Title: Juvenile Adults
Author: Gopala Gopala
Publisher: Leadstart publishing
Genre: Contemporary fiction
First Publication: 2022
Language: English
Book Summary: Juvenile Adults by Gopala Gopala
Samson leaves his illustrious, high-profile career in Bangalore to mentor and lead a family-owned business in the middle east. Samson, his wife Stella, and their eldest son Kenneth, all thrive in the new environment. Oman turns out to be a hidden jewel with many wonderful places to visit especially in Muscat. They truly enjoy the company of Omani people who are very friendly and hospitable.
But suddenly everything falls apart. Samson’s professional life becomes a rubble by some dramatic happenings. Everything happening around him seems surreal. Along with his family, he is compelled to leave the country and the onslaught on the Covid pandemic makes their life a more complicated.
The family then lands in Canada. How did they navigate the adversity with dignity while staying together? What brings closure to the nightmare?
Welcome to Juvenile Adults, it’s not just an oxymoron, it’s the surreal story of Samson’s life. This volatile and endearing tale will take you through some of the most beautiful places in Oman and Canada while narrating Samson’s take on gamification theories, lessons on family business management, and even Mahabharata. You also get to enjoy the micro-fiction stories on the oxymorons of life.
Book Review: Juvenile Adults by Gopala Gopala
In Juvenile Adults we follow Samson Gabriel, a successful MD in a private firm in India. The author Gopala Gopala takes us through his daily routine and life. We get the inner workings of his mind, how he views himself, the people and the world around him. Leaving his illustrious career in Bangalore, Samson joins a family-owned business in the middle east. Samson along with his wife Stella and their eldest son Kenneth enjoy the new life in Oman. Muscat in particular is a hidden jewel of a city, contributing to Oman’s charm and they like the company of Omani people.
Some dramatic events turn Samson’s professional life into a shambles and everything suddenly comes crashing down. Nothing seems to make sense to him. Finding it difficult to walk away from their treasured memories of family and country, Samson has to leave the country with his family for Canada where the pandemic threatens to complicate their life even more. While adversity arose, they did manage to stay together without losing their dignity. What a journey this was, not merely in geographical terms, but in the raw emotions of those involved. The subject of immigration is one that everyone has an opinion on, and Juvenile Adults takes you behind the news headlines, giving a birds eye view of the obstacles involved.
Juvenile Adults explores and celebrates ordinary life as it ponders how we all fit together as well as apart as we go forward. It is during this time that our protagonist, Samson, not only explores where he is now in his life but where he has come from and how that has shaped him and where he may or should go in the future. There are so many layers and textures with author’s prose as he explores family and community, goals and dreams. Simple events, simple facts of life creating an inexplicable feeling, full of little moments of regret, heartbreak, solitude yet It’s not depressing as if the author tried to depict something inevitable and he knows his intentions too well.
There’s an undercurrent of hope to the whole book. Samson is such a wide-eyed, hopeful dreamer who longs to bring his wife and son to a place he considers a land of opportunity. His desire to give his family the best life possible is a heartbreakingly universal one. The novel perhaps underscores the naivete of the dreams of the immigrant given the harsh reality of the world. Knowing how hard it is to start a new life in a new country, it’s sometimes hard for me to imagine why someone might want to.
In Juvenile Adults, author takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary with beautiful prose. The writing is precise, moving, and gives you this calming effect that you are exactly where you need to be. The images the author created with his writing are vivid and striking and the characters are well portrayed. Juvenile Adults really made me think and about how challenging and terrifying it must be for families to leave behind what is familiar and make this treacherous journey to the unknown and then to gain acceptance and understanding in their new home while they themselves try to come to terms with their grief and loss.
