False Impression Gives Me a Character to Fall in Love With...

Jeffrey Archer, another author, whose work I used relish way back in past....I remember reading its thick, heavy n kind of never ending "Kane and Abel" around a decade back...I happened to have finished my 9th standard n was spending a huge chunk of time (read around a month) at di's  place...with her being in office throughout the day on weekdays, n no television in tow in her apartment, the sweet lil me had to keep myself busy with all the books I could find...wasn't surprising when it took me just a few days to complete a book, di was stuck with since weeks :D

It was a nice read...a paced story revolving around the life of two men, born on the same date, but with different fortune...and as has been my habit, I delved into all the novel written by the man (though I doubt I've read them all...I believe I've missed plenty) The kind of novels this guy writes can be broadly categorized into epic dramas or suspense (or thriller) novels...and truth be told, being the dramatic gal I'm; I loved Archer for those dramas spanning from birth till the end of men or even across generation...Sherlock Holmes isn't my favorite genre in any case... 

He is one guy, who actually has had a life as dramatic as his novel...a baron, a writer, a political reader to insider's trading only to even taste being a prisoner...hell of a life it was...and we think, it's the end of the world once u land up in jail (even his novels suggest so) but man, he continued with his pen even then (though I left reading him :P nothing related to his jail stint in any case ;) )

So, I just realized a couple of days back that there are now 3 proper fictional novels by him that are out since his time in prison and I haven't touched even one yet...and hence began my journey with "False Impression" .

Confession, before I move forward (yup, it's my kind of review...so it's bound to be like pages n pages long :P ) I generally tend to read a lil backdrop about the story of novels I pick...generally myself go through some shadowed reviews on various blogs and Amazon...but seems like amidst all my submission n rocking-rolling life, I started this novel without going into the backdrop or storyline of the novel...

Good, I didn't...else I would probably have not started with the novel (as I said, not a big fan of thriller or chases...) Bad, had I been through the reviews, I probably would have understood it's not a novel with perfect fit for me...I remember reading "Da Vinci Code", n getting so overwhelmed with all the artwork they mentioned that the entire novel got too heavy to take in for me (not to forget, I ended up comparing it with "Angels and Demons" and well "Da Vinci" just lost it with huge margin) "False Impression" is the next novel I've ever come across, full of painting and their history (and frankly I've no clue about them, never even had heard about them...like I had no idea what a Monet could be, losing which made a man sad, a man who didn't think twice before killing someone, gettin sad for a person?? Nah...till I realized its a painting :P ) And yet, I'll say hats of too Jeffrey, I not only finished the novel, I actually ended up learning about a couple of artworks...

A story spanning across ten days needs to be thrilling...keeping the suspense n action quotient up all the time, be enthralling and succinct...sadly, the book was neither of the two...at least not the first half...the entire backdrop of 9/11 actually had no correlation with the plot of the novel (only serving as a mean to give the lead a way to hide her presence, claim herself dead!!!) The way the characters kept jumping from one country to another, was kind of lame (it actually can make me all d more weary about travelling, n not to forget it also tempts me to think that every flight has a killer, a cop n a lead-in-run as its passenger :O ) The male lead, hardly had a role (except of-course trying out his luck with the female lead, n occasionally outwitting the bad man, actually woman :D ) 

And man, what a negative lead she is...I guess she is one character that got me completely hooked (how often do u find that the negative lead is a light frame woman??) This book was worth it for her (and I had to read d ending twice for her...trying to figure out if she is alive or dead...n seems like I'll find her again in some of Jeffrey's novel because to the best of my knowledge she was given a last moment life n chance to escape..) and well I would keep my fingers crossed that she re-surfaces in some other of his novel....she completely steals the show from the male-female lead...hats off!!

Other than that there are some characters here n there...all suiting pretty well to their character (including the negative lead, the assistants, and the friends for the leads...) but well, to be honest, none of the character had a depth or big background attached to it...in fact, one of the biggest mystery in the novel; the reason for the the lady assistant to be helping the female lead, was in fact a dampener (okie the dramatic me wanted some big mystery to be revealed and not a one paragraph revelation just before the novel ended)..

To cut it short, it was a decent read...the first half tested me a lil, but the second half was a page-turner...loved the female negative lead....in fact will keep my eyes open for more such characters, which I know would be hard to come across :( 

One-line Review: Read the novel if:

a. you like the chases and have a knack for thrillers 

b. want to see a negative female who goes beyond the kitchen politics but is actually in love with kitchen knives..

c. are interested even the tiniest bit in artworks :)

d. wish to read a lil more about the 9/11 destruction and a fiction on how the people trapped in twin towers would have gone through those moments...

and give it a miss if:

a. you are looking forward to a chase like Robert Ludlum's novel,

b. you prefer novels who have a good research work done about the character's background,

c. you actually are looking for a sensible, coherent, practical stream of actions

d. and last but not the least, are looking for some big mystery element.

(And dare anyone point out that it was way more than one line!!!)

Rating: 4/5 (and trust me at least two of these four point here are for Krantz, the female negative lead...yup I like d bad guys...oops...gals :D)

Post Script: Would be back soon...very soon!!! ;))

and no, it won't b a post on Prisoners of Birth, the next Archer novel I've started with :)