Synopsis:
Crichton’s views on evolution and extinction masquerading as a Dinosaur-scary novel.
Category:
Simple-wordy, Nail-Biting,
Genre:
Sci-Fi, Thriller
Language:
No bad words.
Favorite Quote:
…It’s just theories. Human beings can’t help making them and the fact is, that theories are just fantasies. And they change.
Review:
There may be very few people left in this world who haven’t seen the classic nail-biters “Jurrasic park” and its sequel “The Lost world”. After more than ten years, I can easily bring up the picture of a T-Rex (tyrannosaurs) from memory. The vibrating ground, the puddle of water etc had resulted in many a sleepless nights in my childhood, and still gives me occasional shivers.
The book was recommended to be “scarier than the movie”. So, after a day of non-stop reading, I feel sad that I cannot assent to that. There were some nail biting moments in this for sure, but they didn’t match up to the movie, not by a long mile. Of course, the fact that the book story is drastically different than the movie didn’t help much.
That said, it richly deserves the title of one of Crichton’s finest books. While the movie was meant to be spooky, giving an image to our wildest of imaginations, the book is much more than that. In fact, it is safe to say that the dinosaurs are a backdrop to a very enlightening take on the theory of evolution and extinction of species.
The story is about a very rich, stubborn and focused scientist, Richard Leving, who, on learning that there have been some sightings in an island near Costa Rica, Isla Sorna, goes there for further investigation. On landing there, he views different herds of dinosaurs and sensing an opportunity, starts studying them.
Meanwhile his colleague, Ian Malcolm, his equipment developer, Thorn and Eddie, and his students Kelly and Arby, concerned about Leving, come over to the island. While the majority of the book is about Malcolm and Leving’s contradictory observations on dinosaur behaviour, the book picks up pace in the end when some researchers from a bigger biotechnological corporation try to steal some eggs and use the dinosaurs for drug testing.
There are some flaws in the story-line of course. The easy availability of confidential computers and the ridiculously simple hacking job by Arby were laughable. The narrow escapes and the obvious clues (The only piece of skin Leving sends to Malcolm actually has a tag of ‘site B’ attached to it!) made it sound more like a Dan Brown novel than a Crichton. But I think its all forgivable considering the amount of messages he wanted to impart through this book.
The book started like a zoology text-book – interesting and slightly preachy. I was so engrossed in absorbing the details that I didn’t realise that the non-fiction part of it had ended, and the fictional story had begun. There was, for example, the initial hypothesis for extinction – the edge of chaos, where there is enough innovation to keep a living system vibrant and enough stability to keep it from collapsing into anarchy. So, in effect extinction can be caused by too much of change or too little. There are of course the numbers, which being an analyst, are of particular interest to me. Our diverse planet has a current count of fifteen million species of plants and animals (phew!), which is nothing compared to the species found when life began – fifty billion. To put it in perspective, of every thousand species that existed, only one remains today. Thus, 99.9% of all species are extinct – a humbling realisation.
Later on in the book, Crichton admits that he believes that cyberspace could lead to our extinction. He theorizes that since in humans, evolution occurs mainly through our behaviour, mass media hinders innovation and thus, intellectual diversity. “It makes every place the same. Bangkok or Tokyo or London. There’s a McDonald’s on one corner, a Benetton on another and a Gap across the street. Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish… it’ll freeze the entire species. Everything will stop dead in its tracks.”
That’s a point of view an average human wouldn’t have thought of. It’s a common observation that the new generation is a step above the current or previous one. But are we becoming stagnant because of all the sharing and communicating? Is that why inventions and discoveries are harder to come by now (and not because everything significant has already been invented or discovered.)?
We’ve been taught that extinction is a direct result of evolution and survival of the fittest. Crichton doesn’t use the typical example of the oppositional thumb for explaining evolution. He mentions how, due to the inability of the human brain to pass through the birth canal, humans are born pre-mature, compared to other animals’ infants, who are fully formed. That also explains why humans are unable to walk for a year, as compared to other animals, which start walking or flying within a couple of days.
