The Spy by Clive Cussler

"The Spy" by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. This book is published by Penguin books in 2011 and has 472 pages. This is the 3rd novel of Isaac Bell series.

The year is 1908. A number if murders take place. They are made to look like accidents. The men who are murdered are brilliant minds of US ship building. Men who specialized in ship design, armor design , gun design, turbine design etc. All of them are related to 'The great white fleet' of USA.

Van Dorn detective agency is requested to investigate and determine if these are murders. Their star investigator Isaac Bell is roped in. Isaac Bell's investigation leads to 'The spy' whose identity is a mystery.

What is 'Hull 44'? What does he want? How are American gangsters and Chinese gangs related? What are they after? Who is 'The Spy'?

Isaac Bell adventures are period adventures. It's the time when cables were used for fast communication, telephones were rarity and mobiles were not invented. Aeroplanes did not exist. Trains were fastest mode of transport and fast cars were called locomobil. Creating an atmosphere of 1908 in a thriller is not easy. Author does it easily.

Clive Cussler has delivered another thriller. I particularly like Isaac Bell thrillers because it is more difficult to write a thriller without gizmos and HiFi weapons. Although reader is used to modern day gadgets, he does not find them lacking in these books. Reader is transported to 1908.

The story has a constant pace. The suspense is maintained. Although you know who the spy is in later part of the book you don't understand why he is doing it. Time leap of ten years at the end of book seemed unnecessary. All the ingredients of thriller are present in this book. There are train and car chases, boat and submarine chases, beautiful ladies, suspense and fights. All in all its a good thriller.

It's a  good book. Read for a change if you are a first timer. Read it if you are an Isaac Bell fan.

Em and the big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

"Em and the big Hoom" by Jerry Pinto. This book is published by Aleph book company in 2013 and has 240 pages. It has won 2013 Crossword book award and Hindu literary award.

Author and his sister call their mother 'Em' (Probably for Imelda) and their father 'The Big Hoom'. Em is special. She is mentally ill. Em's mental illness is not a continuous state. She suffers bouts of depression. Em says that a black drip starts inside her. She hears voices that ask her to do certain things, things including killing herself.

Mental illness makes the person suffer, makes the spouse suffer and also makes the family suffer. The family becomes devoid of relationships with outside world. They become a closed unit. They have to be continuously ready for the depression attack. Children live in constant fear that these genes may be there in them too.

It's tiresome & excruciatingly painful and wears you down emotionally. There is a constant fear of attempted or, even worse, successful suicide. The family suffers and they can't explain the suffering. The person suffers much more and can not even explain what is happening.

The story is narrated through discussions, letters and memories. Em understand that her mental illness is a curse but can't help it. She is brutally frank with her kids and husband. Big Hoom is a character that loves his wife, cares for her and is rock solid. He is the anchor of the family and prevents the family from flowing away in the flood of Em's illness. Authors sister has to step in as matriarch every now and then and author is the free floating element of the house.

What would be the response of family when such a person dies a natural death? Joy? Sorrow? Relief? Emptiness? All of above? Or a combination of above?

Author has delivered a noir nonchalantly. Writing style is fluid. Though not much happens, readers are glued to the book.

A good book. Recommend reading if you don't mind the genre.

Ten Kings by Ashok K. Banker

"Ten Kings" by Ashok K. Banker. This book is published by Amaryllis in Aug 2014 and has 340 pages. This book has its origins in Rigved. The war happened more than 4000 years ago.

Sudas was the king of tribe Trtsu Bharata. He ruled area of five rivers, today's Punjab. His kingdome was on the river Parusni. He was advised by Guru Vashistha. Anu was the king of Anu tribe (another Bharata tribe) who shared space with Trtsu Bharatas on Parusni river (today's Ravi) and had an uneasy relationship with Trtsu Bharata over sharing of river Parusni. Vishwamitra was the Guru of Anu's. He was also half brother of Sudevi, Sudas' wife. Indra was patron god of all Bharata tribes.

Anu forms an alliance with five other kings from Bharat Varsha and four foreign kings and these Ten Kings (Dasarajna - दशराजन्) decide to annihilate Trtsu Bharata tribe and plunder the spoils. These Ten Kings are: Anu, Alinas, Puru, Bhrigu, Druhyu, Bhalana, Dasya, Matsya, Parsu & Pani. Last four are Mleccha (Barbaric foreigners) who came from Pariyatra Parvat Pass (called Khayber pass today). Odds are stacked decisively against Sudas. His army of less than 500 is outnumbered by the Ten Kings army of Six thousand, which actually turn out to be more than 30,000.

