The Suicide Banker by Puneet Gupta

The protagonist, Sumit Sharma, makes a career shift from the safety net of public bank to the world of private bank, a working culture that can be quiet rewarding but in  pressure cooker environment. The book narrates  the upheavals both in his personal and professional life during this period.  So typically we have here a young working parent struggling to balance work and family, the protagonist’s banking principles and outlook clashing directly with his bank’s wisdom of  “turning conventional wisdom upside down” , a young assistant thrown into the picture, ambitious colleagues who considers him too old-fashioned and rigid and a banking market that can turn hot potato anytime. So the stage is set for a filmy masala story.

For a first time author, Puneet has digged well into his banking background to base the story. But then like Puneet mentions in the novel,  the impact of statistics can always be interpreted differently so is the impact of the story on the readers.  Average readers might find the banking industry dynamics in the novel bit dragging.  The protagonist is not your dynamic, charged up hero.  He is like many of us in real life – A middle class man with certain rigidness,  few principles that he would cling to inspite of few other weakness that might threaten his fundamentals.  The character could be a plus and minus point of the script  and it all depends how you look at the story from your perspective.  Like the characters of the story, even the author struggles to find a balance between the personal and professional side of the protagonist. After some spicy build up,  Sumit – Annie’s relation  is conveniently forgotten, so is Alec Steward, ex-bf of Annie who also works in Sumit’s team. Excusing few corny lines and a slight uneasiness while shifting between professional and personal stories,  the language and narrative style of Puneet is fluid.

GingerChai Verdict: The Banker is definitely not a God but nevertheless an affable banker with normal human strengths and weakness that you can identify with.Read it, if you are a fan of  fiction based on banking backdrop.

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