Book Name: I Quit! Now What?
Author: Zarreen Khan
Publisher: Amaryllis Manjul
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.7/5
Book Blurb: Nimisha is exhausted. Of endless weekdays, working weekends, making presentations, working with complicated Excel sheets, handling a boss with time-management issues and the general politics of the workplace. Sigh! After eight years of this life, her only personal insight is that she’s terribly unambitious and constantly struggling to be an average performer in the competitive corporate world.
When a colleague flashes the glint of a golden sabbatical she catapults into it headfirst. After all, one has to find one’s calling at some point in one’s life.
So will the sabbatical miraculously change her life forever? Or will she go rushing back to her pocket money-generating job?
Book Review: I Quit! Now What? is a story that doesn’t have a brilliant or well-crafted tale at its core. There is really no story here or even the remote semblance of a well-researched plot. However, the text is still so nice and highly relatable that it is a delight to read and will not disappoint you.
Zareen writes wonderfully well and manages to grip the reader which is quite a surprise as another writer would not have been able to pull this off. It is by and large because of her funny undertone and the liberal doses of humour that the book manages to capture interest.
The plot is largely non-existent. It’s about a woman, Nimisha in her late twenties who inspired by some of her colleagues and friends decides to go on a sabbatical. She doesn’t plan it well and sort of rushes with her decision to quit but soon realises that she misses the monthly cheque and to her horror, since she is on a sabbatical with no definite plans, no firm is willing to hire her. She makes up stories about joining a detective agency and eventually lands up another job. In between, her shenanigans make up for a very interesting read.
I was actually surprised while reading I Quit! Now What? as I thought it would be just another run of the mill stuff that publishers love churning these days for easy money but Zareen is a gifted writer. She is a keen observer and which is why the book is highly relatable. We have all experienced a horrible boss like Mahesh and boring colleagues like a pan chewing uncle jee.
Nimisha is a goody, goody girl and plays a good samaritan for her friend, Arjun and tries to dig deeper about a potential suitor at the behest of her mother. She finds it hard to say no which frequently lands her up in humorous situations. The subtle ending where there is a hint of a potential love interest for Nimisha works quite well. There is a worrying mother and dadi, two nieces and some colleagues just like any other average family.
The office descriptions are the strength of this story and you can’t help smiling at the way the story is told. It is a simple narration scheme, told with a lot of candour and will manage to hold you till the very end. There are no surprises here and although it is kind of sugar coated, it works for the book. The ending is a happy one; so if your tear glands are weak like the protagonist, then rest assured, you needn’t worry much.
Zareen has a knack for spinning a good yarn, she should definitely be writing more. This is an easy, breezy read that will make you smile.