In the end, Crichton plays it safe and notes that are just theories which are nothing more than human fantasies. This is as well, since, with more of a scientific ( or theoretical scientific) content, some of them are sure to raise even more questions – behavioural reasons for extinction can be only conceptual and there is no factual way of proving it. Even the theory of evolution is derivative, without any factual way of backing it.
Verdict:
The book does not live up to the expectations of being a scary book. There are very few cheap thrills and none creates an everlasting impression. But it ought to be read by any one who has been intrigued by Darwin’s theories. Though it does not provide any clarifications in our understanding of the world, it raises a lot of very important questions.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Running With The Demon - Terry Brooks
Synopsis:
A regular good versus evil story with a little bit of magic thrown in.
Category:
Simple-wordy, Serious
Genre:
Fantasy
Language:
No bad words - isn't scary enough for children above ten.
Favorite Quote:
None.
Review:
The book opens up with a bleak picture – a small and almost abandoned town called Hopewell in Illinois, which is burnt down and in ruins. There is no semblance of life anywhere and the people still in town are a dejected lot. We then realise that we were inside John Ross’s nightmare while he was travelling in bus. He had been sitting alone, perhaps because of “the mantle of weariness he wore like the ghost of Marley did his chains” or perhaps “it was the eyes, the way they seemed to look beyond what everyone else could see, at once cool and discerning, yet distant and lost, an unsettling contradiction.” The author ends the prologue with: “You leave as many empty seats as possible between yourself and death”.
Oh boy. At this point, I wonder at the advisability of reading this book through. But it came with a high recommendation and promised to be a fast read. So, I decided to go ahead. I suffice to say it was a bad decision.
The book is divided into sections, each corresponding to one day, which in turn is divided into chapters. The first section starts with July 1, which is enough for us to surmise that something big can be expected on the fourth of July. (The story is, after all, set in America).
John Ross follows his dreams and lands up in Hopewell. He is the knight of the word, servicing the Voice of the Word (don’t even ask ”what” – Lets assume Word is God and voice is a very beautiful woman).
Nest Freemark is a 14 year old girl staying with her grandparents. Her closest friend, (apart from her group of human friends) is a Sylvan called Pick. He was a six inch tall wood with vaguely human features stamped above a mossy beard, with leaves instead of hair and twigs instead of hands; a smaller version of Ent of Lord of the rings. He was the caretaker of Sinnissippi Park and kept the balance of magic in check. That doesn’t make his saying “Criminy!!” at the start of every sentence any less annoying.
Nest along with Pick and a mysterious wolf-dog named Wraith, fought the feeders that lived in the park. In Pick’s words, “Feeders devour people”. To put it in perspective, feeders are similar to Rowling’s dementors, who fuel the depression of a person and then, when they are at their weakest, devour them. Nest could destroy them with a single glance – “Nest hissed at it furiously, caught its eye, and stripped it of its life with a single, chilling glance”.
Her grandmother Evelyn is cynical and unhappy with her life and had taken to drinking and smoking. She is, however, very fond and protective of Nest. She is incidentally the only human who knows (or believes) that Nest has magical powers. Her grandfather, Robert Freemark, is, needless to say depressed with his wife’s drinking, her constant retorts and the loss of his daughter (Nest’s mother) Caitlin. “He felt emasculated by Evelyn, helpless in the face of her fortress mentality, adrift in his life, unable to change things in any way that mattered”. Retired after 30 years in Midwestern Continental Steel (MidCon), he takes particular interest in the 107-day long ongoing company strike . The present workers of MidCon are tired of waiting with no jobs and are planning on going back, to fellow employee Derry Howe’s disgust.
The demon had come to Hopewell with a purpose which will be made clearer in the end. Meanwhile, since he is supposed to cause death and destruction wherever he goes, he influences Howe to sabotage MidCon’s reputation by an “accident” that would result on the loss of many lives.
