The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

I recently finished reading George Eliot's Classic ' The Mill on the Floss' .

A tragedy though it is, it does make an excellent read. One gets  a glimpse of Middle-class life during Victorian  times.

Mary Anne aka George Eliot, based many experiences on on her own life though the work is not autobiographical.

The Main heroine of the story is a girl Maggie. The book narrates her life as a unconventional daughter in the pre-teens , one who never keeps  her clothes clean and hair braided as is considered 'lady like' in that era.  Though she was the apple of her father's eye, who fondly called her ' my little wench' , she hankered for her only and older brother's respect and unconditional love in reciprocation to hers. She is often put off by his selfish and unconcerned behaviour towards her. She also hates the scorn he shows her on trying to educate herself with whatever book she can lay hands on.

Schooling was then a prerogative of boys and their father attempts to give his only son an education to make him genteel and take up law instead running the mill on the river Floss. Of course Tom doesnt show much aptitude to books and arithmetic vis a vis Maggie who is not even considered for this. Thus Tom is off to study with a clergy man and Maggie as she comes of age is sent to a 'finishing ' school as was prelevant in those Vistorian days .

All around in the plot are the Aunts and their families who are critical of Maggie's  interests and pride themselves of their genteel blood, having considered that their sister married beneath them and thus has such unkind kids as Tom and Maggie.

All is going on as usual when her father enters in a legal battle with another gentleman over the matter of the Floss waters used by the mill and dam construction. He loses the suit and thus money and sanity in the bargain. Both the children have to pre-empt their studies and come back to lead a life of poverty.  The aunts in an 'I told you so' attitude do not help as expected thus leading to the sale of the mill to their own enemy. Tom manages to show some pluck in attaining a position in his Uncle's workplace where he finds his study of Latin and etc of no use! Maggie tries to do her bit by immediately maturing up at 13 and taking up sewing and odd works much to the irritation of her brother who is of the old mind set of not having women folk work .

the father comes to his senses after a few months and later takes up work under his own enemy running his own mill.

As time passes they are able to pay the debt and at last be out of  a great burden particularly because of Tom's enterprise. But something untoward happens on that very day when the father and his enemy get into an argument where the father manages to flog the other yet himself also succumb to death!

Around this we see a brief romance between maggie and the enemy's deformed son which is cruelly pre-empted by Tom.

As she reached womanhood, she has the misfortune of falling in love with her cousin's fiancé   and in a weak moment runs away with him. But realising her folly soon enough attempts to come back to her brother. Alas, the damage is done! Tom wants to see her no more having maligned her family name. We see her brief struggles as  a fallen women  Till the Floss decides to flood  the end  the torture for both the brother and the sister!!!

My thoughts range on this. The heroine ie Maggie, has to rein her free spirited attitude just to appease her Brother's wishes. She then also faces ridicule for running away, an act forced upon her by her Cousin's fiancé   As was expected her life ended up tainted!!

 Alas the vagaries of being a woman - they were the same then as they are now!!!

Dogs of War by Fredrick Forsyth

This is a classic Fredrick Forsyth Book!!!

The story revolves around a particular operation taken up by a 'Mercenary' Pat Shannon.

When James Manson discovers a Mountain of Platinum in a backward country of Zangaro in the African continent, He goes to various means to keep this information a secret Right from bribing his chief scientist to manipulating the african commission. But more adventurous is his decision to overthrow the current corrupt Zangaran Disctator to replace with a pinhead of his liking.

Likewise his right hand men, set to work recruiting Pat Shannon to profile and then overthrow the current government in Zangaro. The book describes in detail how Pat plans and executed his plan of mercenary action.

But what hits you is the eventuality! I shall leave that to your reading to find out whether this coup is successful!!

An Interesting Read!

Rebecca by Dame Daphne Du Maurier

I have just finished reading Rebecca by Dame Daphne Du Maurier.

And the only words i have to describe this book are " too good" .

I recommend you to read this book but only if you like to

1: read in first person
2: dont mind the laborious decriptions
3: can make do with the slow pace.

Although the name of the book seems to imply that the main character is "Rebecca", it isnt so. Instead , the heroine is the second Mrs. De Winter while Rebecca is the first Mrs. De Winter.

The book starts with the heroine going in the flashback.

The heroine is actually an au pair for an American Lady (who is a person who like to stick to popular people). Thus she is a plain Jane brought up in very poor circuamstances having been orphaned very young. It is through her employer that she meets MAXIM De Winter, the enigmatic rich eligible widower.

She is swept in a dreamy world of her own in the company of Maxim. DO not ofcourse think of romantic outings and speeches. Instead, I was totally put off by his terse bahaviour.

Even his proposal for marriage was one which i would never accept unless I was in ernest.

