Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie

Every read a 649 page poem? No? Read Shalimar the Clown then. It really does feel as if you are reading poetry. And before you jump to any positive conclusions, a novel feeling like a poem is not a complement. But apparently magical realism is a part of Salman Rushdie’s brand of writing. Maybe it works for his fans. It didn’t for me.

The story, if I had to encapsulate it in one sentence, is about an American Ambassador in India, Maximilian Ophulus, who comes to Kashmir and has sex with a married Kashmiri girl, whose husband is obviously pissed about being screwed over and therefore goes and kills both the girl and the American Ambassador. And there’s a whole universe that is spun around this story. And you feel as if you are drifting in space in no particular direction.

While the writing through the book is quite fantastic, no doubts about that, the story telling is extremely, should I say, devoid of energy. It is so boring that you can’t even fall off to sleep. Remember those really crappy lectures you attended in college, in which you just stared at the professor like a zombie. Reading Shalimar the Clown is somewhat akin to that. Non-linear writing is one thing, but when Rushdie kept zapping through between past, present and future like a bumble-bee from flower to flower, I couldn’t help but massage my temples to ease the pain in my head. Mixing fantasy with reality is also not something that I could digest. So metallic prophets and telepathic conversations and flying tightrope walkers are something that did not belong to this book. If I wanted to read about the atrocities in Kashmir, I would read a non-fiction book about it. And what is with all the sex? The guy is obsessed with it. And even his sex doesn’t have any eroticism in it. The words through the book while beautiful, simply don’t engross a reader.

All in all, there’s only so much of good writing that you can enjoy. I read a book for it’s story. Take that out and a book becomes an unending drag; which is what happened with this book. Yes, character development is important, conveying their thoughts and emotions is important, and giving some historical background to people is important, but all that is a part of the story. And while the Kashmir story is actually depicted quite well, it loses its sense in the larger context of the book. And the book is so depressing, intentionally I suppose, that you feel too sad, and a tad frustrated, to be enthralled by the writing itself.

Or maybe I am just too lay a man to appreciate Salman Rushdie’s works… Well, I am happy with my Wodehouse’s though. And I will need to read 2 or 3 of them to get over this book.

Maverick - Ricardo Semler

This is a business book with a difference! For one, it is not about a multi billion dollar corporation like, say an Exon, or Microsoft. It is about a Brazilian company, called Semco. And the second key difference is, the author, also the owner of the company, does not boast about the good things in his organization. He is proud of them.

Well the theme of the book is pretty straightforward. A successful company in a sinusoidal economy, and an owner with a strain of megalomania in him and therefore he decides to write a book. Well, I excuse the writer for the megalomania bit. Because this is one company that did merit a book. Not as much because it was successful, but because the company believes in the philosophy of, as we say, ‘having a life’.

Semco has done a lot of things differently. Corporate democracy where the employees decide everything from the color of the office walls to the time they come to work to even their salaries is a unique concept implemented by Semco. That, broadly, forms the theme of the book. It also explains, why, despite the obvious on-the-face, impossibility of giving such a freedom to employees, the scheme does work. I will not detail the stories of the company. There are just too many and all of them are just too good to choose amongst them.

The owner, Ricardo Semler, is a man I have tremendous respect for! In the modern era of cut throat competition it is fashionable to be a workaholic. Ricardo, or Dickie, disagrees. It’s not that he shuns work. Or doesn’t have a business vision. But it’s just that he realizes that having fun in life is more important. And honestly, workaholics are only living a delusion that work is actually fun for them. I ramble. Back to Dickie. He takes a two month of every year for vacations, believes that watching a movie on a Monday afternoon is a lot more commendable than working on a Saturday, and he actually is proud of the fact that most of the decisions in the company are taken by others and he is not even invited to most meetings, actually documents that he doesn’t take a whole lot of calls he gets… man… I could go on, and you would get the picture of that good for nothing work-weasel guy out of Dilbert comics. But then, Ricardo Semler does run a company. A successful one at that. And though he is not invited to meetings, knows about his business. So he is not a Jack Welch. But he sure as hell is a lot more interesting.

A lot of business books get very pedantic. Suggesting that what they do is the best in the world and everyone should adopt their ways. The only thing it does is feed the egos of the management of that company. And Maverick holds its reins tightly enough to not fall into that cliff. Eventually, granting that there would be a whole lot of things that people in Semco crib about, it still seems like a fun place to work for! So for the people who might not get a chance, the book is the next best way of learning how a company ought to function. This really is a business book with a difference.

The Old Reliable - P.G. Wodehouse

The characters Wodehouse creates have a wide range of professions. While there are some standard professionals, like butlers, and rich, young men who don’t have to wag a whisker for their pennies, and lawyers, etc. some harbour, and live some very unique careers.

In this book, The Old Reliable, Wilhelmina Shannon, the protagonist and the wonder woman to the rescue (therefore the title, ‘the old reliable’) is a writer who finds herself out of job. And therefore she accepts the lowly task of writing the biography of her sister, Mrs. Adela Cork, an actress from the era of the silent movies. Mrs. Adela Cork happens to have purchased a property belonging to the late Mexican actress, Carmen Flores, who while alive, led a scandalous life and documented it all in her secret diary for the benefit of the future generations. And the diary would sell for good bucks in the Hollywood market. And who doesn’t want good bucks? Well, it’s not just Ms. Bill Shannon. There is a brother in law of Mrs. Cork, Semdley, who Ms. Bill has the hots for who originally plans on hunting the diary. The butler at the house (who else) reaches the same conclusion. And thankfully Semdley has the entire family, which also includes a cousin of Ms. Bill, a certain Kay, and her lover on his side. But it is upto Ms. Bill to outwit the butler in the chase for the legendary diary.

The plot as usual, is pretty thick with a lot of very lovable characters thrown in. And for the more intellectual reader, Semdley and the butler, really have multiple dimensions if you’d really want to look for them. The butler, though clearly the villain, is extremely likable. And Semdley, with the good guys behind his back, is the kind of a guy who you’d see with a girl and wonder what the hell she saw in him.

It’s a hilarious read, with a longish climax, which is fun all the way. And this is one Wodehouse novel which the ending is not predictable in your usual way. So, well, have fun!