John Ross purposefully runs into Robert and saying he is Caitlin’s friend, invites himself over for dinner. Over dinner, while conversation revolves mainly around Caitlin, Nest asks him about her father, much to her grandparents’ distress. By this time, we have enough clues to know that Nest’s father is a source of mystery for her and a bone of contention for her grandparents. Ross also knows who the father is. A normal 6th grader would have figured out who the father was by now.
John Ross is then taken to see an old oak tree, which was the prison of Maentwrog. A Maentwrog was a soul-eater, consequently leaving any living being hollow and consumed with madness. It had been imprisoned inside the oak tree for many years, but now the magic was weakening. It was attempting to break free, despite Nest and Pick covering up the splits in the tree with tree-seals. Ross is helpless in the face of this new development.
Meanwhile, Nest had also had a run-in with a native American called Two Bears or O’olish Amaneh. He is mysterious, as Indians usually are, and invites Nest to watch the summoning of the spirits of his ancestors in Sinnissippi Park. Through the spirits, she finds that her grandmother was once very wild and used to run with the feeders and play with them. On confronting Evelyn about it, she admits that it had made her feel good, before realising what they were. She had also fallen in love with the demon without knowing, and when she did, put an end to it.
Exactly at about this time, the grandparents suddenly seem closer – Evelyn starts bushing; Robert realises he loved her and thinks he was losing her; Robert calls her dark eyes, and consequently “all the hardness went out of Evelyn Freemark’s face, all the lines and age spots vanished and she was young again”.
We can safely assume that one of them is going to die. I mean, the only saving grace of the book, if overdone, was the squabble between these two. Since even that is taken away; there has to be a purpose.
To continue, by influencing one of her school enemies, Nest is kidnapped and dumped in a cave. The demon comes and taunts her that no one would come to help her. Contrary to his belief, Robert rescues her. Evelyn realises that this was a ruse to get her alone by the demon. She prepares herself for the confrontation and in the event, the expected happens.
On the Fourth of July, all these incidents show their respective colors. The “fireworks” by Howe happens, though the sabotage itself is a failure. There is a confrontation between Ross, Nest, the demon and Maentwrog. Thankfully, as an afterthought, there is a surprise in the ending.
What made me want to throw the book away was not the fact that the book was unbelievably boring (Unbelievable because it is fantasy fiction – seldom are fantasies boring). The fact that this was one of the least imaginative books I have ever read in terms of content, characters and write-up played a major part. The total lack of suspense was what got to me. Brooks made sure that he didn’t leave anything to be guessed. For instance, When Robert confronts Howe on what he is planning to do on July fourth; Howe talks about the unpredictability of fireworks and asks him to keep away from them. So when the big plan of destroying MidCon is brought to fort, there really isn’t any iota of surprise left.
There was probably one mystery left which we wouldn’t have guessed in the end. But at the end of the day, it failed to make its impact since it lay invisible in a very dull and lifeless book. The book of course ends with Cross walking towards the horizon for his next quest. But there are no questions left unanswered here (no obvious ones, and I don’t want to find answers for less obvious ones); so there really is no motivation for reading the next one.
Verdict:
Spare yourself. This book is definitely not worth it. It will not entertain surprise or amuse you.
A regular good versus evil story with a little bit of magic thrown in.
Category:
Simple-wordy, Serious
Genre:
Fantasy
Language:
No bad words - isn't scary enough for children above ten.
Favorite Quote:
None.
Review:
The book opens up with a bleak picture – a small and almost abandoned town called Hopewell in Illinois, which is burnt down and in ruins. There is no semblance of life anywhere and the people still in town are a dejected lot. We then realise that we were inside John Ross’s nightmare while he was travelling in bus. He had been sitting alone, perhaps because of “the mantle of weariness he wore like the ghost of Marley did his chains” or perhaps “it was the eyes, the way they seemed to look beyond what everyone else could see, at once cool and discerning, yet distant and lost, an unsettling contradiction.” The author ends the prologue with: “You leave as many empty seats as possible between yourself and death”.
