This week's Update - A Time Well Spent

Atleast from my perspective I guess! Had fun till the last paragraph ended. A Time to Kill was a time worthily spent. Everything was just perfect - multi-dimensional characters, fluid narration. It appeared as though the author wrote this novel in nonchalant times. JG's first novel at that. Followed up with the movie edition to compare the renditions of the courthouse scenes on my mind to the ones portrayed by the celluloid. I was close enough. I didn't like some of the improvisations done on the picture though. Matt McConnaghey (I hope I spelled his name right!) was the picture-perfect Mr. Jake Brigance. I was a little disappointed (distressed even if you may) at the casting of Ellen Roark. Not that I have anything against Sandra Bullock but one would have hoped she appeared (atleast in her first scene) the way Grisham tastefully described in his book - without her upper body inner garments. Oh well!

Next I am onto a less taxing novel by Chetan Bhagat - Three Mistakes of My Life. I say that because of his casual prose with words laced that only an Indian can understand. I am just on the second chapter and already loving it.

Hope to write here soon.

The Afghan - Review

Back from a breezy prose by John Grisham, I stumbled on quite a few long and winding sentences employed by Frederick Forsyth in "The Afghan". But once you get a hang of his writing style, the content is absolutely gripping. Forsyth takes you on an educational primer on Islam, Wahhabism, the first four caliphates, Taliban, Al Qaeda and the like. For someone like me who is abysmally ignorant about these matters, it was piercingly insightful. However, I will have to agree with most others that are holes in the plot some even bordering on blunder. For example, it was not all sensical that the afghan after having infiltrated the fanatics, was immediately decreed by the chief himself to participate in the ultimate journey - Al Isra. There were other goof ups but were more of nitpick sorts that shows the author's research in poor light.

I, on the other hand forgave all the unnoticeable blemishes (the truth is I was naïve enough not to spot them!) and thoroughly enjoyed the novel. I particularly likened the rich detail used to describle the islands of the United Arab Emirates and seas and straits and canals that surround them. The final plot by Al Qaeda itself did not live up to the massive expectations set by the author in the first 300 pages so it was rather bleak and unfussy. I though am impressed and will be reading more of Forsyth as part of my fiction marathon.

With regards...

Fiction Marathon

It was a sedate Monday afternoon in an unusually cool spring April. Like any other week day for the past 4 years, I was returning to office after a rather mediocre lunch at home when this brilliant thought flashed my mind. Now that I am hooked into reading thriller novels, why not spruce it up with my own marathon challenge to keep myself going?

Modesty personified as I am, I have set myself a target of 100 novels for the year 2009, some of them will have the honor of being critiqued by the master himself. I have tried my hardest to recollect the ones I am done with:

1. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpha Lahiri
2. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
3. Run for life by James Patterson
4. The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth
5. The Associate by John Grisham
6. The Appeal by John Grisham
7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone by J K Rowling
8. One Night Stands by ..................
9. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

91 to go and I am on "A Time to Kill" by John Grisham now.

Follow my journey if you are interested. I will be posting updates as and when I can.

So long...

The Appeal - A Review

The Appeal - a John Grisham novel was published in 2008 and customarily found its spot in every top seller list the media industry churned out. This was also a come back novel of sorts for JG wielding his magic in the "legal thrillers" genre after his brief yet hugely successful non-fiction work "The Innocent Man".

There has been much criticism about the one dimensional portraits of the characters in this book but as they say - critics are as critics does. If there has been one thing that I understood mirror-clear in the world was that a coin always had two sides but I digress.

If you want to be in the know-how of how trial lawyers work and the big corporations thwart them in big tort lawsuits, this book is for you. Having no prior knowledge of these matters, it was enlightening sometimes awe-mixed to see the whole of litigation world.

The prose was Grishamisque as usual. Simple yet powerful and narration truly wanting you to turn pages to the very end oblivious to the time of day. The book does lag in the middle to the point of crawling yet it appears to be an intentional plot by the author to have the readers wanting to take a quick pitstop in a formula one race. The climax happens abruptly just like that and could disappoint some readers who might have expected a little more offcourse left turns.

The biggest gripe yet is the fact that bad guys actually win and absolutely go scot-free which is a bummer for me as it could mislead certain young minds who read the piece. I remember one fan-critic requesting almost pleading the author to write a sequel where the good folks of Mississippi come roaring back and pound the obnoxious villains.

Gannu is back!

Okay, I'm back like Arnold always does in Terminator movies. It has taken me just short of some 3 years to visit my blogosphere but visit I did now. My latest fad is my new toy - The Kindle from Amazon - like the way the toy's name is prepositioned. Well, anyway the introduction of Kindle in my life has just taken my reading habits out of this galaxy. For a guy who is more of a collector of books than a reader of 'em, plodding through 3 books a week is no mean achievement. Needless to say I am smug with pride.

Hoping to kickstart my reading habits - one day I'd like my name inscribed on a book as an author, I am going to start reviewing albeit brief ones the literature works I am voraciously digesting every week. The comments and opinions expressed on my reviews are entirely my own and should not be construed as anything else.

Enough of my babble now and look out for my first review on "The Appeal" by John Grisham - thus far by favorite author.