Book Review(s): Sleep, Death, Agony & The Silver Linings
[A quick review roundup of the books that I've been catching upon.]
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
A dark, depressing tale set in the forties USA, Death of a Salesman tells the struggle of Willy Loman, who by virtue of his own ego, fails to appreciate the people who stand by him in his misery, and believes in the grand American dream only to ultimately realize that one cannot always attain what they long for. Willy is a terrifically conceived flawed character. Is he a hero? Or is he a victim of society's infatuation with materialism? A classic tragedy that's as much as a sharp commentary on the consumerist lives we lead today. And this quote: "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit," is simply a gem!
Silken Prey - John Sandford
Prey series hero Lucas Davenport gets entangled in a political quagmire when he begins to investigate a case of child pornography found in the computer of incumbent Republican senator Porter Smalls, who is gearing up for a closely contested Senate race against Democrat billionaire Taryn Grant. But what if Smalls was really innocent, and this was a plant to damage his reputation and bring him down? Working on this angle, Davenport and team scramble to uncover the truth before the crucial election day. An interesting political thriller, John Sandford gets the setting and the dirty politics perfectly right, but loses out with a far-fetched conclusion that's a bit too hard to accept.
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
While I loved Sharp Objects for its deeply unsettling psychological theme, Dark Places, despite having a set of well-fleshed out flawed characters, lacks the narrative spark of her scintillating debut. Flynn handles the plot dexterously, seamlessly switching back and forth in time, and the thoroughly unlikable characters have a remarkable ring of reality to them, but that doesn't take away the fact that the story is a very traditional whodunit at its heart. A woman in her early thirties forced to find out what happened to her family and why (due to her miserable financial state) is at times incredulous and unconvincing, and it's even disappointing because Gillian Flynn is capable of more. All said, if you have either read Sharp Objects or Gone Girl before, you will find yourselves at home. Dark Places is creepy, disturbing and depressing, but stops short of being impactful.
Before I Go To Sleep - S. J. Watson
Stories about short term memory loss are nothing new, but first time writer S. J. Watson spins an ingenious domestic psychological thriller about Christine who wakes up a new person every single day with absolutely no memories of who she is and a complete lack of sense of time and place. The man living with her in the house claims to be her husband, and a doctor, who seems more than eager to help her out of the hapless situation she is in, asks her to maintain a journal of her daily activities.
Ben, her partner, is the sort of model husband any girl could have asked for, and yet as the story progresses she increasingly finds herself unable to trust either him or the doctor. With her neurological condition, will she be able to figure out what happened out to her and why? Watson keeps the writing simple, and the clever narrative structure - owing to the protagonist's mental state - successfully builds up ample dread and tension as the story inches towards the inevitable. The ending isn't hard to guess, but nevertheless here's a very fine thriller!
Deep Fathom - James Rollins
An (underwater) action adventure on the lines of Matthew Reilly and Indiana Jones, Deep Fathom has a pace that would defy a speeding bullet, but I wish James Rollins hadn't stretched the limits of credibility too far! While agreeing that techno thrillers always have an element of disbelief associated with them, the scientific mumbo-jumbo discussed in this novel makes little sense and the author's too fairy-tale'sque ending doesn't help either. Replete with flat one-dimensional characters (the hero is a good guy, which means the antagonist has to be extremely bad and nasty for no rhyme or reason) and a ridiculous cold-war backdrop, Deep Fathom is akin to watching a big-budget action thriller movie: lots of action and a fairly good time pass, but no substance.
The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick
Silver Linings... should be familiar to almost everyone by now thanks to the movie that struck gold at the Oscars this year. Pat, who staunchly believes in silver linings, aims to become physically and mentally fit so as to reunite with his estranged wife Nikki. But unfortunately for him nothing seems to be going right, as he learns life isn't a bed of roses, and particularly isn't a movie with a typical happy ending. Matthew Quick does a fairly good job of putting across this thought with a light-hearted story. A decent read that will spoil the classics The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Bell Jar if you haven't read them yet!
The Agony Column - Earl Derr Biggers
Geoffrey West loves the agony columns in newspapers. So much that it's a part of his daily morning routine. Ensconced at a nearby hotel, he stumbles upon a beautiful girl, who, to his surprise, is a mutual admirer of agony columns like him. As love blossoms between the two, West is suddenly plunged into a deadly game of crime and murder. Agony columns may be passe these days, but Early Derr Biggers spins a fantastic romantic suspense thriller that's old-fashioned, sweet and short. The less said about the devilishly clever ending, the better. Narrated in a series of seven letters between the prospective lovers, this is one thoroughly enjoyable read.