Oh boy. At this point, I wonder at the advisability of reading this book through. But it came with a high recommendation and promised to be a fast read. So, I decided to go ahead. I suffice to say it was a bad decision.
The book is divided into sections, each corresponding to one day, which in turn is divided into chapters. The first section starts with July 1, which is enough for us to surmise that something big can be expected on the fourth of July. (The story is, after all, set in America).
John Ross follows his dreams and lands up in Hopewell. He is the knight of the word, servicing the Voice of the Word (don’t even ask ”what” – Lets assume Word is God and voice is a very beautiful woman).
Nest Freemark is a 14 year old girl staying with her grandparents. Her closest friend, (apart from her group of human friends) is a Sylvan called Pick. He was a six inch tall wood with vaguely human features stamped above a mossy beard, with leaves instead of hair and twigs instead of hands; a smaller version of Ent of Lord of the rings. He was the caretaker of Sinnissippi Park and kept the balance of magic in check. That doesn’t make his saying “Criminy!!” at the start of every sentence any less annoying.
Nest along with Pick and a mysterious wolf-dog named Wraith, fought the feeders that lived in the park. In Pick’s words, “Feeders devour people”. To put it in perspective, feeders are similar to Rowling’s dementors, who fuel the depression of a person and then, when they are at their weakest, devour them. Nest could destroy them with a single glance – “Nest hissed at it furiously, caught its eye, and stripped it of its life with a single, chilling glance”.
Her grandmother Evelyn is cynical and unhappy with her life and had taken to drinking and smoking. She is, however, very fond and protective of Nest. She is incidentally the only human who knows (or believes) that Nest has magical powers. Her grandfather, Robert Freemark, is, needless to say depressed with his wife’s drinking, her constant retorts and the loss of his daughter (Nest’s mother) Caitlin. “He felt emasculated by Evelyn, helpless in the face of her fortress mentality, adrift in his life, unable to change things in any way that mattered”. Retired after 30 years in Midwestern Continental Steel (MidCon), he takes particular interest in the 107-day long ongoing company strike . The present workers of MidCon are tired of waiting with no jobs and are planning on going back, to fellow employee Derry Howe’s disgust.
The demon had come to Hopewell with a purpose which will be made clearer in the end. Meanwhile, since he is supposed to cause death and destruction wherever he goes, he influences Howe to sabotage MidCon’s reputation by an “accident” that would result on the loss of many lives.
John Ross purposefully runs into Robert and saying he is Caitlin’s friend, invites himself over for dinner. Over dinner, while conversation revolves mainly around Caitlin, Nest asks him about her father, much to her grandparents’ distress. By this time, we have enough clues to know that Nest’s father is a source of mystery for her and a bone of contention for her grandparents. Ross also knows who the father is. A normal 6th grader would have figured out who the father was by now.
John Ross is then taken to see an old oak tree, which was the prison of Maentwrog. A Maentwrog was a soul-eater, consequently leaving any living being hollow and consumed with madness. It had been imprisoned inside the oak tree for many years, but now the magic was weakening. It was attempting to break free, despite Nest and Pick covering up the splits in the tree with tree-seals. Ross is helpless in the face of this new development.
Meanwhile, Nest had also had a run-in with a native American called Two Bears or O’olish Amaneh. He is mysterious, as Indians usually are, and invites Nest to watch the summoning of the spirits of his ancestors in Sinnissippi Park. Through the spirits, she finds that her grandmother was once very wild and used to run with the feeders and play with them. On confronting Evelyn about it, she admits that it had made her feel good, before realising what they were. She had also fallen in love with the demon without knowing, and when she did, put an end to it.
Exactly at about this time, the grandparents suddenly seem closer – Evelyn starts bushing; Robert realises he loved her and thinks he was losing her; Robert calls her dark eyes, and consequently “all the hardness went out of Evelyn Freemark’s face, all the lines and age spots vanished and she was young again”.