The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum

Spy Novels have never really appealed to me. It’s not that I am too much of a realist to find stories about international intelligence agencies, and government spies and terrorists over the top. Not at all! I love all these things in your regular spy movies. In fact, I say, they should throw in more terrorists and spies in there. But whatever books I had read on the topic, never really brought out the intensity of a situation as well as it came out for me in a movie. Now since my experience with spy fiction is pretty limited, it could be a case of me reading all the wrong books. But when the first two or three books in a genre don’t work for you, you do tend to lock the entire lineage out. That’s what happened with me.

But Bourne identity, it is one of the favourite books of a voracious reader friend I have got. And since I loved the movie trilogy so much, I decided to give Bourne Identity a read.

And I was blown away!

As it turned out, the only thing common between the movie and the book is Jason Bourne and the fact that he is an amnesic. Everything else is unrelated! I fail to understand why the movie makers would change the story of Bourne Identity! It is fast paced, extremely clever, intense, suspenseful and with the right amount of action for a novel. To be fair, with a different story, the movies were pretty good as well, with the right amount of (and more than the books) action for a movie.

The Bourne Identity is about a man who is found on a French island, loaded with bullets, not in a holster but in his body, minus his memory. But as he is treated by a drunk doctor, a clue is discovered which sends the patient, or Pierre off to a Swiss Bank, under the name of the doctor who treated him, Washburn. On the way, he figures out that he is extremely resourceful and has a knack of getting out of tight situations. He realizes he has more than a working knowledge of some form of martial arts, is adept with weapons, and is masterful with disguises. At the bank, he discovers his name is Jason Bourne. And he also discovers that a whole bunch of unknown enemies are out to kill him. But thanks to the skills he possesses, he manages to kill some and evade some of his other killers.

Now all he wants is to figure out is who he really is.

And in the search for his past he realizes, much to his horror, that Carlos, the international assassin (he is actually in the book) and an American Government organization, Treadstone, are out to kill him. When he digs out the reason, it is all the more horrifying. But in a perfect case of “ Syndrome” an economist from Canada, who he had taken as a hostage, falls in love with him and has unwavering faith that all would be well as long as she was with Jason Bourne.

And propelled by this love, though fearful of losing it because of the truth, Jason Bourne keeps unearthing the past.

The twists in the book are quite gripping. You don’t even know whether you should hate Jason Bourne because he probably is a baddie, or sympathize with him because he is an amnesic. The balance keeps tilting towards the later option because of all the panic attacks that he has whenever he has blinding visions of the past. And of course there is a poor girl in question for who you want the best. And of course Jason Bourne is the hero! And the hero has to, has to be victorious! It’s the how that will keep you hooked on to the book!

Read on...!

Do Butlers Burgle Banks - P.G. Wodehouse

This has to be one of the catchiest Wodehouse titles around. A question which not a lot of Indians would relate to for sure since the domestic help here sure has made a veritable business model out of taking off with their master’s belongings and riches. British butlers, apparently, are not quite like that. Their nobility is so unquestioned, that when one of them does go down the crime lane and busting banks, it is an event big enough to publish a book on.

And hell, I am not complaining that they have a book on it. Especially since it is authored by Plum.

The book is about a syndicate of thieves, headed by the wily, though not so fit, Horace Appleby who decides to take a detour from his usual modus operandi of stealing jewels and decides to plunge into a new line of business of burgling banks. And once Appleby gets his cronies on the line for the plan of action, he sets off to the Bond residence to establish a base to study and formulate and execute his plans and takes over as a temporary butler. Of course that’s where the plot just starts.

Michael Bond, the inheritor of the Bond Bank, who ends up employing Appleby as his butler, is not quite in the pink of health. With his love life flagging away into nothingness, he has business worries that any owner of a bank would. And maybe his worries go a shade deeper than the usual amount.

Appleby realizes that this one operation is not going to be as smooth as his previous achievements. He has his arch rival, the Chicago Gunman, hounding him to clear past dues. And then he has a love life of his own that he has to sort out.

In this little gem of a book, both the victim and the villain are actually the heroes of the story. And between the aims of Appleby to burgle the bank and Michael Bond to run it smoothly are thrown in several characters who make the plot as mixed up as a heap of spaghetti. There are trustees trying to sort out the bank owner’s and by extension their own problems. The secretary and the love interest of Mr. Bond help in every way they can. And then where you have burglary and gunmen, there are cops as well. And from Scotland Yard, no less!

You will have a roller coaster sort of a ride when you get through this book. And unlike the usual Wodehouse books where though the ending is happy, there is an eventual loser, it doesn’t happen so in this book, as the ending is happy for everyone. Well, almost. That said, the ending is a bit too forced in this book, and it does take away some of the shine off the book when you flip over the last page, though the story in itself is quite hilarious and will have you laughing from pretty much the starting. And I am all ok with that. As long as I get my two cupfuls of laughter, I can live with the contrived ending.

And yeah, don’t you try to imitate the bank burgling business at home. It isn’t quite as simple as Wodehouse house writes it to be. And be wary of your domestic help. If butlers can rob banks, your maid will definitely not have any qualms about flinching some money from your wallet.

Clash of the Titans - Richard Hack

I have always enjoyed business books. Maybe it’s because I have done an MBA. (I know that sounds snobbish, but when you study business management, learning how, say, a Microsoft or a Google become the mammoth that it is, is actually quite thrilling. My love for business books is a different topic altogether) But all business books that I had read so far were about businesses that I more or less understood. Or if not understood, at least I could grasp. Say technology, or Consumer Goods, or Retail. It’s about making something, and selling it.

And when I started on with Clash of the Titans, I was quite enthused about expanding my horizons and reading about a new business, namely media. The book is about the clash of the two titans in the media world, Rupert Murdoch, and Ted Turner. Both incredible business men who have touched my lives quite personally in their own ways. Murdoch through his Times of India, and Ted Turner through Cartoon Network. This is not to say that Star Sports or Star Movies or HBO or their other ventures haven’t been a part of my life, but their influence was certainly considerably lesser.

