Rashmi bookmarks “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”

Set at Styles Court, an Essex country manor, this is Agatha Christie’s first published novel, and introduces the one and only Hercule Poirot. (Interestingly enough, the saga of Poirot comes full circle, as Styles is also the setting of “Curtain”, Poirot’s last case).

My entire childhood consisted primarily of reading, and while I am terribly fond of many writers and their works, growing up, I went through three phases in particular - Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie and P. G. Wodehouse; I mean I read (and re-read) everything that these authors ever wrote.

In this first ever creation by Christie, I recently re-visited that brilliant unfolding of mystery/crime writing that very few people can even attempt to imitate. Wealthy widow Emily Cavendish marries a much younger man, Alfred Inglethorp, whom everybody in the family immediately dismisses as a fortune hunter; a suspicion which appears to be justly based, when she is killed by strychnine poisoning. Enter Poirot, who meticulously (of course!) goes through all visible clues and invisible events to recreate the fateful day.

As far as the characters go, I have to say, I really liked how everyone is so believable, so tangible. It not only adds a lot to the reading experience when you empathize with a person so completely, the final denouement also comes as a greater shock when someone you were with all along, is revealed to be a killer.

The best part of this story - as with all of Christie’s storytelling - was that we are privy to all the clues all along, just like everyone in the story. Nothing is ever a secret, closely-guarded till the grand reveal - no, we are always given equal opportunity along with the characters themselves, to work it all out. And that is truly brilliant - to show all your cards right from the start, and still pull the rug from under the reader’s feet.

The final revelation came as quite a shock … I did suspect the person at one point; then again, other than Poirot and Hastings, at regular intervals I suspected everyone, so I guess that’s really not saying much.

Rashmi bookmarks “Before the Poison”

You know those books you read, where, when you are going to sleep at night, you cannot wait to wake up, so that you can continue reading again? Peter Robinson’s Before the Poison, the story of Grace Fox, who was hanged for poisoning her husband Dr. Ernest Fox, was one of those books for me!

Taking a break from his hectic Hollywood life, Chris Lowndes returns to his native Yorkshire to his newly purchased Kilnsgate House. What his enthusiastic real estate agent omitted to tell him about this ancient house with a history, becomes an obsession with Chris, and takes him on a journey to uncover the truth of what happened nearly 60 years before.

The narrative, which interspersed the events of 1953 and the subsequent “Famous Trials” series by Sir Charles Hamilton Morley with the current events set in late 2010-early 2011, made for a very interesting read.

Of course I have to comment on the setting - always a huge factor for me. I absolutely loved the fact that we travelled back and forth such locales as beautiful rural English countryside and fascinating French cafes!

As far as characters go, with the exception of Heather (who got on my nerves from quite early on in the story) I liked everyone. As Chris Lowndes delves deeper into a decades-old story and - through his interviews with such people as Wilf Pelham, the neighbour, Sam Porter, the lover and Louise King, the granddaughter - brings Grace Fox back to life, I grew to like, admire, and really feel for the absent heroine of this story. The rebellious child who got thrown into adult life - not just a life with its mundane obligations of family life, but as a Queen Alexandra’s nurse, as revealed in her wartime journals of Dunkirk, Singapore and Normandy - had so much to live for, yet so much to live through.

More than a mystery, this story was a crime / drama. As I later realized, this was not so much about the actual murder, rather it was the story of what happened before the poison. Matron’s final address before the Sisters went back to civilian life was so poignant, and such a pointed precursor of things to come.

Rashmi bookmarks “Madame Bovary”

“When she knelt on her Gothic prie-Dieu, she addressed to the Lord the same suave words that she had murmured formerly to her lover in the outpourings of adultery”. For me, this sentence quite summed up the heroine of Gustave Flaubert’s story of Emma Bovary, the woman who tried to live out all facets of her life based on a romance novel. It speaks volumes that upon her return from riding with Rodolphe Boulanger, with whom she goes on to have her first extra-marital affair, the first thing she does is “recall the heroines of the books she had read”.