We can safely assume that one of them is going to die. I mean, the only saving grace of the book, if overdone, was the squabble between these two. Since even that is taken away; there has to be a purpose.
To continue, by influencing one of her school enemies, Nest is kidnapped and dumped in a cave. The demon comes and taunts her that no one would come to help her. Contrary to his belief, Robert rescues her. Evelyn realises that this was a ruse to get her alone by the demon. She prepares herself for the confrontation and in the event, the expected happens.
On the Fourth of July, all these incidents show their respective colors. The “fireworks” by Howe happens, though the sabotage itself is a failure. There is a confrontation between Ross, Nest, the demon and Maentwrog. Thankfully, as an afterthought, there is a surprise in the ending.
What made me want to throw the book away was not the fact that the book was unbelievably boring (Unbelievable because it is fantasy fiction – seldom are fantasies boring). The fact that this was one of the least imaginative books I have ever read in terms of content, characters and write-up played a major part. The total lack of suspense was what got to me. Brooks made sure that he didn’t leave anything to be guessed. For instance, When Robert confronts Howe on what he is planning to do on July fourth; Howe talks about the unpredictability of fireworks and asks him to keep away from them. So when the big plan of destroying MidCon is brought to fort, there really isn’t any iota of surprise left.
There was probably one mystery left which we wouldn’t have guessed in the end. But at the end of the day, it failed to make its impact since it lay invisible in a very dull and lifeless book. The book of course ends with Cross walking towards the horizon for his next quest. But there are no questions left unanswered here (no obvious ones, and I don’t want to find answers for less obvious ones); so there really is no motivation for reading the next one.
Verdict:
Spare yourself. This book is definitely not worth it. It will not entertain surprise or amuse you.
Monday, February 22, 2010
The world according to Garp - John Irving
Synopsis:
A take on the fictional character T.S.Garp's personal life, and its influence on his professional one.
Category:
Simple-wordy, Witty/Serious
Genre:
Drama
Language:
Has adult content in all sections.
Favorite Quote:
In this dirty minded world, you are either some body's wife or somebody's whore - or fast on your way to becoming one or the other
Review:
There are few complaints this book can create (and rest assured, there.will.be.complaints) - changing tones, vulgarity, surreal, dramatic. For me all these worked in favour of the book. The cover and the title of the book were so uninteresting that I had almost given it a miss. When I did pick it up, I couldn't stop reading or thinking about it. When I completed it, I still kept going back to it to read "that one line" or "that incident."
"Garp's mother, Jenny Fields was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theatre." - The book begins simply enough, coaxing us to assume that Jenny would be a typical upright and maybe slightly eccentric mother. Irving slowly unravels the different layers of her character. Through Garp's running autobiography ("my mom", Garp wrote, "was not romantically inclined) and Jenny's autobiography ("I wanted a job and I wanted to live alone. That made me a sexual suspect. Then I wanted a baby, but didn't want to share my body. That made me a sexual suspect too."), we are surprised and amused at each new hitch in her character.
Working as a nurse, Jenny Fields was, as Garp put it, a "lone wolf". While she did want to have a baby, she did not want to get married for that. After many equally interesting and surreal anecdotes (the glass full of cloudy liquid gave me many a shivers), she finally finds the perfect candidate - Technical sergeant Garp, who after a brain injury, is admitted as a terminal case. Shortly after Jenny gets pregnant, she is fired from her job. In a semi conscious state, she names her new born son T.S.Garp.
Jenny then moves on to becoming a school nurse in steering school, an all boys' school. As is expected at this stage, Jenny and Garp are a part of many . A noteworthy character at this stage is Stewart Percy, the school secretary, who took a pleasure in wondering who Garp's father was. Stewart and his wife, Midge, with their constantly expanding white-haired family inspired Jenny to come up with a nasty rhyme:
What lies in Midge Percy's belly,
so round and exceedingly fair?