Richard Hack tries to give the book as fictional a feel as possible. Through his non-sequential narration of starting with an episode midway in the chronology, then going back to the beginning to come back to the start of the book again. That’s a ploy done to death, but it still holds its charm. And then there is (over-)dramatization of several scenes, the details which can not possibly be confirmed with regards to their accuracy. And while the purpose of it to not render the book boring is accomplished, the author does go overboard by ending every chapter with “… and the tides had turned for the two giants to collide in a feisty storm” or lines to that effect.

As such Clash of The Titans is as much a business book as it is a compressed biography of Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner, juxtaposed brilliantly. There the book is something unique, and reads almost like a movie screen play. Both Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch have led incredible lives and have built incredible companies. The book traces the life of both these protagonists in the right amount of detail required in the context of the book.

The business side of it is actually not that easy to follow. Or maybe it was because I don’t really understand the business of media. And how exactly Murdoch and Turner become business men of their stature is not very clear. As given in the book: Murdoch buys newspapers after newspapers (as in the publishing companies and not stacks of newspapers) and ensures they become profitable and Turner has TBS and then starts CNN which is a hit. I am oversimplifying what’s there in the book of course, but the book itself oversimplifies their rise to stardom as well. There’s this whole thing of network versus cable versus dish antenna TV which I absolutely did not get. (Time for some Googling) But then the book, at 400 pages, probably did not have enough space to dwell into more details.

The two things that absolutely do stand out for me though are that one, Both Murdoch and Turner have an unending zest for life and want to keep setting goals and achieving them. The book portrays the passion that the two men have, extremely well. Secondly, as constant a character as Murdoch has been through his life, Turner has taken a somersault and turned himself inside out. Murdoch’s priorities have been fairly uniform through his life. Turner’s have changed drastically. Murdoch was always a business man through out his life. Turner was a sailor, a Casanova, an orator, a philanthropist, and a businessman, each in varying amounts in different phases of his life.

The book does an exceptional job of providing glimpses into the lives and businesses of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch, a commendable job when writing about either would have constituted quite a tome itself. That itself makes this book a highly recommended read.

Bachelors Anonymous - P.G. Wodehouse

Bachelor’s Anonymous is one more of Wodehouse’s cross country comedies. A tie up of American culture with British humor. And again, Wodehouse “scores” on his readers.

The name of the book might just be vaguely familiar to the drunks out there, especially the transformed and improved drunks who call up on their groupies from Alcoholic’s Anonymous to help them get over their pangs of consuming liquor. Bachelor’s Anonymous is a group of like minded individuals who are marriage phobic, who are out there to protect the young, gullible minds from getting trapped into the vicious pit of marriage. And they are proactive too. For they don’t just help people who seek out their help, like the marriage addict Mr. Llewellyn, the movie producer who married starlets at will and then shelled out oodles of money in alimony, but the good Samaritans also try and prevent young men who voluntarily want to get married, like the not-so-budding Joe Pickering.
So when Trout, a veteran Bachelor’s Anonymous member, goes to London to ensure that his client and friend, Llewellyn didn’t marry yet again, he finds that Joe Pickering is hopelessly in love. And while Llewellyn appoints Pickering to keep him away from women he (Llewellyn) might accidentally propose marriage to, Trout, instead of counseling Llewellyn, finds his hands full and time taken in trying to convince Pickering the advantages of bachelorhood. And when sweet talk doesn’t work, it was time to use brute force. And amidst all the helping and loving and panicking the lives of these three men, with a bunch of women thrown in became inexplicably tangled. There’s money, greed, lust, glamour, even private detectives, in this romantic comedy. Eventually it takes a healthy dose of pure, unadulterated love to unravel it all. And the reader can simply lie back, and relax as everyone, without exception makes you laugh. What more do you want?

The Dark Half - Stephen King

It had been quite some time that I had read Stephen King. Maybe I had lost my love for horror as a genre. Or maybe I just had too many other books to lap up. But either ways, point of the matter was that I had not read a Stephen King book since a long time; and that’s a shame, since he does have the claim to my favourite author’s title, along with P.G. Wodehouse of course.

The Dark Half was a book, highly recommended by a friend. And I had it lying with me for quite some time too. But that was the last Stephen King book that I had. So I never got the heart to read it, knowing that if I read it, I wouldn’t have any more Stephen King books left to read. So what I did, is that I got a couple of new Stephen Kings. So with the fear of running out of SKs out of my head, I finally picked up the book.

So… with the review.

One thing about SK books is that it’s very difficult to write a review without giving away spoilers. The protagonist, Thad Beaumont, in this book is a writer. (Why does that not surprise me) And while he has written some successful and some not so successful books under his own name, the books written under his pseudonym, George Stark, his so called dark half, have been runaway hits. The book is essentially about the battle between these two names, two identities, two halves. Apologies to Mr. King if I have downplayed the plot a bit. But wouldn’t want to narrate the synopsis of the story here. The battle is just not in the mind. It’s very, very physical. And no, the book is not about schizophrenia. It is as pure a horror novel as a horror novel can get.

The biggest challenge a horror writer faces, perhaps, is to make the horror believable. And it’s no easy, walking-on-the-cake, or sipping-the-ice-tea task. How do you convince a reader that the ghost is a pseudonym of a writer who doesn’t write under that name anymore? Stephen King has created some very unlikely, but believable ghosts, and with consummate ease, elsewhere. Remember Christine? And the hall of famer, The Shining? Here too, he does a fairly decent job of conveying the reality of the “dark half”. But the problem is that the ghost here is a very much a piece of clay at the disposal of the author. He has all the strengths the author decides to give him, and weaknesses that the author conveniently confers upon him. And scariness, though quite logical, feels somewhat forced. I guess there’s a limitation to a humanish ghost, regardless of how inhuman the author makes him out to be.

Though the book is not that scary, the story is quite all right. The characters are well built, and there’s a lot of chemistry between Thad and his wife, Liz. And the interaction between Thad and his dark half, George Stark is very well written indeed. The mind games are a delight to read.

The ending, though convenient, isn’t as lame as a priest coming and scaring away the ghost by holy water. The end is built up well throughout the book, all the way to the climax. And neither is it that predictable. And not that Stephen King was ever short on descriptive skills, but the climax is especially well described. And it actually makes your flesh creep under the skin while you read. So, maybe as a horror novel it is not quite that top notch. But as a fiction book it has its share of thrills and blood. You wouldn’t be bored with the story, but you also wouldn’t really be at the edge of your seat. Not a regret to read, but nothing too must-read about it as well.