Sudas decides to fight the battle for his dream of united Bharat Varsh (भारत वर्ष) on the banks of Parusni river on a stormy day. His only hope is advice of Guru Vashishtha, strategy, bravery, element of surprise and weather. How many hours can Sudas sustain? Will he survive? Will he retain his honor? Who will win? Does the thunder god Indra and rain good Varun help him?

Sudas fights valiantly. His men support his trust in them. They use the terrain to their advantage. They use natural resources to their advantage. They employ psychological warfare. They use weather to their advantage. (Did you think of 'Art of war' by Tsun Tzu? This was much before him.) Trtsu achieve impossible feat through determination, bravery and trust in their king and Guru. It also underlines the fact that ancient Indians possessed the knowledge to make use of elements through the study of mathematics, science, geography, almanac and astronomy.

It was probably the first ever war fought with iron weapons. Opposition considered them godly weapons (दैवी अस्त्र) handed over to Trtsu by Indra himself. Weather played an important part in the war, again considered intervention by Gods. It was a war of Sudas Vs Ten Kings, Good Vs Evil, Vashistha Vs Vishwamitra, Civility Vs Barbarism.

Emperor Sudas established a city after winning the war. A city distinguished by greatly advanced civic and social development. This city is HARAPPA of Indus Valley Civilization. Emperor Sudas can thus be termed as founding Father of Bharat.

All counting in this book is in scores (1 score = 20 numbers). He has successfully created an atmosphere of more than 4000 years ago. The description of war and tactics is vivid. You can actually visualize the war and positions of the armies. Kudos to the author for writing this tantalizing historical fiction based on just two verses from 7th mandala of Rigved and archeological findings. It's neither pure history not pure fiction. Author calls it historical fiction. This book can be made into a riveting film.

Why is this story so significant? Because this battle can be considered first known invasion of India. Had the Ten Kings won, we might have been ruled by tribes from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and European steppes today.

An excellent book. A must read.

The red carpet by Lavanya Sankaran

"The red carpet" debut novel of Lavanya Sankaran. This book is published by  Headline in 2006 and has 215 pages. This book is a collection of eight stories.

'Bombay this' is the story of a shy person, his attractions, disappointments and fantasies. 'Closed curtains' is about an man who's wife had almost lost memory and son has left India forever and who tries to find pleasures of everyday life and parental love in neighbors. 'Two Four Six Eight' displays the emotional world of a young girl and her relationship with her maid servant. 'The Red carpet' is the story of a driver who is satisfied with what he has and whose joy knows no bound when he gets that little extra which he had not expected. 'Alphabet soup' is a story of Second generation Indian-American girl who travels back to Bangalore to trace her roots. 'Mysore coffee' is about the dilemma of suicide. 'Birdie num-num' is about return of a girl from America to India whose mother wants to marry her. 'Apple pie one by two' is about two friends who have studied, worked, founded a company and sold it together and who are now parting.

Lavanya has a unique writing style. She appears not to be trying to tell anything in the stories. All the stories end without any conclusion and readers are left to interpret the end of each. Based on the mood, intelligence and creativity of the readers,  end of each story can be interpreted in ten different ways. The stories make the readers work their imagination and think.

All the stories are situated in Bangalore. The IT and pub culture, the changing times and anticipation run through the stories as common themes. It appears that Ramu is Lavanya's favorite name. A character named Ramu appears in three out of eight stories.

All the stories are good stories. I liked 'Two Four Six Eight' and 'The Red carpet' the most and 'Alphabet soup', the least.

Although this is Lavanya's debut book, I have read her second book 'The hope factory' first. Somehow there was a break of more than one month while reading this book. Had I read it continuously, probably I would have enjoyed it more.

A good book. Recommend reading.

And the mountains echoed by Khaled Hosseini

"And the mountains echoed" by Khaled Hosseini. This book is published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2013 and has 416 pages. This is Khaled Hosseini's third book.

Pari & Abdulla are siblings. Their mother is dead and father has remarried. Abdulla is five years older and takes care of Pari like a mother. One day they go to Kabul and Abdulla loses Pari. Nabi works as driver, cook and helper to Suleiman Wahdati & his wife Neela. Years later, in Paris, Pari's mother dies. Pari becomes older and gets a call from Dr. Markus from Afghanistan.

What is Suleiman's secret? Why does Abdulla lose Pari? Will Pari retrace her routes? Can she unearth her past?