In fact, its really nothing,
but a ball of distinguished silver hair"
Jenny took up almost all the courses at the steering to make sure that Garp, when he grew up, could make an informative decision. Garp becomes dependant on Jenny for making as small a decision as which sport to choose. After meeting the wresting coach Ernie Holm, Jenny advises Garp to take up wrestling. That is when he develops a crush for Holm's geeky daughter, Helen. When he learns that Helen would only marry a writer, he decides to become one. His initial attempts are severely criticised by Helen, who later advises him to move to Europe. To his consternation, Jenny decides to join him and start writing too.
They move on to Vienna, where they stay in more than a dozen pensions before settling into an apartment. It was probably this very experience, that prompted Garp to come up with his first story, "The pension grillparzer". Again, like Atonement, we get a glimpse of what goes on in a writer's mind. The pension Grillparzer was "inspired" mainly a seeing a four-member circus troup and his time at the different pensions.
Jenny on the other hand, despite initial hiccups finally gets the mood right for her autobiography Sexual suspect. The book is brought out by John Wolf, and is an instant success. She becomes a household name associated with feminism, and she develops a steady stream of admirers and companions following her around.
One of them is an Ellen Jamesian. Like a online networking social “Ellen Jamesians” was a cult society of sorts, whose members cut off their tongues to support eleven year old Ellen James, who was raped and then had her tongue cut off. The mildly sarcastic approach Garp (and Irving) takes to these needless display of histrionics is applicable to what happens in the real world - though admittedly, at a lower level. The "join a cause" groups in facebook and orkut are the perfect examples for that.
His mother's life keeps Garp amused and at times, frustrated, while he struggles with his first novel, procrastination. He gets it published through Wolf, but is not very satisfied with the reviews, as they had focussed more on his connection with Jenny rather than his story itself. After that, he tries unsuccessfully to find his old rhythm back. With his family of two boys, and his extra-marital affairs, Garp reaches a writer's block, and mimicking his current lisping mistress, “thtops”. Glimpses of his creativity keeps us riveted to the book though. For instance, the dog and the chain story, and the unravelling of its creation makes us wonder on what inspires any good writer.
It is the time when Garp is at his most devoted to Helen, that Helen inadvertently, ends up having an affair with one of her students, Michael Milton. Sensing he had competition (though he believes it is literary rather than physical), Garp starts working on his next story in frenzy. As is expected from a story with a dubious motive, it is poorly written, and is not liked by Helen, who is blunt to the point of being cruel in telling him so.
When Garp does find out about the affair, he is uncharacteristically angry about it. As one of the other readers noted, Garp up till then could be characterised as creative, carefree, broad-minded and even anti-social. The typical possessiveness of a man for his wife is just not expected out of Garp, who had, at one point, swapped partners with Helen's colleague. His sudden outburst at Helen to break it off could only be attributed to his love towards her, although that makes a very unconvincing reason(!).
It is fair to say that the tone of the book changes significantly at this point of time. Helen's break-up with Milton and its resulting events are, I believe one of the most beautifully narrated parts of the book.
The post-Milton-serious-Garp comes up with his next novel, “The world according to Bensenhaver”. Though Garp later admits that it was “his worst work”, he forces Wolf to publish the story.
John Wolf is believed to have a sixth sense about the success or failure of any book – partly because he was good at his job, but mainly because of his cleaning leady, Jillsy Sloper. Jillsy hated most of the books, and the ones she liked were instantly successful. She read mainly to find out what happens next. In her own words, “There surely ain’t no other reason to read a book is there?”.
There surely ain’t. In fact, I will sheepishly admit here that of all the stories Garp wrote (except the dog and the chain story), this was my favourite. Like Jillsy, I kept flipping the pages to find out what happened next, which was more than I can say about garp’s story, which had suddenly shifted to a slow-and-dull lane.
The book, as is expected, was a runaway success. Whether it can be attributed to a good story, Jillsy Sloper, Wolf’s intuition or his cheap marketing techniques – we can’t say.
Meanwhile, Jenny gets involved in new Hampshire politics, backing the candidate standing against the current governor. Her controversial support ultimately leads to her being shot to death by a man, while the candidate she supported loses the elections.