Very Good Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse

I have been steadily climbing up in the charts of the most active Wodehouse adulator. But all the books that I had read so far had been full fledged novels. With so many books yet to read, I always preferred novels over short stories. But the time came, and eventually I picked up Very Good, Jeeves, featuring the good ol’Bertie and his gentleman’s gentleman, Jeeves.

Short stories tend to be tricky affairs. Having a satisfyingly complete plot is no mean thing. A lot of short stories tend to be purely about emotions, without a real story. (Either that, or I have been reading all the wrong short stories) And though my confidence in Plum was complete and unwavering, I was feeling loaded under my own expectations about the entertainment value of short stories by Wodehouse versus his novels.

And Bertie and Jeeves, under the masterful direction of Plum are up to the task.

The stories are essentially abridged versions of any Wooster-Jeeves novel that you might have read. Reduce the complexity. Reduce a couple of tiers from a multi-tiered plot and voila, you have a short story. It sounds like a formula, doesn’t it? But it would be naïve to vehemently oppose the idea. Wodehouse stories are quite formula based. But it’s the individuality of every plot within the formula which makes him so good. And that is exhibited in all the stories in this book. Each one of them will have u snickering and laughing at the situations Wooster finds himself in and they way Jeeves always manages to find a way out.

And over the course of the stories you will get better associated with Tuppy Glossop of whom I haven’t read that extensively in any other Jeeves book so far. He is an entertaining addition to the Jeeves ensemble.

So sit back in a comfy chair and let Wooster, Jeeves and the gang go about tangling and entangling their daily lives. Its all for your benefit!

Galahad at Blandings - P.G. Wodehouse

I had heard so much about Galahad Threepwood and Lord Emsworth! Finally I got around to reading about their exploits at the famed Blandings Castle.

Blandings somehow reminded me of the Udaipur palace, except that Udaipur palace is actually only a tourist spot. Blandings is a castle-cum-home to the wealthy royalty who don’t really work for a living. Anyways, I digress. Galahad and Lord Emsworth are quite the brother-in-arms, the smarter one looking out for the loonier one. And at the scenic, apparently blissful locale of the Blandings a scheme is on the way to rob Lord Emsworth of his happiness. And between the baleful sister and the successful execution of her fiendish plans lies the gallant Galhad; the protector of hapless brothers!

Ofcourse the plot is not as simple as that. To start with, there is the wealthy American Tipton Plimsoll who wants to marry Galahad’s niece, the naïve (read dumb) but good looking girl of yore who is easily molded the way her mother wants. And that can have scary implications when the mother happens to be Hermione, the vilest of Galahad’s and Lord Emsworth’s sisters. The sister, while being fickle like a confused rabbit about the worthiness of young Tipton, goes about meddling in Lord Emsworth’s life. What with hiring him a nagging secretary, she plans to get her brother married off to some other equally atrocious woman. And the secretary, Sandy, once in budding love with Sam Bagshott who turned out to the son of an old friend of Gally in this small world was hardly in the pink of the spirit since her break up with Sam. Oh, and I totally forgot about Willfred Allsop, nephew of Aunt Hermione, is in love with the caretaker of the award winning pig at the Blandings Castle (I didn’t know pigs could win awards for fatness. Wodehouse even manages to teach culture through his books!) And there are as many misunderstandings as there are love stories. And Galahad, as he comes to the aid of his brother in need is also a soul who can not stand a heart pained by the loss of its love. So he makes a personal agenda of seeing through all the couples to their happy endings. Cupid personified for you!

The character of Lord Emsworth and the villainy of his sister provide a very good platform for a lot of chuckles. The story begins at a drunken revelry in America and ends in Blandings Castle just outside of London. Totally disassociated things like romantic tangles, the hand of the law and the obese pig all come together in this delightfully funny novel in which a multi-layered plot eventually unravels to the happy ending.

The Code Book - Simon Singh

I have absolutely no clue as to why I picked up this book. It wasn’t spectacularly cheap. The book is a narration on cryptography and how it has evolved over time. So the subject is nothing that I have ever been interested in. It was certainly not going to help me in my career in any way. But yet… I picked it up. Perhaps it was the cover. It is indeed a very well designed cover, great title, great tag line, and the overall look is the kind that promises answers to a lot of mysteries of life. (It is quite mystical, the way the sub-conscious works and drives us to do things that we think we wouldn’t do) What a cardinal sin! I judged a book by its cover! For once though, I was right on the money.

The book is, as I said, on cryptography, which, for the uninitiated, is the science of manipulating messages so that only the intended receiver can understand them. The book could have been very text-bookish, with one method of encryption explained after another. But Simon Singh displays the flair of an accomplished novelist in the book as he narrates the growth of cryptography over the ages like a riveting story.

The author talks about cryptography as a battle between cryptographers and cryptanalysts, i.e. the code-makers and the code-breakers. One is the good and the other evil, depending on the side you happen to be. Therefore, the book almost has a screen play like a movie, with the focus not on the protagonist or the villain, but on the actual battle. Of course the code makers and breakers are given their due credit. But what is fascinating is the process of cryptography and the enormous impact it has had on the world we live in. So be it the simple mono-alphabetic substitution cipher which took a couple of centuries to break, or the Vignere cipher which was considered unbreakable, or be it the Enigma, the mechanical cipher, which presented a challenge to the cryptanalysts like never before. All these were eventually broken and we saw the coming of the public key cryptography, something that is used in the present day, which will be broken, only when quantum computers are ready to join the party, or so the author claims. The whole evolution makes for an absorbing read. There is a slight detour that the author takes to describe how ancient languages were deciphered, which is quite intriguing as well. To think that there are people smart enough to figure out how a language was actually “spoken” just by studying some written texts makes me feel so mediocre about myself! And as the author unfolds all these scientific details about cryptography and cryptanalysis, he makes it a point to keep it simple for the laymen like me, and sprinkles a healthy dose of anecdotes to keep the reader entertained.