SO here she is married to an extremely wealthy enigmatic man . Yes enigmatic is the word. As a new bride and as a mistress to a very huge estate Manderley , she is ofcourse very nervous. But Maxim's behaviour is no help.
To top that she finds that she is forever under scrutiny by the servants and neigbours alike who if not directly in front of her seem to be comparing her with the late Mrs de Winter. Every artifact in the house has a feel of Rebecca and she is forever at unease. The housekeeper Mrs. Danvers seems to be a formidable person and formidable she was. I found her really wicked when she manages to manipulate her new mistress into wearing a particular fancy dress costume which was once worn by Rebecca. This causes much flutter in the family especially in Maxim and she has to change into a less presuming dress for the ball held in her own honour.

What I hated here is that Maxim never ever spoke about Rebecca until this incident of the fancy dress ball. His intention was shield his wife from the past that was Rebecca. I personally do not vouch for this.

Rebecca is supposed to have drowned about an year back. But now Maxim reveals that he had himself killed her owing to her adulterous behaviour.

This secret could have remained a secret had it not been for a ship accident right in the Manderley Harbour which led to the discovery of Rebecca's boat and in tun her decomposed body.

But what happens after that is indeed interesting. I was suddenly empathising with Maxim. After all who can tolerate an adulterous spouse.(not that i endorse murder). The coroner rules that Rebecca committed suicide. I was relieved. Coz i didnt want our heroine to be flung into a sad life of a murderer's wife.

BUt just as things were setting in place, in comes Rebecca's "Cousin" who was incidentally her lover at the time of her death. He is all set to blackmail Maxim, But its praiseworthy that Maxim takes thin in his stride and at a risk of the truth being out, gets the magistrate involved in this affair.

Of course what follows is a tirade which eventually ends by finding that Rebecca was seriously ill thus justifying that she committed suicide.

What happens to Manderley in the end? guess i shall leave it for you to read on.

This in brief is a gist of this prose. Of course i do not do any justice to Dame Daphne's writing style. The concept is simple yet she has been able to put much feeling into it. The book has a classics like feel yet with comtemporary style.

Read this book you must. I have stated the conditions before though.

What are your comments ?

The Street Lawyer John Grisham

This is another classic Grisham.

Micheal Brock works for a Big Law firm Drake & Sweeney. Working most of his waking hours he is due for partnership if he were to continue at the same pace, billing the top notch clients in his speciality - antitrust law.

Of course this grueling lifestyle has taken toll of his marital life. His wife Claire is now a top surgeon and both are now drifting apart.

But ofcourse all this takes a back seat in his life until one day a homeless person "Mister" gets into the same lift as him, climbs the same floor as him and actually takes as him as a hostage Mike along with 7 other colleagues.

Unfortunately Mister gets killed by the SWAT agent and all the hostages are "saved" . What seems to be an end of this drama seems to be the begining of a new life for Mike.

This incident opens his eyes to the horrid and wretched world of homeless people in America. He is moved to such an extent that he decides to leave his plush life and join the ranks of lawyers like Mordecai who have spent their entire careers looking after the plights of the homeless. The other turning point that makes him take this decision is the dark murky association of his law firm and the plight of some of the homeless, one of whom was the captor. At the time of leaving he "borrows" an extremely important file on this particular case. But an unexpected accident prevents him from returning the file and now he is faced with the charge of grand larceny.

So there he is now, Separated from his wife, working as a Street Lawyer with hardly any money to buy a decent apartment, having an annual paypacket which equals what he once earned per hour and a impending threat of losing his License.

How does his skim through this? Is he able to be a proper "Street" Lawyer? Or does he go back to his old firm ? Read the book to find out.

The book was good, it managed to hold my attention till the end although i did feel that the last chapter or two were a bit hurried in pace as compared to the remaining book.

But definitely a Must Read ..

One Night @ The Call CenterChetan Bhagat

I chanced upon this book in my office library!!! Surprising .. coz we do not have fiction in our library. May be the name "Call center" in the title prompted them to get this book... LOL

Neways, Having read his first book before, I was inspired enough to pick this, one off the self. Also I was as curious as a cat about the lives of these guys from Call Centers.

The novel starts well, the flow is good and the writing style is also good.
The language is not superlative. It has the common slang prevailing in the young Indian life. Of course upon reading this book you can be very sure that it has been written by an Indian Author.

The central characters in this book are Shyam - a self proclaimed loser and the narrator of the events, his call center workmates cum friends Vroom, Radhika,Priyanka, Esha and "Military Uncle".

Shyam is a wannabe Team Lead, but lacks the guts to stand up to his abilities before his Boss Bakshi.

Vroom is the more whackier of the lot - the type of person who makes fun of life but ofcourse has his share of problems.

Esha, a Chandigarh girl who wants to make it big in the world of fashion. She is the prettiest of the lot.

Radhika is a modern girl turned sidhi saadhi bahu who accepts her old fashioned in laws lifestyle just because she dotes on her hubby Anuj.

Priyanka is another of the middle class clan who is working in order to save for her further education.

Shyam and Priyanka were at one time romantically involved but then broke up for many reasons.

Military Uncle is incidentaly called so because of his military background.

The book progresses on well with flashbacks and present happpenings.
But All hell breaks loose towards the end. Somehow the thought of GOD calling up Esha's mobile is undigestable!! With this, what could have been a novel of everyday lives becomes some sortaa more "fictionated".