Garp hears the news through Jenny’s companion, and despite many objections, attends his mother’s “feministic funeral”. During the journey back, he meets the real Ellen James, who vehemently denies being an “Ellen Jamesian” and admits her admiration for his work. Garp decided to do what Jenny would have done and adopted her.
The extended family finally comes a full circle, and moves back to the steering, where Garp takes up the position of the wrestling coach. As he got more involved in his wrestling team, he also stopped writing, again. One of Garp’s critics puts it in perspective - “As he became more autobiographical, his writing grew narrower; also he became less comfortable about doing it. It was as if he knew that not only was the work more personally painful to him – this memory dredging- but the work was slimmer and less imaginative in every way.”
We can hand Irving one thing at least – he finished what he started. It was a neatly “completed” book, where no character was left hanging in the end. All the characters that were mentioned in the book at one point or the other were seen through till their demise.
At hindsight, maybe that’s not really the best of things. As T.S.Garp wrote, after a key turning point in his life, his “life has felt like an epilogue”. The second part of the book was just that – an epilogue of Garp’s life. From hilarious anecdotes, the second part of the book became a documentary of Garp’s life. From interesting and fun, it became a story on “the last few days of Garp’s life”.
Iforces us to wonder if the change in writing style was intentional. Was it meant to make us believe that till Jenny’s death, the story was actually, through Jenny’s eyes, and after her death, the missing details were filled in Garp’s biographer?
Verdict:
the first 300-odd pages steal the show; should be a definite read to appreciate the art of simple and witty writing.
A take on the fictional character T.S.Garp's personal life, and its influence on his professional one.
Category:
Simple-wordy, Witty/Serious
Genre:
Drama
Language:
Has adult content in all sections.
Favorite Quote:
In this dirty minded world, you are either some body's wife or somebody's whore - or fast on your way to becoming one or the other
Review:
There are few complaints this book can create (and rest assured, there.will.be.complaints) - changing tones, vulgarity, surreal, dramatic. For me all these worked in favour of the book. The cover and the title of the book were so uninteresting that I had almost given it a miss. When I did pick it up, I couldn't stop reading or thinking about it. When I completed it, I still kept going back to it to read "that one line" or "that incident."
"Garp's mother, Jenny Fields was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theatre." - The book begins simply enough, coaxing us to assume that Jenny would be a typical upright and maybe slightly eccentric mother. Irving slowly unravels the different layers of her character. Through Garp's running autobiography ("my mom", Garp wrote, "was not romantically inclined) and Jenny's autobiography ("I wanted a job and I wanted to live alone. That made me a sexual suspect. Then I wanted a baby, but didn't want to share my body. That made me a sexual suspect too."), we are surprised and amused at each new hitch in her character.
Working as a nurse, Jenny Fields was, as Garp put it, a "lone wolf". While she did want to have a baby, she did not want to get married for that. After many equally interesting and surreal anecdotes (the glass full of cloudy liquid gave me many a shivers), she finally finds the perfect candidate - Technical sergeant Garp, who after a brain injury, is admitted as a terminal case. Shortly after Jenny gets pregnant, she is fired from her job. In a semi conscious state, she names her new born son T.S.Garp.
Jenny then moves on to becoming a school nurse in steering school, an all boys' school. As is expected at this stage, Jenny and Garp are a part of many . A noteworthy character at this stage is Stewart Percy, the school secretary, who took a pleasure in wondering who Garp's father was. Stewart and his wife, Midge, with their constantly expanding white-haired family inspired Jenny to come up with a nasty rhyme:
What lies in Midge Percy's belly,
so round and exceedingly fair?