The author displays an amazing intuitive understanding of a reader’s psyche. Loading the book with facts would have been dreary, because we are not going to remember the dates and the names anyways. (Atleast I don’t) Having only the cryptographic details would have made the book as dull as a text-book, as I have already pointed out. And having only entertaining anecdotes would have made the book a collection of articles from a tabloid with no light being shed on the cryptography part of it. To balance all the three components so that the reader feels absolutely satisfied when she finishes the book is quite a daunting task, and Simon Singh has achieved that beautifully.

So what if you have nothing to do with cryptography? If you ever wanted some entertaining non-fiction, The Code Book is the book for you. And oh, in case you manage to solve the Beale Mystery which the author talks about, you might just end up becoming a millionaire. Now are you interested?

Longshot - Dick Francis

An omnibus of Dick Francis Novels at a book store made quite a deal. A 2-book omnibus at Rs.199. What a steal! Not that I would have bought any other author just because he was cheap. Dick Francis happened to be one of the favorite authors of my best friend, who himself is a book enthusiast like I never could be. Plus, horse racing is actually quite a fascinating topic and even a mediocre plot around that is interesting because of the so many new things you learn about a very glamorous sport. So I picked up Longshot, and got down to reading it.

The plot of Longshot… well, is a bit weak in the sense of your regular crime novel. It involves the death of a nobody, an investigation that would never have a global repercussion, and even the most radical conspiracy theorist would fail to link up the crime in the book to “higher powers”. But such is the story. Dick Francis himself takes a jab at this fact in the book, when his Police Detective sighs with resignation that the dead body they found turns out to be an ordinary stable girl.

Enough of the spoilers already!

The climax, while it is fitting to the story, is not quite that nail-biting a finish as you would’ve liked. And the end, though logical and humane, with no ridiculous dues-ex-machina coming into play (ok, maybe a slight one), does not give that satisfaction of triumph of good over evil.
But despite the novel being only a regular story, I enjoyed every bit of it because of the protagonist. He is a writer… Ok, I hear you say, one more author chooses to have a writer protagonist. Isn’t that the easiest, you ask. Well, perhaps. But the protagonist here is an adventurer, and has written a series of books on surviving in hostile environs. And a lot of tips that he shares through the book keep you hooked, while the story progresses around that. So maybe I would not rate the plot too highly, but when I combine that with the protagonist and his livelihood, Longshot gets a “Thumbs Up”. So if you are the kinds who want some wholesome reading and are not overly concerned about the adrenalin factor of a story as long as the book keeps you entertained, you will like Longshot. To end with a corny line… do give Longshot a shot, it might just hit the bull’s eye.

PSmith, Journalist - P.G. Wodehouse

The adventures of the very loquacious PSmith continue in his American jaunt which lands him in an unlikely profession of journalism, a whim exercised solely to keep himself busy while his childhood friend Mike played cricket across the American lands. Now you wouldn’t imagine Wodehouse to get himself messed up with Godfather-ish stories of the underworld, talk about the workings of the mafia and much less so, let his hero wander in the dirty lanes of crime. But that’s exactly what happens in this story.

Of course, the goons are not nearly as adept at disposing their victims as they would be in a, say, a Ludlum book. And neither are they equipped with weapons of mass destruction of any kinds. So the skirmishes of PSmith with them retain the characteristic Wodehouse humour. Whew! What a relief for the Wodehouse reader!

The plot is actually quite a few layers thick with several characters flitting in and out. And all this balanced quite finely in the storyline, which is in fact ridiculous to the point of being funny, but not so far as to be slapstick; a skill, honed and mastered by Wodehouse.

PSmith, ends up being the sub-editor of Cosy Moments when he accompanies his friend Mike, who is visiting US of A to play cricket. And while Cosy Moments of inherent nature was, as the name suggested, cosy, PSmith wanted to make it a smoldering cauldron of gory realities that surround us in the cruel world. So much to the agony of the staff of Cosy Moments, and to the reader base’s plight, Cosy Moments, among other things, started prodding in the sneaky happenings of a tenement scam. As it turned out the stakes were far to high, and PSmith discovered that he was risking his limbs, bones and hats in the quest for journalistic superiority. It would actually be quite a fast paced crime or a thriller novel if it were not written by Wodehouse. But hey, if you wanted funny, be glad it was written by him.

The book is quite a delightful package of narration, dialogue and characterization. This was the first book I have read where the Wodehouse’s sarcastically funny tone bites the American society. And if you can’t digest the easiness exhibited in the book to overthrow a power-soaked Don, you can just laugh it off. It’s a great book. Read it.

Aunts aren't Gentlemen - P.G. Wodehouse

The terrific twosome are at it again. Reginald Jeeves and Bertram Wooster join hands to foil devious schemes of villains out to disrupt the quiet English life. And this time it starts with a handful of pink spots on Bertie Wooster’s chest. And the doctor says that it is the stressful life that Bertie, of all people, leads and he must take a break in the countryside to become healthy again.

Not the last Wooster has a hectic life in the first place, but he still decides to retire to the countryside, alarmed by the consequences of not doing so as pointed out by his doctor. And that’s where adventure embraces him with open arms as he runs into a whole bunch of undesirable people when he was looking forward to meeting only his very desirable aunt. And while the aunt was not very villainous, the moral of this story, as the title suggests, is that aunts aren’t gentlemen.

Really speaking, the plot isn’t the strongest ever written by Plum. But it is gripping none the less. In fact, the happy ending turned out to be slightly different than what I thought it would be. And of course, when you have a Wooster around, you are bound to have quite a lot of laughs. So all said, this was one more satisfying Wodehouse book. He never disappoints, does he?

The Dragon and The Elephant - David Smith

It’s interesting to note that the author chooses to represent China and India with a dragon and an elephant respectively. Size, power and perhaps fury captured well by the representative creatures. The book after all, is about the Chinese and Indian economies, their fall from their glorious history to very recent, but endemic, poverty, and their rising impact in the global economy in the more recent times.

Most books on economics, especially the ones about countries at a specific point in time tend to have a very short shelf life. They are applicable only for a few years after which they are published. This is especially true in the more dynamic times of today. But this particular book would make for a good read well into the future for its historical perspective. It provides a very good sneak-peek into the history of Chinese and Indian Economies and its journey for over 2000 years, the last 50 years or so being obviously more detailed.