Is this the story of Pari or Abdulla or Parwana or Nabi or Idris or Markus or another Pari? Well, it's not of any one of them but of all of them. And that's why it appears a bit scattered. Khaled Hosseini has a knack of story telling. In this book he has woven a number of stories and presented us a garland of a novel. Common thread that runs through this garland is Afghanistan and human emotions.

This novel covers more than 60 years. It starts around 1947 or so and continues till  present day. This is a very big time period to cover. Consequently some periods are covered superficially. Half way through the book, Pari's story is narrated in a staccato burst. Very fast, without making it interesting, like a news bulletin with multiple time leaps.

This book includes stories of a number of people. Although the stories are loosely related the book makes a riveting reading. This book is like a kaleidoscope. A number of items come together to form a beautiful design, though it may not be entirely cohesive. Every time you turn it you find a new design that is hardly repeated again. At the end you can not name one design that you saw just that you saw beautiful designs.

A good book. Read if you have liked previous books of Khaled Hosseini.

Ravan and Eddie by Kiran Nagarkar

"Ravan and Eddie" by Kiran Nagarkar. This book is published by HarperCollins in 2012 and has 332 pages.
As the name suggests, it's the story of two boys called Ravan and Eddie. Eddie's father died while saving Ravan, an infant at that time, from falling off balcony. Eddie's mother was pregnant with Eddie at that time. This caused a permanent rift between two families and Ravan being dubbed as murderer. They live in same chawl separated by floors, way of life, religion and habits, so their lives run in parallel, their paths don't cross.

Ravan despite being a Hindu learns Tae kwon do. Eddie, despite being a Christan, learns to wield wooden staff in Sabha (Read RSS).

Will they interact? Will they become friends or enemies? What Ravan is called Ravan?

Author has used light sarcasm as his style of story telling. While showing the incongruity in the division of human beings on the basis of cast, religion and money he has maintained a fine balance of neither being harsh nor indifferent. Author has shown idiosyncrasies within Hindu and Catholic Christian religions.

Author's short commentery on Hindi film industry is very well thought and introspective. His description of tying of loin cloth (लंगोट) by 'Sabha' members is too good. The story drags on few occasions. His depiction of chawl life and the privacy, or the lack of it, is very good.

The book is more an abstract story rather than a novel. It's easy to get bored. There are a few shocks in the story. You have to be very attentive while reading. At the end it left me with mixed feelings.

You can give it a miss.

Bari (बारी) by Ranjit Desai (रणजीत देसाई)

"Bari (बारी)", a Marathi book, by Ranjit Desai (रणजीत देसाई). This book is published by Mehta Publishing House in 2013 (First edition 1990) and has 178 pages. This is Ranjit Desai's first novel (Earlier books were short stories).

This is the story of Berad (बेरड) tribe who lived in the jungle between Kolhapur (कोल्हापुर) and Belgum (बेळगाव). They lived off the jungle and topped it up by looting the rich people who passed through the jungle. Symbol of Berad tribe is an Axe (कुऱ्हाड) called Farshi (फरशी) that is used as tool as well as weapon. Bari (बारी) means a path that goes through thick jungle.

This novel follows Tegya (तेग्या), chief (नाईक) of small Berad village called Beradwadi (बेरडवाडी). It starts from the time before Tegya was married, takes us on a roler coaster ride showing the transformations that take place in Beradwadi with changing times and receding jungle. The story is set in a period before and after independence.

Although it's a novel, it's not pure fiction. The names and characters may or may not be fictional but the story and transformations are real and could have happened in any such village. The story takes us through social (सामाजिक), economic (आर्थिक), mechanical (यांत्रिक), educational (शैक्षणिक) transformations of Bread tribe. A tribe that is known to be basically nature loving, fearless and one who value their word and honor more than their life.

First half of the story (which occupies 65% of the book) is very interesting. You love Tegya and everything that he stands for. You become a character of the story. Then the transformations set in and suddenly story picks up speed; lot of speed. Second half is very fast and although you understand what is happening, you don't relish it.

Some of the sub plots are also left unfinished. What happens to Inamdar (इनामदार)? What becomes of Sawkar (सावकार)? Does the rape go unpunished?

Ranjit Desai is a well known author. He has depicted the rural life beautifully. Marathi language that he has used in the book is very peculiar. It is rural (ग्रामीण) & has Kannada (कानडी) influence, the area being close to Karnataka (कर्नाटक). It was a while that I had heard or used some of the words in this book, felt nostalgia. However this may be the very reason some readers will shun from reading this book.

A very good book. Recommend reading.