKE is about a regular 20 something guy Nikhil Parmar, who is living a mundane life as one of the nameless-faceless employees in a regular downtown office and yearns for the adventure that youth supposedly should enjoy. He pines for the extremely beautiful Suparna who works at the same office as him, but seems to be out of reach for this simpleton.

One fine day he has an intense argument with his boss and decides to call it quits and thus begins an extraordinary unconventional story about how a group of friends and a talking grow get high on weed and save the world from certain destruction by an alien race of maggots!

When Nikhil is in a cannabis induced stupor, Lord Vishnu appears and entrusts him with the task of saving the world, as Vishnu himself is a little too lazy after his many avatars in the past. In a race against time (they’ve got only 72 hours till total zombie apocalypse), Nikhil and his friends Danny and Aman (perennially stoned themselves), enlist the services of some Japanese chicks who know Kung-fu, a dead pop singer, talking crows and huge eagles to go about their task.

Do they succeed? Well yes, but the ending will blow your mind away! 😀

Story:

So Lord Vishnu showed up one morning when I was really stoned and asked me to save the world from turning undead. How did I save the world? I didn’t. We did. And while saving the world, I got to forcefully kiss the girl of my dreams. Many times. My best friends got to smoke a lot of good shit. A lot more than they would have otherwise smoked in that much time. They also got to crash an airplane into a slum outside Santacruz airport. But don’t worry, there were only zombies around when that happened. We were joined in our quest by two Japanese girls who can kill people with their pinkies, one of whom forcefully kissed Danny. Yes, there was a lot of non-consensual kissing in this adventure. With tongue.

Hi. I’m Nikhil. This is my story. And I swear I have a T-shirt to prove it.

Positives:

The biggest positive is the easy language which will keep the reader engrossed from start to finish.
The story which has every twist and turn you can imagine and more!
A fresh author, with an unconventional story filled with humor oozing from every line/sentence in the book! In no part of the book you can say that its his first book.
A fresh perspective on our place in the world and various talking animals that will heighten the fantasy and novelty 😛
The sheer senselessness of the story and the fast paced narrative that will keep you hooked throughout, you can’t help but think what a creative piece of work the book is.

Negatives: An unconventional story that may not gel with the generation that is not young at heart.

Who will enjoy this? – Everyone!!

Buy or Don’t Buy? – Definite buy from me. Amazon India at the moment is even giving a Rs.53 discount on the cover price.