Holiday Read: One Night at the Call Center

 


*Spoilers Ahead

One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat is narrated by Shyam, a call center agent in Gurgaon, India. We learn about him and his call center colleagues (Priyanka, Vroom, Esha, Radhika and Military Uncle) and see how their lives are turned upside down in one night while they’re working their shift.  When they have reached the end of the road, they get a call from God which helps give them a push to take control of their lives.



The Characters:


  • Shyam is the narrator who feels inadequate and has low self-esteem; he aspires to become team leader of his group at the call center in hopes Priyanka will want him again.



  • Priyanka is the ex-girlfriend to Shyam; she is under pressure by her mother and family to agree to an arranged marriage; she is working at the call center to earn money towards her B.Ed.



  • Vroom is the best friend to Shyam; he hates his call center job; he used to be a journalist and has a crush on Esha.



  • Esha aspires to be a model and is working at the call center until she gets her big break.



  • Radhika was recently married and is living with her husband and mother-in-law; she is working at the call center to provide for her family and has had to adhere to more traditional customs now that she is with her husband’s family.



  • Military Uncle is a quiet man who deals with customers through the online chat instead of the phones; he has family issues with his son who does not want him to see his grandson.

This book has a little extra something. Bhagat put himself in the prologue and epilogue, making the call center a story within a story.  Bhagat meets a woman on a train and in agreeing to listen to her story, he has to make it his next novel. She recounts the call center story and at the end, Bhagat tries to figure out who the woman is: Priyanka, Esha or Radhika. We never find out for sure, but he implies that the woman is God.

This book fits into the “Fantastic” genre because it deals with the supernatural and the implied reader’s hesitation. Firstly, readers do not know whether or not the Bhagat in the prologue and epilogue is his true self or a version of himself. And did this train sequence actually happen? Secondly, readers cannot know for sure if the woman on the train is actually God or if the call center story actually happened. Bhagat wants us to believe that she is God because of the “holy text” she was reading; he implies that she is supernatural and may have conjured up a book, “Her blanket moved, uncovering a book I hadn’t noticed before.” Bhagat also uses the symbolism of the dawn light and how she glowed.

Although the story took place in one night, we get a lot of character development and I feel that this is the driving force of the novel. The characters were well rounded and felt very real. I also enjoyed this book because I work in customer service, which means that I understand the characters’ frustrations when dealing with annoying customers.  In customer service, there is a lot that is scripted and made into a routine that gets old. It’s not the kind of job I like to be in.

It was a fun read. I had a hard time putting the book down!

 For more book reviews, check out my library.

Services

Need an editor, beta reader or book reviewer for your novel or short story? Check out my website to learn more about my services or email me about your project at smurphy.writer1@gmail.com!
Image source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/105578.One_Night_at_the_Call_Center

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Still Scratching My Head After Reading The Clockmaker's Daughter

Image
  I've read two other books by Kate Morton: The Distant Hours and The Secret Keeper . Both books were poetically written, atmospheric, mysterious and tragic. And I was satisfied with both. Therefore, I did go into this book with expectations because I am familiar with her style, and my expectations were met in the first-half. This book started off in true Morton style, but the second half crashed and burned for me because it feels rushed and has holes in.  Summary The Clockmaker's Daughter  by Kate Morton is a mix of historical fiction and mystery. Readers are taken on a journey across time to put the pieces together about what happened at Birchwood Manor during the summer of 1862 where a robbery, a murder and a disappearance occurred.  Members of the Magenta Brotherhood gathered for a summer at renowned painter Edward Radcliffe's home, Birchwood Manor. Edward, his sister, his favorite model and some friends worked on their artistic projects and enjoyed their time t...
Read more

The Enchanting Tale of the House of Salt and Sorrows

Image
You 're probably aware of the trend nowadays where stories are told and retold in new ways; now is the age of story recycling. Look at the super hero films, like Spiderman and Batman. The same thing is happening in the book industry: fairy tales are constantly rewritten from a new perspective, like that of the villain. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig is a fairy tale retelling, but it's one that focuses on a lesser-known tale: Grimm's The Twelve Dancing Princesses . I read this story when I was young; it was part of a book that was paired with a more original telling of Hans Christen Andersen's The Little Mermaid . The Original Story of The Twelve Princesses The King of twelve princesses finds that his daughters' shoes are constantly in tatters and they are always tired, yet he knows they do not venture out of the castle. Even when he locks their doors at night, nothing changes, so the King makes a Royal announcement for any man to spend three ...
Read more

Take a Road Trip through Ireland with Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch

Image
Cliffs of Moher - Photo by  Sarah Donisi  on  Unsplash If I were writing a travel brochure for Ireland, I start with what it smells like. It's a combination of just-fallen rain mixed with earth and something else, something secret. For me,  Love & Luck  by Jenna Evans Welch is reminiscent of the movie Leap Year because it follows the protagonist on a road trip across Ireland and she encounters many ups and downs along the way. But the plot of Love & Luck is quite different as it's a coming-of-age story. Its genre is YA fiction. I picked up this novel because I'm part Irish and would love to explore the country one day. I am fascinated by Irish lore and love getting swept up in the magic of the tales.  Love & Luck seems to be the unofficial second book since Welch's previous novel, Love & Gelato , follows Lina, Addie's best friend, and explains why she's in Italy. But readers, like myself, who have not read Lina' story are given enoug...
Read more