The book then goes about discussing the impact of the two giants on the world economy. Overall, this section provides some useful details to the more generic knowledge an average Joe might have. Indeed, the author cites just the right number of examples and facts and figures too convey his point. He could easily have been carried away, but he doesn’t wander away from the theme of the book.

Lastly the book takes a predictive tone as the author states the ten ways in which China and India will impact the world. The author is careful not to over-state things, and is neither overly optimistic nor an alarmist in his visions of China, India and the world in 2050.

As a reader, you will appreciate that the author doesn’t patronize anything about either of the two countries and neither does he take a pro-western or a pro-globalization or pro-anything stance through the book. The book is very simply and completely about what the title suggests. The book serves a very good purpose in giving the people who are getting increasingly aware of the China and India, and maybe would also help to shatter some myths and stereotypes about the countries. After all, they are more than just about the dragons and elephants.

Something Fishy - P.G Wodehouse

This is a Wodehouse book full of delightful characters and a very intriguing story line. Have you ever heard of Tontine? Well, there is a variation of the standard Tontine here and it involves a bunch of rich people pooling pooling in large sums of money, with the loot going to the son of one of their children, who would be the last of the gen-next to marry. And though this was supposed to be a secret, it is overheard by the house butler and he keeps a tab on the sons of all the lords for the years to come, and towards the end resorting to manipulating them. Throw in some hilarious characters: Lord Uffenham, Butler Keggs, Anne, Hollister, Stanhope Twine, Roscoe Bunyan… all of them have rib-tickling appearances and mannerisms.

Story carries on really well for most of the book. Not that the end is gripping or unpredictable, but it keeps to interested to find out how exactly that inevitable happy ending is going to come about. Sadly, the ending turns out to be a bit too convenient for the otherwise masterfully created story.

But you will have a lot of laughs in this one for sure. Lord Uffenham’s favourite phrase is “Lord Love a duck”!!!! And I picked up one gleaming pearl of wisdom as well: “Poverty is the banana-skin on the doorstep of romance” How true is that!

Well, you will mind many such gems in the book. Read On. Have Fun.

Thank You Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse

Thank you Jeeves is the first of the Jeeves collection for me. But the reputation of this butler preceded him. As it happened, I was aware of Jeeves being the epitome of butlerhood. And along with Bertie Wooster, they make a pair good enough to win the tag team championship of getting-out-of-trouble contests.

This book has all the elements Wodehouse is so famous for. The simple to follow, yet multi-layered plot, the confusion about who’s going to get engaged to who, and of course that humour which inescapably makes you laugh. It even has a bit of a juxtaposition of American and British characters which Wodehouse carries off with a quite a charm!

The story begins with Bertie Wooster being evicted from his house for his insistence on playing the banjolele, which didn’t exactly produce the sweet melody that he intended too. And that singular stubbornness ends up involving his childhood pal, his ex-fiancee, his ex-almost-father-in-law and a bunch of sorted relatives and local policemen in a tangle, which requires all of Jeeves’ talents to unravel. And needless to say, Jeeves is quite upto the task.

As a first glance at the character of Bertie Wooster, I must say I quite liked him! His philosophy on the right partner to spend the life with was enlightening! And his attitude to his ex-girlfriend was so healthy, that a lot of those strife torn lovers who get dumped by their girlfriends should learn from. Even if someone can’t manage to be as angelic towards their ex-s as Bertie, at least there would be lesser cases of spurned lovers trying to take the life of their lost loves.

Last word, this is Wodehouse as his fans like him the best. If you are one of those people who have that sensibility to understand Plum, in-built into your DNA, then you are going to enjoy this one! It even has one hilarious preface on how Wodehouse writes his stories. That’s always a fun to know from the writer first-hand

P.S.: In JLA (Justice League of America), Wally West, the “Flash” refers to Alfred, Batman’s butler, as Jeeves! Fancy Flash reading Wodehouse!!!

The Theory of Everything - Stephen Hawking

The theory of everything is an interesting concept in itself. I always was intrigued by the idea of origin of universe and its growth. Apparently a lot of people have been interested in it other than me. And their interest has been a lot more active than mine. As it turns out everything that happens can be expressed as mathematical equations. Or at least people have been trying to. I knew “A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking” dwells on the subject too. I just chose to read this book because it had lesser number of pages. And I wanted a summary of the history of time and could do without the technicalities.

But then, even this smaller book is quite dense. You need to have a healthy amount of curiosity to be able to get through this book. In the end, it doesn’t answer any specific question you might have on the universe. In fact, Stephen Hawking is blissfully diplomatic about most things. And there are just so many things in the book that are confusing… obfuscating even. (I forget that character who talked like that)

The topics discussed in this book cover origin of universe and several arguments and theories about it, its growth till the present state, black holes, time and its direction and the concluding chapter on the quest for theory of everything. The good thing is that the book is in English. And even though a lot of concepts are brought in which I didn’t fully understand, the partial understanding of the theme was good enough for me to read this book.

Stephen Hawking mixes philosophy with science very well. And surprisingly, exhibits quite a sense of subtle humor in this science laden book. He puts forth a point that science was once a branch under philosophy. It was when science just got too complicated for the philosophers that it needed specialized studies. The idea is to read this book like a philosopher, and if you have some amount of interest in astronomy. If you don’t, don’t bother going through this one. You will probably get a headache in the first 2 pages.

To end it, the book does not actually give the theory which encompasses everything. It ends with a note that a grand unifying theory will probably emerge from a chain of theories which will sprout over time. And once the “how” of the world is answered… we can go about asking “why”. As I said, deeply philosophical

PSmith in the City - P.G. Wodehouse

This book is a tale of two school lads, Mike, and PSmith (with a silent initial P), who set out on the journey of life in the city. Straight out of the school, they are thrown into the ugliness of the cruel world.

Well. It’s not quite ugly. It’s a very gradual progression of P.G. Wodehouse from the school stories to the stories in the outside world. There is no angle of romance in the book and the story hangs around the two principle characters, PSmith and Mike.

The characters of PSmith and Mike appear in his earlier books too in their school days. So, commenting on the characters in this book would be pretty pointless. If you like ‘em, you like ‘em. If you don’t, you don’t. This book itself would only further strengthen your opinion on the two characters.

