Characterised heavily by a narrative that is dripping with hipster linguistics and cynical tones, Judy Balan’s Sophie Says, Memoirs of a Breakup Coach is a tongue-in-cheek book that delves deep into relationships and the incessant obsession with commitment phobia. A chick lit in all true sense, the book revolves around a bizarre character, Sophie Tilgum, who needless to say is a complicated wreck. Sophie has had the privilege of dating all kinds of men in the past thirty years. Men who have stalked and pleaded; men who have lied and cheated; men who’ve written songs and who wanted live-in relationships after three dates. And equally amusing men who had no qualms about sporting hot-pink bow ties and calling her ‘sweet cheeks’.
After an impulsive act of quitting her dull and boring job, Sophie finds herself surrounded by the ‘Blah-Blah aunty brigade’ whose main purpose in life is to see Sophie walking down the aisle with a good Tamil-Christian boy. A spontaneous outburst from Sophie creates a fake boyfriend who would accompany her to her cousin’s wedding twelve weeks later.
Enter Ryan, the mysterious and gorgeous fake-boyfriend who figures out Sophie in just a few minutes after he meets her and believes that Sophie’s break-up theories are all hogwash. He’s hell bent on uncovering a nurturing bone in the commitment-phobic Sophie.
Though the book is filled with predictable plot lines and dodgy sub plots, Sophie Says can probably keep you company on days you wouldn’t want to strain your mind with any meaningful thoughts or crucial issues like global warming, for instance. Switching fervently between ‘bloggish’ narrative to a more Sophie Kinsella writing style, the book is loaded with outdated plots that have been exploited by numerous writers. The writing tone is far from formal and dangerously borders on the juvenile category. While sticking to a primarily one-dimensional writing style, Balan has failed to define characters and has done a poor job of elaborating on their lives.
Every chapter alternates between the story and blog of Break up Coach. While Sophie tries to make sense of the chaos in her life, her blog posts are riddled with information on the truth behind her numerous breakups.
As Sophie dishes out break-up advises to her two best friends and blogs about break-up fundas, we are soon introduced to the most predictable outcome — she falls in love with Ryan. Later, things get more complicated when her ‘if-someday’ guy Yatan decides to drop in and professes his love for her.