Review – Broken by J Matthew Nespoli

Imagine reading a book that doesn’t tell you one story, but 14 different stories, a varied mosaic of multi-colored and multi-textured pieces. What you would definitely want, as you navigate the sinuous curves that make up the complicated lives of each of the individuals, is a foundation that connects them all and a roof that gives meaning to the stories. What we have then is a beautiful house, diverse inside with its many rooms, each with a different outlook on life, each with its own experiences, and each with a different scent that leads to different places. However, all of these rooms would be connected with a perspective and a message that would be very obvious when you finished the book.

In short, it’s like 14 stories with a theme and the theme is something we all know and have heard over and over again, love. Since it is, in fact, such a common topic, it is even more difficult to write about it, in a way that is not mundane, stereotyped, or clichéd. The author should be commended for his effort to talk about our favorite subject in a different tone. In fact, a mixture of tones, with nuances and underlying notes that blend very well with the subject and give it a beauty that could not have been conjured otherwise.

So, right off the bat, there are three good things about Broken that good books generally must possess. The first is the distinct characters. It is true that most stories have one or two protagonists. It’s very difficult, from a reader’s perspective, to focus absolutely and equally on more than a couple of characters in a book. So how is this book different? In the author’s own words, in one of the interviews, most readers will identify with at least one character in the book, since there has been so much generosity in his style in creating so many vignettes from the perspective of the present. generation. The beauty of the book, therefore, is that one reader’s protagonist may be totally different from the other. This is healthy, both because of the interest the author generates in the readers’ minds and because of the thought process that begins as readers try to make their own inferences from the story. The characters are not perfect. They’re not even close to that. In fact, some of them would be labeled failures in today’s society. The tone that describes them is dark and serious, with an undertone of drug abuse, sexual abuse, confusion, pain, and stark memories. But if love can come out clean in such a situation and repair to some extent, if not completely, the broken pieces of a once-good heart, there is definitely hope for most of us who fortunately do not possess such a scarred past and scary.

The second good thing about the book is its theme. Over the years, when I’ve tried to analyze books and stories to figure out why some have been successful with readers striking a chord and others haven’t, I’ve found that books that remind readers of themselves or someone they know very closely they have been much more successful. The books that have been one step ahead are those that make one identify with the many problems that exist in the world today and have given a ray of hope and highlighted a ray of light in the cloud. ‘Broken’ falls into the latter category. This might come as a surprise to those who tried to guess the book by name. The title is not intended to highlight the pessimism that drowns everything around us.

It would be bleak, dark and depressing if he tried to do it. The title is only intended to give a theme that connects the patchwork, the fabric that each of them fits into, adding its own tint or hue, making the fabric very beautiful. It talks about how love is the greatest healer and how human beings differ from the rest of the species in their ability to understand, share and alleviate the pain of the other. In the words of one of the characters, “We were two broken people who needed each other.” Without a unifying theme, one that allows the reader to gain something, that enriches the reader’s thought process and emotions a little more, a book would simply remain a story that could be read to pass the time. A good theme makes all the difference by creating memories, impressions and reminders. Broken does just that with its simple, yet beautiful message.

The last but not the least ingredient that makes this book a good read in my opinion is the narrative. The way the characters talk to the readers makes a big difference. Is it through events, is it through a story that someone else wrote about them, or is it directly, like your own account, giving it a totally personal touch? Broken’s narrative is primarily in the first person. Most of the characters speak directly to the reader. It feels almost as authentic as hearing it from a friend across a coffee table. The tumult of voices, considering there are so many characters, each with their own failures, ambitions, dreams, nightmares, can be confusing at times. However, it was the only way the story could have been told. The honesty in the voice and the truth in the pain can only come out if the characters speak to you. Examples of this can be seen in one of the characters, escaping with a child from a dangerous man, even when his feet were bleeding; and a guy who accidentally bumps into his idol at a bar, but can’t say anything smart to get his attention. But it’s not all about disapproval or pessimism. The story has many humorous sequences that would make the reader sit back and smile, maybe even laugh at one point. The description of two friends, one talking on the phone while the other turns up the volume on a song, finally enticing the friend on the phone to sing along, too, was a creative and sweet moment. It ends with the entire crowd in the traffic jam joining the party. It was a beautiful ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, a sequence that could keep you optimistic and high on even the toughest of days.

All in all, Broken doesn’t suck all the energy out of you, like some subject-heavy books do. It doesn’t make you shake your head at the stupidity of the characters or the plot, the way stories about troubled teens and young adults sometimes do. It has a beautiful concept. The author has not created the characters, but based them on various interesting people he met during his journey. This makes the characters real. This makes the tone authentic. I think this is enough for readers to get hooked and just finish it. I am sure that in the end, your thoughts and appreciation will be consistent and will not break.