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Literary Review
First Impressions
SURHITRA BEHAL
The Gardener’s Song; Kalpana Swaminathan; IndiaInk; Rs. 295.
Utkrusha is a typical society in suburban Mumbai. It teems with people who have lived in it for generations. But the greatest newshound in the Building, as Utkrusha’s residents fondly nicknamed it, is the redoubtable Mr. Rao. Mr. Rao is everywh
ere looking for morsels of information that nobody else can seem to ferret out. Most residents of the Building detest Rao. Each hopes something terrible befalls him. But when Mr. Rao’s body is found slumped in the lift, a strange hush envelops the residents of Building. It is left to Lalli, a retired detective of the Bombay Police force and still an honorary member (known as LR or Last Resort) to bring some order. As a resident herself, Lalli’s task becomes a bit easier since she understands the nuances of this case. Lalli pieces together the events that led to Rao’s murder. But what surprises all is the identity of the murderer. The second in the Lalli mystery stories establishes Kalpana Swaminathan as one of the few Indian writers who looks for a full- blooded mystery.
Simple Genius; David Baldacci; Macmillan; price not mentioned.
Two detectives looking for a break after a gruelling case where they haven’t exactly covered themselves with glory. One on the verge of self destruction and the other getting to that tired old age of 40 plus. Meet Sean King and Michelle Maxwell
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Sean is tough and dependable; Maxwell is mercurial and psychotic. Both make a brilliant team and will stick up for the other. But Maxwell, disillusioned with god-knows-what, hops into a bar downtown and slugs the whisky keg till she literally sees red. She taps the offending source on his shoulders and proceeds to bash the hell out of him. Till a split second error in judgment gets her twisted and mangled on the floor.
Maxwell is saved because the cops land up. But this is only the beginning. A worried King sends her off to rehab where, instead of getting better, she discovers a racket in drugs. While Maxwell tackles that, King gets assigned to a murder near a strange and hush-hush town called Babbage Town.
Babbage is inhabited by geniuses and next door is a CIA encampment. The body of a physicist has been found in CIA territory. As King investigates, he comes up against a society where nobody is willing to speak the truth.
He gets his friend, a psychiatrist, to help on the case and even as they begin there is another murder. King is joined in his efforts by partner Maxwell and the two set out to unravel the biggest mystery of their lives.
Even as the reader is bombarded with a series of sub-plots ranging from kidnap attempts, murder, spies and even World War II secrets, it seems that the focus of the story gets blurred. But just as you begin to doubt, the reader is brought back to base with a final thud.
Author David Baldacci has given some great reading moments to his fans earlier. This one will no doubt have its fair share.
But somewhere Simple Genius begins to look like a rerun of stale ideas.
Curious Lives; Richard Bach, Jaico Books, Rs. 250.
“Here I stand today, bored at last to stone with dramas about evil, films about war and malice and crime. I promised that if I had to watch one more prison scene, one more aggression, one more gigantic spectacular stupendous expl
osion on screen, fiction or non, I’d walk out and rebuild the universe.” That was Richard Bach, known more for his beautiful little book Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. After the last film he saw with its violent takes, Bach
walked out vowed to change the order of the world. What if there was no crime, what if there was no competition? What if there was no malice and, most of all, no hate? Bach decided to take a look at this imaginary world where each one lives with love and affection and a supreme sense of duty. And thus was born Curious Lives; the story of a doomed civilisation, which is saved because of one individual. But even Bach couldn’t bring himself to place human characters in this Utopia.
Instead he delves deep into the world of ferrets and produces a book that makes dreams worth telling.
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