First Impressions
THE first thing that catches your eye is the title. Its difference insists that you at least open it and flip through a few pages. It is a strange detective book, quite unlike any in its genre. And it is no ordinary detective you are dealing with. Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths and science. What he cannot understand are other human beings. So when Christopher stumbles upon Mrs. Shear's dead dog he is perplexed as to the motive behind this crime. And Christopher is determined to find out "whodunnit".
He likes the police and when they arrive on the scene of the crime Christopher is reassured. Not for long though because when one of the officer tries to pick him up from the ground and take him away from the dead dog, Christopher reacts. And that is where his life takes a turn. Christopher hits out at the officer and finds himself being bundled into a police car and driven off to jail. He waits till his father bails him out and they go home.
But suddenly home is not so safe. He discovers a pile of letters addressed to him in his "dead" mother's handwriting and realises with a shock that his mother is not dead. His father had lied to him. When Christopher's father finds out that he has seen the letters, he pleads with his son to understand why he hid them from him. He also confesses to killing Mrs. Shear's dog.
This is a heart-rending journey of a young boy who finds himself pushed into a world without an anchor. What is it, you must be wondering, that makes this tale so different? Christopher suffers from Asperger Syndrome. From his sheltered, cocooned world he strikes out in an attempt to get justice. Mark Haddon has written a tender, evocative, funny, disarming book. A book that explains to me why some people are the way they are and why it is so important to discover life for ourselves. If you haven't already gone and got yourself a copy, go get it. This is a work of art.
The Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon, Definitions, Rs. 225.
ARE you gripped by a sinking feeling that your life is controlled by an MNC? If the author of this book is to be believed, everything in the future will be controlled by giant MNCs (American). And because everybody has to have allegiance to the company they work for, their second names will be that of their companies. So in Max Barry's make believe world we have Hack Nike, John Nike, Billy Bechtel. Hayley McDonald , Buy Mitsui and Violet something.com. Corporations are the main agencies that rule the world and the government is just there for crime prevention. In this game, money and consumerism rule the roost and the stakes are immense. Marketing is the buzzword and if in the corporate sector you have to make it big, better be in marketing. Forget the ethics and the baselines; the only honour at stake is making money and more of it.
The book has a complicated plot involving the NRA, the law enforcer (the government) and the giant MNCs wanting to align and realign their business interests, but ultimately it all boils down to a tale of ruthless minions pushed by an absolute greed. Max Barry has put forward a dark theory and the racy pace and extreme satire only heighten our sense of inadequacy in the market place. This is actually a funny take on today's consumerist.
Jennifer Government, Max Barry, Abacus, £2.99.
THREE short works, "The Wise Words of Ram Sharma", "The Inauspicious Goddess" and "The Riddle Party" make up the translated The Colonel Investigates. The Colonel is a self-fashioned sleuth who seems to belong to a bygone era. Even the cases that he investigates seem quaint in the present context. There is an unhurried air of expectation but nothing drastic ever happens in these stories. The ambience is semi rural and the Colonel, who works with painstaking accuracy looking for clues, much in the same way a young boy might do so in a detective game hunt, is reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. There is a goddess who is revered by a mad raja; there is the case of the missing nail that causes old books to be stolen and finally there is a riddle that leads to the unravelling of a murder mystery. There is one huge disadvantage that this book suffers from. The loss in translation of local flavours and nuances leaves these stories in a format which does little to alleviate a sense of boredom.
The Colonel Investigates, Syed Mustafa Siraj, Srishti, Rs.195.
SUCHITRA BEHAL
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