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This week at Crossword...
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The Book of Prefaces
Alasdair Gray
Bloomsbury Publishing
Rs. 1,080
THE BOOK is exactly what its title says — a book full of prefaces of other books, starting with the preface to this book itself, which is delightful, explaining what the nature of a preface is and drawing out its own preface in the most droll terms.
The disappointing part is that it stops at 1920 because of the forbidding cost of using work still in copyright. But then there is plenty here to please, starting with Caedmon on Genesis, winding through Chaucer, Caxton, Shakespeare, Milton, Defoe, Blake, Darwin, Shaw and ending with Synge and Owen.
The prefaces are quite delightful and the idea that "a collection of prefaces would have exhibited a short, but curious and useful history both of literature and authors" if they kept to the plan that " every preface, besides occasional and explanatory remarks, should contain not only the general design of the work, but the motives and circumstances which led the author to write on that particular subject."
A great book to be able to pull out of your collection.
White Hot
Sandra Brown
Pocket Books
Rs. 250
SANDRA BROWN'S White Hot, a taut thriller with an unusual heroine, Sayre Lynch, has been on The New York Times bestseller list for some time now. When Sayre's younger brother dies, she goes back to the hometown she ran away from and swore never to return to, back into the web cast by her tyrannical father and her corrupt elder brother. With the police proving that the death was a homicide, Sayre decides on a daring plan of revenge, and this interwoven with Sayre's Mills and Boon relationship with her father's lawyer Beck could make the reading as enjoyable as the blurb promises.
Goddess
Inside Madonna
Barbara Victor
Cliff Street Books
Rs. 525
THOUGH THIS book starts well, it winds off into indifference after a while, and in comparison with other Madonna biographies, notably that by Morton, this one is rather dull, which is surprising because Barbara Victor seems to have authored some quite fascinating books, including one on women suicide bombers. Victor appears to have put together this book rather casually, and it seems to spend a lot of time around the filming of Evita, where she first met Madonna. Though she makes attempts to capture the nuances of the Madonna cult and of Madonna's persona and personality, the attempt doesn't go very far.
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Sidney Sheldon
Harper Collins
Rs. 195
ARE YOU Afraid of the Dark? is Sidney Sheldon's latest and going by ratings appears to be a favourite with readers. Sidney Sheldon fans are likely to find this new one quite exciting. Its plot involves the sudden deaths of two men, whose widows, under sudden attack, are thrown together. Why this happens and how the deaths and the lives of these two women are connected with a famous trial currently on, and to an amazing discovery that has been made by the CE of an international Think Tank makes the rest of the story. Looks potentially exciting.
Now a days its difficult to find a thriller that is "different" — to use that much flogged word — one in which the thrills are not all the same (world shaking inventions, discoveries, plots that will turn topsyturvy the balance of power in the world, death, espionage, high tech weapons). Is it possible to not get tired of this stuff? After The Da Vinci Code, it seems doubly difficult to be excited by these thrills, which don't engage the intellect.
But not everyone can be engaged by the likes of Dan Brown, and there must be hordes of readers who have not got bored with Sheldon and who would find Are You Afraid of the Dark? exciting.
KALA KRISHNAN RAMESH
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