Back to a book review after long...not as if I didn't read books in between...did finish John Grisham's "The Confession" and even mid way through yet another by Jeffery Archer, "Prisoner of Birth" (midway because of project deadlines n then exams n definitely not bcoz there r issues with the book, I definitely 'll resume it one day :) )...but then I felt that maybe reviewing books isn't in my genes (I mean common, my blog is more of incoherent thoughts written down, how do I deal with something dealing in facts and reality :P )
But then this book, has been a lot of firsts for me...so this had to come to the blog...this is the first book I've read by the author (and I guess for a long time it's going to be the only one, because well...this one is claimed to be his best production till date...and why read other books by the other and ruin the impression you've about him :) ) ...
Then again this book is the first book I read a gist of in the recommended books section of ToI (they had it in the weekend planner of theirs on Friday...things to do over weekend...and how do I let them know that I finished the book they recommended in like 24 hours...and no other book in the list given by them excites me enough to start them....I need more nice recommendations!!!)
Another first in this book was, the way it's written...most of the novels I've read, has it all in a third person sense...there are characters, and those character's actions n thoughts are discussed...a complete impersonal way of writing (and well, I doubt, that's how I prefer it even now)...but this novel was different...it was all full of I, my mother, my father n so it goes on...reading a novel in the first person, was definitely a change; and probably the only way I really am not much fond of...I mean common, you are a author, the main character of the novel is a journalist, but still there is something more comfortable in talking about third person rather than the "I's" in the novel (or maybe just that I don't adapt to the changes well!!! And it reminds me, most probably Chetan Bhagat writes the novels in first person...but then his novels r still believable, ones you can relate to...this novel is a pure fiction...and definitely not something I want to relate to ;) )
Coming back to the novel....it's written in the simplest of English you can think of (at one point of time it made me wonder if Barclay has some Indian connection!!!) and what's more interesting it, there were points in the novel where the author had used lines inside brackets (it felt so sweet, I can't express it in words...he keeps the faith alive in me that maybe one day...just one lucky day, I actually can pen a novel :D :D :D )
So the novel is a perfect storyline, in case Ekta Kapoor feels like making a thriller (common, even she is slowly, at snail's pace, moving away from the Saas-Bahu regime..) it has all the twists n turns in place...starting from the slow notes of the I (David Harwood), a journalist with a simple usual family (including a wife who has issues like every couple does, a naughty son, parents who are just like the typical parents) and has big ambitions about journalism....it starts up as a story about the guy who wants to find a story, curb corruption, bring the true picture of the political set up in place...but well few pages down the book, as in real life, his personal issues starts shadowing his professional troubles...nothing is what it seemed...and he is left wondering if he even knows the identity of the woman he was married to for 5 yrs, is the mother of his 4 yrs old a women capable of maternal instincts??
Starting from slow notes, a guy working on a news story, planning a family picnic...to the guy who lost his son, found him only to realize a missing wife, for whose murder he would be a suspect, a wife turned strangers...strangers who have a hand in the whole ordeal he is going through and strangers who would face the ordeal themselves...at one point of time, you might even feel there were a l ot too many characters in the novel...characters who really weren't needed...who didn't have a depth...they were there, maybe to increase the thickness of the book....
The book has its fun moments...the detective (Duckworth), mostly has nothing special in him to stand out from rest, but his lil personal side ( the way he sneaks sweets n high calorie food while investigating the case while his wife has put him on strict low carb diet, the way he feels the things aren't right when the clues keep pointing just one person, and so on) makes sure that he doesn't become one of the investigator we love to hate just because they r hell bent on framing the guy n get him behind bars...
It's a simple book...a make believe book, a book which can make u wonder do u really know a person u have lived with years...it goes to high profile sections n then comes back to day to day usual life...in the end it's just about common people with (thankfully) uncommon incidents...
Give this one a read, if you like thrillers...if you are into family reads...if you don't want a novel who keeps you on the edge with every page turn (at one point you may feel that the twists and turns are getting predictable...but even that's worth, because you 'll continue reading just to find if you were right :) )
The best part about the book...you won't end up hating anyone...even the one person behind this whole commotion is bound to win over you by the end...this book, somewhere shows that we are a product of our upbringing....even the worst of us, the most inhumane of us, have feelings itched deep in us...and it's only when we are looked off, not cared for attended to, that brings the worst out in us...
For a happily ever after, for a family that stays together...for the love that grows and blossom year after year, there is just one way...."Never Look Away!!!"
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