Being Someone by Adrian Harvey

My sincere thanks to Matthew at Urbane Publications for sending me a copy of this book.

James has fallen through life, plotting a course of least resistance, taking each day as it comes and waiting for that indefinable ‘something’ to turn up, to give his story meaning. His journey lacks one vital element – a fellow traveller.
Then he meets Lainey. Confident. Beautiful. Captivating. And James rewrites himself to win her heart. Lainey gives James a reason to grow, paints a bright future, promises the happy ending he has sought so keenly. But when we discover we can live the greatest story of all, are we able to share the pages with someone else?
 
Being Someone is an emotive tale of love, of self-discovery and adventure – a story of the eternal search for happiness in another, without ultimately losing ourselves.

My Thoughts:

This books starts us off in India a long time ago with an elephant that went by the name of Iravatha. Admittedly not the start I was expecting upon reading the synopsis. It soon becomes clear though, when in the following chapters we change time and location altogether and meet James the main protaganist of the story. 

James, James, James. I went from wanting to take him for a pint and give him a good talking to, to falling out with him. In the end all I felt for him was compassion. It took the full 255 pages to finally understand him. You can't love somebody if you don't value yourself.

I would suggest that all the characters we meet in Being Someone are flawed. They are my favourite kinds. Afterall, which one of us is perfect? 

Lainey is not really as centralised a character as I would have anticipated but I think this is intentional.

This book is a wonderful examination of human emotions and human reactions. Which one of us can 100% guarantee what we would do in a certain time and certain place. It is also about how in the blink of an eye things can change irrepairably. 

There are not that many writers who can conjure up such imagery with their words, the writing is poetic, vivid, flowing. From the streets of India to the streets of North London with a trip to New York and Scotland thrown in for good measure, it felt like I was there and living the story. Some passages were sublime and truly evocative of time and place. 

 The passages about Iravatha and Annayya were wonderful and symbolic. You would have to read the book to understand it all but in the end I think James is a lot like Iravatha, he makes his pilgrimage back to India, back to different times and back to when there was hope. Back when one mistake hadn't changed the course of events.

Being Someone is a wonderful story of love and what it really is like to make mistakes and live and learn from the consequences.

 Highly recommended.


 About the Author:

Since escaping the East Midlands to find his fortune in the big city, Adrian Harvey has combined a career in and around government with trying to see as much of the world as he can. He lives in North London, which he believes to be the finest corner of the world’s greatest city. Being Someone is his first novel.

Find out more :
http://adrian-harvey.com/