I shall not speak of the events and stuff. I dont want to spoil the book for an eager reader. But Yeah I would like to caution you- If you had high expectations, then ...

I guess the most interesting reads in this book are the epilogue and the prologue. :-)

This is Chetan's second venture in the world of fiction. His first book was a great success. And of course there were more expections from him.

The Celestial Bed by Irving Wallace

This book introduced me to a new concept.. That of a sexual Surrogate.

Now before you jump to any conclusion let me clarify whats exactly is this SS(i prefer to term that SS) .

SS are people who are under the employ of therapists and who help treat people with conjugal disorders. Mind you the patients are psychologicaly ill and have no physical disorder as such. But they lack self esteem and the like and hence visit therapists to help improve their conjugal lives.

The book starts with how Dr.Arnold Freeberg is forced to shift from Arizona to Clalifornia due to laws against SS usage even for therapy. So in He sets up a clinic and employs 4 female and one male SS.

The book goes on to describe how his favourite favourite SS cures two patients of their problems and ends up falling in love with the male SS. But mind you theere is no romance here!!!! It also decribes how a male SS cures a female patient.

And the ofcourse there is the spice of a preacher trying to term the SS practice as slandering and stuff..

How Freeberg gets out of this is what you can read to find out.

But all in all, I am not to impressed with this book. I surely do not recommend this as a "must read" . If you do not find anything else and want to read something or maybe you just are curious of what SSs do, then only pick up this book.

State of Fear by Michael Crichton

This central concept of this book is Global Warming.

The main characters here are George Morton - a bilionaire environment conservationalist, his assistant Sarah, his lawyer Peter Evans, Nick Drake - the whos who of an environmental organization NERF , John Kenner - a brilliant scholar now with the CIA and his associate Sanjog- a geek.

The novel starts with enough mysterious activities to keep people glued to the book. The NERF is supposed to hold a conference on Abrubpt climate changes and also into news is the Vanatu suit against the goverment for global warming. Morton is incidentally the financer for these environment preservation activities when he without any clue withdraws his aid to NERF. He himself is suspected to be dead in a freak accident. What happens after that is a whirwind adventure trip for the unsuspecting Evans and Sarah. Kenner is the one who calls the shots from the time he barges into the scene after (and before) morton's death. It turns out that Kenner is out on a mission to prevent some nefarious activities sponsored by NERF itself. How and what is what one must read to find out

Surprisingly, the book makes to feel that global warming is a sham. It makes us feel that earthlings should continue living the way they are currently doing. Nature will take care of itself!! There is enough statistics and references in the book.

I would recommend this book only as a passtime, nothing to get excited about.

I was sort of dissapointed with the ending. It seemed too abrupt and fast!!

Do visit http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/index.html for the author's insights on this book's subject

Papillon by Henri Charriere

I am currently reading Papillon by Henri Charriere.

I had first heard of this book when my Physics Professor in the Higher secondary school mentioned it. So it was a book on my wish list from then.

I bought it last year but managed to start reading it only now.

I have finished around 300 pages and let me tell you friends, this book is really absorbing.
Its based on the true story of Henri Charriere popularly called Papillon.

Henri, a frenchman was wrongly sentenced to penal servitude for a crime he never committed but was cleverly and unfortunately convited of. Thus he was shipped to the inhumane prision in the island of French Guiana. He plans his escape and even is successful in evading the cruel guards and crosses the shark infested waters to much friendlier territory. From then on starts his adventures as he is again caught and further escapes and manages to secure two wives in a dangerous tribe the Goajira. The escape and get caught sinusoidal wave continues for quite sometime.

The book is gripping. Its heartening to see how Henri never loses his hope to escape and tries Bruce's Adage "Try Try Try Till you succeed".

He does eventually succeed and lives the life of a free man. But how that happens is wht the book is about.

I definitely recommend this book to every book lover here.

Little Women and Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

Amongst the American classics, these books have managed to capture my interest.

The story line is simple. Both books revolve on the Simple family- the Marches' consisting of parents and four daughters. Mr and Mrs March are simple yet noble people who have brought up their children to believe in simple pleasures.
Regarding the children each one is a jewel in herself.

The oldest is Margaret, affectionately called Meg. She is homely yet dreams of a rich future.Her wish is to marry a well to do husband and have a cozy home with loving children.

The second one is Josephine, the tomboy of the family and known as Jo by every one. She has a flair for writing and is the most outspoken of the family.

Elizabeth, aka Beth is the delicate darling of the family. Very much interested in music and playing with dolls, she is mothered by Jo.

Amy the baby of the family, is more conceiticios about her looks and forever is worried about her non gercian nose.

The other characters include Mr. Laurence, a strict yet loving old neighbour. His grand son Laurie, is like a son to the March family.

Jo takes this motherless boy under her wings and he is yet her best friend and confidant.

The books takes us through the adventures in the lives of these people. The language is simple,the dialogues delicious and the storyline subtle yet superb.

I shall not talk on the stories as i feel the novelty is lost.

I feel this a must read for all readers.