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
A dark, depressing tale set in the forties USA, Death of a Salesman tells the struggle of Willy Loman, who by virtue of his own ego, fails to appreciate the people who stand by him in his misery, and believes in the grand American dream only to ultimately realize that one cannot always attain what they long for. Willy is a terrifically conceived flawed character. Is he a hero? Or is he a victim of society's infatuation with materialism? A classic tragedy that's as much as a sharp commentary on the consumerist lives we lead today. And this quote: "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit," is simply a gem!
Silken Prey - John Sandford
Prey series hero Lucas Davenport gets entangled in a political quagmire when he begins to investigate a case of child pornography found in the computer of incumbent Republican senator Porter Smalls, who is gearing up for a closely contested Senate race against Democrat billionaire Taryn Grant. But what if Smalls was really innocent, and this was a plant to damage his reputation and bring him down? Working on this angle, Davenport and team scramble to uncover the truth before the crucial election day. An interesting political thriller, John Sandford gets the setting and the dirty politics perfectly right, but loses out with a far-fetched conclusion that's a bit too hard to accept.
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
While I loved Sharp Objects for its deeply unsettling psychological theme, Dark Places, despite having a set of well-fleshed out flawed characters, lacks the narrative spark of her scintillating debut. Flynn handles the plot dexterously, seamlessly switching back and forth in time, and the thoroughly unlikable characters have a remarkable ring of reality to them, but that doesn't take away the fact that the story is a very traditional whodunit at its heart. A woman in her early thirties forced to find out what happened to her family and why (due to her miserable financial state) is at times incredulous and unconvincing, and it's even disappointing because Gillian Flynn is capable of more. All said, if you have either read Sharp Objects or Gone Girl before, you will find yourselves at home. Dark Places is creepy, disturbing and depressing, but stops short of being impactful.
Before I Go To Sleep - S. J. Watson
Stories about short term memory loss are nothing new, but first time writer S. J. Watson spins an ingenious domestic psychological thriller about Christine who wakes up a new person every single day with absolutely no memories of who she is and a complete lack of sense of time and place. The man living with her in the house claims to be her husband, and a doctor, who seems more than eager to help her out of the hapless situation she is in, asks her to maintain a journal of her daily activities.
Ben, her partner, is the sort of model husband any girl could have asked for, and yet as the story progresses she increasingly finds herself unable to trust either him or the doctor. With her neurological condition, will she be able to figure out what happened out to her and why? Watson keeps the writing simple, and the clever narrative structure - owing to the protagonist's mental state - successfully builds up ample dread and tension as the story inches towards the inevitable. The ending isn't hard to guess, but nevertheless here's a very fine thriller!
Deep Fathom - James Rollins
An (underwater) action adventure on the lines of Matthew Reilly and Indiana Jones, Deep Fathom has a pace that would defy a speeding bullet, but I wish James Rollins hadn't stretched the limits of credibility too far! While agreeing that techno thrillers always have an element of disbelief associated with them, the scientific mumbo-jumbo discussed in this novel makes little sense and the author's too fairy-tale'sque ending doesn't help either. Replete with flat one-dimensional characters (the hero is a good guy, which means the antagonist has to be extremely bad and nasty for no rhyme or reason) and a ridiculous cold-war backdrop, Deep Fathom is akin to watching a big-budget action thriller movie: lots of action and a fairly good time pass, but no substance.
The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick
Silver Linings... should be familiar to almost everyone by now thanks to the movie that struck gold at the Oscars this year. Pat, who staunchly believes in silver linings, aims to become physically and mentally fit so as to reunite with his estranged wife Nikki. But unfortunately for him nothing seems to be going right, as he learns life isn't a bed of roses, and particularly isn't a movie with a typical happy ending. Matthew Quick does a fairly good job of putting across this thought with a light-hearted story. A decent read that will spoil the classics The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Bell Jar if you haven't read them yet!
The Agony Column - Earl Derr Biggers
Geoffrey West loves the agony columns in newspapers. So much that it's a part of his daily morning routine. Ensconced at a nearby hotel, he stumbles upon a beautiful girl, who, to his surprise, is a mutual admirer of agony columns like him. As love blossoms between the two, West is suddenly plunged into a deadly game of crime and murder. Agony columns may be passe these days, but Early Derr Biggers spins a fantastic romantic suspense thriller that's old-fashioned, sweet and short. The less said about the devilishly clever ending, the better. Narrated in a series of seven letters between the prospective lovers, this is one thoroughly enjoyable read.
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