Title: Scammed: Confessions of a Confused Accountant
Author: Anonymous
Paperback: 182 pages
Publisher: Grey Oak/Westland India (2011)
Genre: Accounting Fiction
Read: Paperback
Stars: ***/5
Buy On: FlipKart
Summary: (Goodreads)
Life is miserable for Hitesh Shah, despite his coveted job in a top accounting firm. Labelled a nerd by colleagues, ignored by women and rebuked by parents, Hitesh cannot resist when offered a lucrative job as the CEO of an off shoot of the failing automobile company, Supreme Motors. So what if the owner Venugopal Reddy, a sleazy businessman with political connections, actually wants Hitesh to fix the company to save his skin? Hitesh's drive and quest for success helps turn the Company's fortunes around; he is seen a rising corporate star, he begins dating a model and is pampered by parents.
Championed as the poster boy of emerging India, Hitesh's fairy tale ends quickly. As his cursed luck would have it, he is soon on the run from the law - allegedly as the perpetrator of a financial scam and accused of defrauding thousands of investors! With his back against the wall, and growing public and media opinion against him, will Hitesh come out of the mess he finds himself in?
My Review:
Cover: So-so!
Paper and font: Smell-Worthy! Would have preferred a bigger font though.
Readability, language: Oh boss, It's easy yaar!
Why did I choose this book: An anonymous author got me wondering about what was hidden in the book.
A depressed Hitesh who is at a dead-end at work gets a lucrative job offer. He gets to be CEO and set-up a company. But in trying to solve one problem he takes on a host of them. He gets money, car, house and status at a huge price. Caught in a scandal not of his creation, Hitesh is on the run to save his life.
Considering that this is the story of Hitesh who is an accountant who unknowingly is involved in a scam, the title is appropriate. The cover is very ordinary, nothing that makes the book stand out. The blurb though does spark an interest and expectation of action in the book.
I haven't read a lot of accounting based books so this was a new sector for me. The intelligence and audacity behind scams astounded me. This book was a learning in White Collar crime in India. The plot is well laid out and the perpetrators are known, what's unknown is how Hitesh will get out of the pickle.
Set in Hyderabad and Vizag the book is full of 'boss' and 'yaar' to a point where it started to irritate me. But yes, the author is authentic to the places and people in Andhra today. And in a country currently passing through a phase of scams, the story is believable.
The characters in Scammed are quite well chalked out. I don't know if it was the intention of the author but I came to detest Hitesh. Initially I thought he was naive but you soon realise he's plain dumb. He gets used by two girls, abused by his parents, walked over by his boss, scammed by his new bosses and in all of this he doesn't learn. And yet in the end he gets a second chance and the girl. He's the poor victim!
Like almost all big scams, even this one has a lot of facets and levels to the scam. They are all introduced, matured and tied up in the end by the author. I don't have any complaints of the story, though the love bits were a bit 'katcha', not well written and as I read it I was thinking, is this for real.
The climax wasn't so bad but the end was disappointing. Why do authors have to write an 'After __ Years' at the end.
The language of the book is good except for exceptional mistakes like the lead characters name changing from Hitesh to Aditya suddenly at one place in the book. The dialogues are realistic and you can almost hear the character say it, but if 'boss' and 'yaar' is actually used so much, I'm glad I don't live in Hyderabad, I'd go nuts.
After reading the book I'm wondering why the author chose to stay anonymous. There's definitely nothing in the book to give him or her reason to hide. Looks like the "Anonymous' is just a sales gimmick.
A good book to read if you have an interest in politics and finance, and love the words 'boss' and 'yaar'.
About the Author:
A little investigation led me to find that the Anonymous author was Ahmed Faiyaz. A BookChums interview said, he was known as "a Chartered Accountant and Management Consultant by accident, a civil servant by day and a writer by night. A voracious reader and a lover of cinema. And of course the Managing Director, Grey Oak Publishers.". You can follow his blog at simplyfiction.wordpress.com
Special Note: Thanks to my friend and fellow blogger Vidya for lending me this book. Head over to Vidya's blog to read her review of Scammed.
Buy On: FlipKart
Thanks For Your Reviews, & Verdicts.
ReplyDeleteIt May Be Possible That This One Is The Real story Of the Author That's Why he Don't Want to share His Name.
That's what I thought at first too but it was just so easy to find him. If he'd wanted to stay anonymous he would have worked harder to stay that way, don't you think.
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