However for me, this was a first PSmith book. And I loved the character immensely. The chemistry between Mike and PSmith is quite terrific. I really would hate to have a friend like PSmith. If a friend goes around calling me his “private and confidential secretary” it wouldn’t be long before he would find himself bleeding from a busted nose. Had Psmith been a part of life, I would have found him irritating like a fly buzzing around my ears. But as a character I only have to read about, and not actually bear, he is a hilarious person. And the surprising thing is, that though I would not have quite enjoyed Psmith’s company, the fact that Mike does, is very believable. I would really love to read about the earlier exploits of PSmith and Mike in the school days.

The story in this book is actually quite loose. It reads a bit like a multi-season comedy TV series as it narrates the life of the two protagonists in the city. There is no complex plot per se. Things keep happening. And while individually they are fairly funny incidents, they are just a part of the story and nothing has a central bearing on anything. Wodehouse also takes a fairly convenient escape route in the end.

But then if you are reading PSmith for the first time, you are going to love his talkative and somewhat narcissistic attitude. He drops some serious pearls of wisdom in between. The two of the best ones in this book were about the philosophy of “work”

Work, the hobby of the philosopher and the poor man's friend.

And,

Work, the hobby of the hustler and the deadbeat's dread.

And I didn’t have any real complains against the book. I had quite a few laughs while reading. And that’s all that I look for from a Wodehouse book.

The Shining - Stephen King

Scaring people has been a form of amusement for our species since time immemorial. (We’ve all jumped from around the corner, going boo at some friend of ours, sometime in our lives) And the thrill we get from being scared spawned a genre of entertainment called “horror”. But then, the supreme human being I am, so above everyone, I always enjoyed horror in a detached kind of a way. I have never really been scared of any horror movie or a book for that matter. And even the one that I call good horror is where the “what next” excitement causes an adrenalin rush. I am one of those, who don’t believe in ghosts, not even remotely so. So, invariably, even the ghost stories that I enjoyed never quite managed to germinate fear in me. And then came “The Shining”. And horror will never be quite the same again. I love the way Stephen King writes. His ability to get into the head of his characters and convey all their emotions with utmost clarity, somewhat like being in a dream that you know is a dream, is unparalleled. His characters don’t really know what they are thinking. But all those thoughts are communicated to us. Being aware of the characters subconscious thoughts gives a surreal reading experience. This is exhibited in all of his few books that I have read so far. And isolation is an important element he uses in his stories. Thematically, these two concepts are present in The Shining as well. But SK out-surpasses himself in The Shining. Not to dole out spoilers, but the book is about a family which goes to live up in a hotel on the mountains, as Jack Torrance gets a caretaker’s job there for the winter. And the his little boy, Danny, has what is called “The Shine”, a psychic ability to see the future, to read other people’s thoughts, to see what had happened in the past, even to see ghosts, etc; The proverbial “gift he didn’t ask for”. And the horror begins from there, and how! Writing from a little boy’s perspective can never be easy. And yet Stephen King manages that. His fears, his confusion about his “Shining” has a poignant effect as you feel nothing but sympathy for the child. His parents are the other central characters in the book, and their relationship with each other, and with Danny is again extremely well played out. SK also dwells into the past of both Jack Torrance, and Wendy Torrance (father and mother) which lends a lot more credibility to their actions and thoughts. And then the possession… boy oh boy. I always thought that SK did a brilliant job with Arnie Cunningham in Christine. But Shining outclasses it by miles. Shining has one of the best villains a horror novel will ever have. Everything about the villain, its purpose, its modus operandi, its tenacity, is a treat. And it’s really, really scary. Anything more, and I will give away too much. The climax is the crowning glory of “The Shining”. If you sit back and think about it, you might feel in retrospect, that the ending is probably a bit predictable. But SK gets you so involved in the events and happenings of the hotel that you totally forget about it. And when it dawns upon you… you feel a huge burst of relief and triumph at the thought that the good people might just have a chance. They might just survive. Read the book to know if they do. The weak hearted readers; you would be advised to please consult a physician before reading this one. It will give you a lot more than just goose bumps! - Himanshu
PS: In FRIENDS the very popular TV sitcom, Joey Tribiani keeps his copy of “The Shining” in the freezer of his refrigerator to keep the ghosts locked up.

Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

Finally… I managed to read up this best seller. I read the book only because everyone around me had read it. And I was beginning to get bored of the scornful glance people would give me, when I said that I hadn’t read this book. My claims of being an avid book reader were looked upon at with doubt. I never thought I would do anything for mere social acceptance, but here I am, a lesser me who relented to the peer pressure.

At the back of my mind, I did believe that the book would be pretty decent if not outright fantabulous. After all, Five Point Someone seemed to be the favourite book of everyone around me. I had this friend in my MBA course who had come to the first lecture, reeling under the after effects of last-night’s alcohol, or perhaps the early morning peg, and had narrated the whole story to me while I haplessly tried concentrate on what was being taught. And through the slurring of my dear friend, and my own doubly divided concentration all I managed to gather was that the book was about the exploits of a guy at IIT. Of the lecture, I didn’t understand anything.

So I bought the book, and I started having my doubts from the very first page…

Thematically, Chetan Bhagat was spot on. Book about college life, couldn’t miss the mark. Where most Indian writers are too busy exploring philosophical, emotional and intellectual topics for their books, Chetan Bhagat chose a mass topic. And simply that made the book a hit. And let’s give merit where it’s due. The tales of bad students in great institutions, and that too, not child molestors or drug addicts bad, simply less than the torch-bearers-of-brilliance bad, is a tale which a lot of people can relate to. Because behind those select few, mostly disliked top rankers in all colleges, there are a hundred students who are not top rankers, and therefore looked down upon. And all of them, who have not lived up to their parent’s expectations, or have seen the toppers getting extra perks from teachers, etc. etc. can relate to the book and the three protagonists.

But that’s where the charm of the book ends for me. For some, in fact everyone I know, that charm carries them through, and makes the book enjoyable. But I find the writing too sloppy. Chetan Bhagat was probably trying to be colloquial and cool with his contemporary writing style. But that does not mean that you have to use “like” three times in a sentence. If he reads “The Game” by Neil Strauss, he will get a sample of what he was probably trying to achieve, writing style wise.