As far as the character of Madame Bovary goes, I have to say, I was neither very interested nor very impressed. To be very honest, I think at some point I felt that had this been an adulterous woman who wielded some power or sway over her various conquests, it would have made for a better story. Because Madame Bovary is so given to weeping and wilting over relations that do not even have the remotest justification to begin with, I was getting a bit tired of her dramatics. While I could certainly see the effect of a clash between romance novels and harsh reality on a young and sheltered mind, I could not get behind the very desperate and servile affectations she brought into every relationship.

That said I still could not stop reading this book for the sheer power of its rich narrative. Through the romanticized eyes of a disillusioned woman, we travel back to beginning-mid 19th century France, and experience rural French life, with all its regular people and their mundane jobs and their harmless gossiping and harmful plotting … and that, for me, is what makes ‘Madame Bovary’ (I read the translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling) such an unforgettable reading experience.

Rashmi bookmarks “A Dirty Job”

This is this author’s 3rd book I am reading in as many months … Christopher Moore must be doing something right! “Beta-male” Charlie Asher is a second-hand store owner by day, and a death merchant by night. How he quite accidentally came upon that second job, and how he subsequently managed to live through the extreme dangers that come with such a job, form the unique story of A Dirty Job.

The best part about this story is its capacity of being a strange tale, primarily morbid or even grotesque in its theme, yet remaining funny in its telling at all times. Death merchants, soul collection, sewer harpies, squirrels in ball gowns, and even hell hounds come together in this tale that still manages to make me laugh.

As far as characters go, I really liked every one of them. Minty Fresh, the first death merchant that Charlie meets, and who sticks by him - sometimes against his wishes! - to the very end; Jane Asher, Charlie’s gay sister, who is honest to the point of rudeness, yet will do anything to keep her family safe; Lily, the goth teenager, one of Charlie’s employees and the only one who knows Charlie’s secret; and of course, Mrs. Ling and Mrs. Korjev, the women who alternately take care of Sophie, and from whom the little girl comes to learn that either “the White Man is a Devil” or “our hearts are full of sorrow”.

If there was one thing that I did not like as much, it was the silliness surrounding The Morrigan. Babd, Macha and Nemain are denizens of the underworld, and built as a formidable enemy; their evil powers constantly held as a threat to all of humanity, should souls not be protected as scheduled. Yet, most of the time we see them quarrelling over petty matters, or - worse - indulging in cheap sexual fantasies. Moore could have left this one section free of all comedy.

Barring that one small issue, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and look forward to my next.

Rashmi bookmarks “The Woman in White”

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is the story of Walter Hartright, his accidental meeting with a mysterious woman dressed in white, and the series of events following his brief stint as drawing master for Laura Fairlie and Marian Halcombe at Limmeridge House.

The most impressive feature of this story was its storytelling; I really liked the idea of the story being narrated by different characters as they came in and out of the story, mirroring the presentation of a court case by several witnesses personally touched by the events. This also gave each narrative a unique touch, as a lawyer does not tell the story - or even have the same perspective - as, say, a painter.

I also thought that the story consisted of some very rich and varied characters - in some cases, beautifully described in one effective sentence - example, when Hartright says of Mrs. Vesey: “Some of us rush through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs. Vesey SAT through life.” I can’t say that I liked Laura Fairlie very much - I’m not a big fan of the delicate, pretty, sad heroines of yore, which is an inextricable part of novels of a certain time period (this book was written in 1859!) - however, considering the year, it is even more impressive to meet someone like Marian Halcombe - as decisive as she was intelligent. Also, just for the sheer humour value, I enjoyed reading all the parts involving Frederick Fairlie; while he may have been utterly useless to the other characters within the story, I thought his permanent ‘health issues’ and his dramatic reactions to the slightest puff of movement or tiniest whiff of sound, were just so funny!

While I did think that there were large sections of the book where the story really slowed down (some of Marian’s narratives did not advance the story much), from the time we get to Walter’s interview with Mrs. Clements and his subsequent meeting with Mrs. Catherick, to the final dénouement at the church in Knowlesbury, the story was really exciting. And while I had harboured some suspicions from early on, the final reveal involving Lady Glyde and Anne Catherick and the “Secret” involving Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco, was something I did not see coming at all.

