Review of ‘Just Married, Please Excuse’

This is a very delayed review of the very awesome book – Just Married, Please Excuse. You see, this post of mine won me a copy of the book! To my utter delight, I was sent an autographed copy of the book. Of course, I am thrilled.

You know, there are certain books that can’t escape the ‘chick lit’ tag. I feared this book would fall into that category. See, I love Yashodhara’s blog. I was confident her book would appeal to me. But any book that is written by a woman, that talks mainly about the life of a woman and has a humourous take is usually labeled as chick lit.  Would I be able to defend her writing if literature snobs put her down as just another antsy woman writer who caters only to the fairer sex? Now that I have read the book, I can confidently answer that question. Yes! I can defend this book. This book is for both women AND men. Why? Just because it is so damn relatable, in almost every aspect.

‘Just Married, Please Excuse’ is the story of Yashodhara and Vijay. Oh by the way, they are real people, with real names – that’s another reason I was drawn to the book. In a nutshell – Y and V meet, they get married, they realise they have differences and they try and find a way to work around those difference. Yes, nothing very unusual about the story. What makes it special is the way it has been written.

For starters, Yashodhara has the ability to make you laugh out loud. There were instances of me guffawing loudly in front of my very bemused sister. Y has picked up the nuances of married life in a very skillful manner. Most of us have gone through the discussions, debates, conflicts and incidents that she has described.

As a couple, I thought Y and V mirrored Mint and I. No, really. It was uncanny. I swear I could compile a long list of the similarities in our characters. For example, I suffer from a nasty temper, just like Y. And V’s personality seemed like a replica of Mint’s. Mint can’t buy anything without ‘researching’ it. I have written about it on this blog several times. So when I read about Vijay taking forever to buy a sofa, I could so relate to it.

There is another incident in which Vijay forgets to tell Yashodhara that his parents are visiting them the next day. I swear, Mint has often forgotten to tell me important stuff like that, many times. We’ve fought over it, many times. How he forgets to tell me such important things is beyond me. Reading about Vijay made it a tad better for me. See, my husband is not the only one who does stuff like that. I can breathe easy. Phew.

Needless to say, I loved this book. Yes, I think some parts were over dramatized, but I will forgive that for the sake of humour. Go for this book if you you are a new couple and want to read some immensely relatable stuff, or if you are a not so new couple and want to go back to those early days and smile, or better still, if you are single and want a sneak peak into the life of  the average new age couple.