Characters are extremely clichéd. In fact the whole book is one big blob of clichés and stereotypes. In a group of three, there is one good looking guy and one fat guy. The heroine’s dad is a strict ringmaster. The invariable happy ending. Guy meets cute girl when she bangs into him in a car. The last one actually made me go… “What bs!”

Characters have not been built too well either. But then, I guess we can make some concessions for Chetan Bhagat considering it is his first book. Maybe he will get better. We will wait and see.
Overall, the book is not very enjoyable. At best, it’s a light, quick read, which you can run through and forget. Last heard, they were going to make a movie out of it. Now, the college theme might not have been explored that much in books, but it’s been done to death in movies. I say, leave it off the celluloid guys!!

I Dare - Biography of Kiran Bedi

The most important woman in India according to a magazine, high achiever in this male dominated jungle of a planet, and the person who transformed Tihar Jail: that was the extent about my knowledge about Kiran Bedi, a woman a lot of other women and girls tout as their role model. So, I thought the biography would be a good place to read up about her. After all, she was a cop. And therefore her life was bound to be a lot more interesting than an IT professional. Plus, the book advertised itself by claiming to be the best biography of an Indian. And though I couldn’t recall any other significant biographies from India, I was fairly certain that even considering the lack of competition the book, if not good, wouldn’t be too bad.

To that end, I was right. The book was not bad. And yeah, Kiran Bedi’s life has been quite “happening”, as the hippies might have said. First woman IPS officer, now that’s quite an achievement isn’t it. Something I would have been proud as a parent, a teacher, a friend, a neighbour, or even as her building watchman. Truly, it is so convenient to generalize that this or that is not a girl’s domain. Disproving that requires tremendous dedication, and conviction to battle the cynicism, the doubts, and even ridicule. To say that Kiran Bedi did battle all of that to have a phenomenally respectful career as an IPS officer is to say a lot. Hats off Miss Kiran Bedi!

But then, as a biography this book seriously lacks in quality. Not that I have read many non-business biographies, but I am sure the writing could have been way better. It reads like someone is literally penning down the things as they happened in Kiran Bedi’s life chronologically without giving a thought to the aesthetics of writing. It fails to play with the readers’ emotions, to cause them to flare at the bureaucracy in the Indian System, or cringe at the simply inhuman crimes against the people jailed at Tihar, or simply feel sad for the people who wait for years to even get a sentence and spend time in prison as undertrials. There are some feeble attempts here and there to do that. But they are too far and few in between to praise the quality of writing. Two things could have happened. One, maybe the creative freedom of the author was curtailed, and he was told about the things to write. Or, the writer found that her name would not be mentioned on the cover page and got seriously ticked off by that to put effort into the book. (The book that I have does not have the author name on the cover. The picture of the revised edition I have put up here, does mention the name! Atleast they revised that!) I have a feeling it is the first. Probably Kiran Bedi herself micro-managed the book too much for it to be a piece of literature. And the book at places seems to be a vent to give justification, or to complain against the injustice against her. And the book does seem quite self laudatory for it to be an honest biography.
Final word… yes the book is a worthy read for the sheer personality of Kiran Bedi. Writing pulchritude be damned. The life story of Kiran Bedi keeps you riveted, and the pages keep turning. And you do feel glad that you have such an officer in the system.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

The title is absolutely eye-catching. Doesn’t give anything about the book away, while letting you form your opinion on what the unturned pages might contain. I had the notion that it would probably be about a Muslim individual who, at the mercy of the situation and the harsh opinions of some of the pseudo-secular countries on Islam, had developed a fundamentalist ideology, perhaps bordering on extremism which leads to human-bombing and 9/11 like incidents.

But the book was surprisingly different. On the inside on the front cover, the book carries a summary that the book is about the turn of events that lead to a conversation between a certain Pakistani named Changez and an American tourist in a Lahore eatery. And I had my doubts if I would like the book.

As promised, it was about the life of Changez, his stay in US and an account of his academic, professional and romantic life in US. Then came 9/11 and how things changed post that for him. Again, if I had known that the book was about what I wrote about in that last two sentences, it would have failed to excite me. But then the narration is absolutely beautiful! It is a monologue between Changez and the American tourist. And interspersed with the story of his life, Changez talks about the scenes and sounds around the dhaba as the day progresses. The author keeps the love story of Changez uncharacteristically un-sappy. His internal struggles are extremely well brought out without giving the impression that “The idiot is thinking too much”. And lastly the one-way dialogue is not just a rant of I-me-mine… as Changez tries to ensure that the American is being entertained, not just by his story, but the delightful food, and the pleasant hustling and bustling atmosphere of a Pakistani city.
Again, the life of this whole book is in the narration. It renders tremendous beauty to what otherwise could have been a slightly depressing and even a boring book. In the end, it is not only captivating, but poignant as well. And it is just as long as it should have been. At 180 pages, it makes an excellent read for that bus ride of yours to the neighboring state.

The Pothunters - P.G. Wodehouse

I have been on a Wodehouse-early-school-series-books spree. And with “The Pothunters” I am all done!

This book too, like all others (Prefect’s Uncle, Gold Bat, Head of Kays, White Feather) is extremely rough. In fact it is probably the roughest. Though Head of Kays would be in contention as well.

The book is about some sports prize-cups which get stolen from a school. And though Wodehouse does throw in other sub-plots he doesn’t let them bloom at all like he does in his later works. What results therefore is a mesh of loosely held strings, none of which are fully unraveled through the book.

Characters are unnecessarily thrown in and they sporadically come and leave the story. The humour is atypically missing and while the writing style is true to the Wodehouse books, it doesn’t make up for the other flaws of the book.
So much negativity coming from a true P.G. Wodehouse fan… it leaves me with a heavy heart. But if you are not a P.G. Wodehouse fan then there is absolutely no reason for you to read this book. Me… I enjoy these short tales from P.G. Wodehouse. They gave me a lot of relief from the truck load of work pressure I was under during the days which I would conclude with a few pages from this book. So, on a personal note, I owe The Pothunters big time for making me forget that work trauma. And even though my days were hellish… I went of to sleep with that smile which usually follows on reading about the cheek of early 1900s English School Boys