Book Review Reading Yashodhara Lal’s novel, Sorting Out Sid , is like watching a Bollywood comedy, especially of Priyadarshan type. There is lot of fun and frolic in the first half and then the plot becomes more lifelike, sorting out problems created by the fun and frolic. One difference is that in Lal’s novel, the fun and frolic runs into two-thirds of the book. That is a major flaw in an otherwise captivating novel. There is something Wodehousean about the novel. The protagonist, Sid [Siddharth], may remind the reader of Bertie Wooster. He gets into all sorts of embarrassing situations because of his immaturity, superficiality and idiosyncrasies. We meet him in the very first chapter walking into his friend Aditi’s house, later than he should have been, and wishing her “Happy Birthday” while it is actually her little son’s birthday. We find Sid in many such comic, sometimes bordering on the farcical, situations. The comedy drags on a bit too much into about 2
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