Rashmi bookmarks “Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick” - Conclusion

Ok, so I finished reading this collection of 21 short stories by PKD, and after a huge internal strife (which to pick and which to drop: always such an intense debate when one is dealing with such genius) here are my top five favourites from the second half of the book:

5. A Little Something for Us Tempunauts
In a world beyond just astronauts and space travel, three tempunauts are sent into the future, and return to the news of their death during re-entry. Chrononaut Addison Doug realizes that they have been caught in a time loop. Does this realization give them ‘fore’ knowledge to avoid their own death? Or is that just the kind of time paradox one can never get out of?

4. The Electric Ant
Hospitalized after a car crash, Garson Poole wakes up to the shocking discovery that he is an ‘electric ant’ - an organic robot. Poole’s experimenting with the micro-punched tape in his chest cavity challenged Reality in such a brilliant way. The ending left me in as much fear as awe.

3. The Minority Report
John Anderton, creator of Precrime - a system created to foresee crime and punish people before they commit it - gets a report from his three ‘precogs’ that names him as a murderer in the near future. What follows is a great crime/mystery, made more complicated by the existence of multiple timelines in the future.

2. Rautavaara’s Case
I love stories that present an existing fact and question the concept to its very core, and this short story about three earth people stranded in space really shed new light on a centuries-old belief system. A rescue team from Proxima Centauri, comprising of a race of plasma beings that exist only in the form of intellectual consciousness, brings Agneta Rautavaara back to “life”. While monitoring her thoughts - which involve questions of the afterlife - the beings decide to alter her vision of Christ, and introduce their version of God … Would you be horrified by a Christ that eats a human, flesh and blood and all? Or does this ritual sound familiar? And if one is acceptable, can the other not be honourable?

1. Precious Artifact
Such sorrow. Such hopelessness. I was really moved by this story of the complete destruction of Earth in the aftermath of a war between Terrans and Proxmen. Milt Biskle is one of the many terraforming engineers who have been tasked with the job of making Mars habitable for humans. Suspicious about the outcome of the war, he decides to go to Earth. Facade after facade breaks down, and the great illusion is revealed for what it is… Even the one final act of kindness is not all that it seems.

Rashmi bookmarks “Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick”

This is probably the year I declare Philip K. Dick to be more than “a writer whose works I love” and call him one of my favourite writers of all time. (And can I also say, is anyone else boggled by the sheer volume of one man’s works that has been made into movies?) I am actually still in the midst of reading this collection, so I decided to split this review into two blogs. Based on a reading of the first 10 stories, here’s my top five:

5. Roog
I picked this story for the very unique perspective it presented - I love stories that not only give me a ‘never thought of it that way’ moment, but also inspire me to create wildly different things. This story about a mundane garbage pick-up truck on its routine, and a dog with possible alien encounters, did just that.

4. Upon the Dull Earth
Using ancient rituals, Silvia can summon “angels” whom she believes she is destined to join. When one day she does go over to the other side in a horrific clash with the creatures, her boyfriend Rick goes on a mission to bring her back. The results of his efforts raised this weird tale of God and Time and Existence to horror story, from which there is no escape.

3. Paycheck
Why does Jennings not remember the last two years of his life at Rethrick Construction? Why is he being paid the inordinate amount of 50,000 credits? And at the end of the day, what prompted him to exchange that sum for 7 apparently useless trinkets such as a piece of wire, a strip of cloth and a parcel receipt? This story brilliantly fused elements of crime, mystery and science fiction.

2. Adjustment Team
Is it Reality that we see all around us? Are we really who we think we are? Are there really men in black? In a bizarre tale set in Sector T137, we meet a Clerk, a Summoner, an omnipotent Old Man, and the world they create (or un-create as need be). At a very inopportune moment, in walks the unsuspecting Ed Fletcher, and witnesses what no one was ever meant to. From sudden and complete darkness to empty husks of a once-familiar world, this story was such a brilliant example of unadulterated Science Fiction!

1. Second Variety
I chose this one as my best read thus far, for the sheer finesse with which a lot of themes - sci-fi, drama, mystery and horror - were woven together to form one seamless story. Set in the brutal aftermath of a nuclear war between Russia and the United Nations, the story is about the ultimate terror borne of man and machine thrown into the same war. From the terrifying yet basic “claws”, comes the David and the Wounded Soldier, and that shocking finale involving Major Joseph Hendricks and Tasso.

Happy New Year everyone … here’s to a whole new year of reading and writing :)