In fact, its really nothing,
but a ball of distinguished silver hair"
Jenny took up almost all the courses at the steering to make sure that Garp, when he grew up, could make an informative decision. Garp becomes dependant on Jenny for making as small a decision as which sport to choose. After meeting the wresting coach Ernie Holm, Jenny advises Garp to take up wrestling. That is when he develops a crush for Holm's geeky daughter, Helen. When he learns that Helen would only marry a writer, he decides to become one. His initial attempts are severely criticised by Helen, who later advises him to move to Europe. To his consternation, Jenny decides to join him and start writing too.
They move on to Vienna, where they stay in more than a dozen pensions before settling into an apartment. It was probably this very experience, that prompted Garp to come up with his first story, "The pension grillparzer". Again, like Atonement, we get a glimpse of what goes on in a writer's mind. The pension Grillparzer was "inspired" mainly a seeing a four-member circus troup and his time at the different pensions.
Jenny on the other hand, despite initial hiccups finally gets the mood right for her autobiography Sexual suspect. The book is brought out by John Wolf, and is an instant success. She becomes a household name associated with feminism, and she develops a steady stream of admirers and companions following her around.
One of them is an Ellen Jamesian. Like a online networking social “Ellen Jamesians” was a cult society of sorts, whose members cut off their tongues to support eleven year old Ellen James, who was raped and then had her tongue cut off. The mildly sarcastic approach Garp (and Irving) takes to these needless display of histrionics is applicable to what happens in the real world - though admittedly, at a lower level. The "join a cause" groups in facebook and orkut are the perfect examples for that.
His mother's life keeps Garp amused and at times, frustrated, while he struggles with his first novel, procrastination. He gets it published through Wolf, but is not very satisfied with the reviews, as they had focussed more on his connection with Jenny rather than his story itself. After that, he tries unsuccessfully to find his old rhythm back. With his family of two boys, and his extra-marital affairs, Garp reaches a writer's block, and mimicking his current lisping mistress, “thtops”. Glimpses of his creativity keeps us riveted to the book though. For instance, the dog and the chain story, and the unravelling of its creation makes us wonder on what inspires any good writer.
It is the time when Garp is at his most devoted to Helen, that Helen inadvertently, ends up having an affair with one of her students, Michael Milton. Sensing he had competition (though he believes it is literary rather than physical), Garp starts working on his next story in frenzy. As is expected from a story with a dubious motive, it is poorly written, and is not liked by Helen, who is blunt to the point of being cruel in telling him so.
When Garp does find out about the affair, he is uncharacteristically angry about it. As one of the other readers noted, Garp up till then could be characterised as creative, carefree, broad-minded and even anti-social. The typical possessiveness of a man for his wife is just not expected out of Garp, who had, at one point, swapped partners with Helen's colleague. His sudden outburst at Helen to break it off could only be attributed to his love towards her, although that makes a very unconvincing reason(!).
It is fair to say that the tone of the book changes significantly at this point of time. Helen's break-up with Milton and its resulting events are, I believe one of the most beautifully narrated parts of the book.
The post-Milton-serious-Garp comes up with his next novel, “The world according to Bensenhaver”. Though Garp later admits that it was “his worst work”, he forces Wolf to publish the story.
John Wolf is believed to have a sixth sense about the success or failure of any book – partly because he was good at his job, but mainly because of his cleaning leady, Jillsy Sloper. Jillsy hated most of the books, and the ones she liked were instantly successful. She read mainly to find out what happens next. In her own words, “There surely ain’t no other reason to read a book is there?”.
There surely ain’t. In fact, I will sheepishly admit here that of all the stories Garp wrote (except the dog and the chain story), this was my favourite. Like Jillsy, I kept flipping the pages to find out what happened next, which was more than I can say about garp’s story, which had suddenly shifted to a slow-and-dull lane.
The book, as is expected, was a runaway success. Whether it can be attributed to a good story, Jillsy Sloper, Wolf’s intuition or his cheap marketing techniques – we can’t say.
Meanwhile, Jenny gets involved in new Hampshire politics, backing the candidate standing against the current governor. Her controversial support ultimately leads to her being shot to death by a man, while the candidate she supported loses the elections.
Garp hears the news through Jenny’s companion, and despite many objections, attends his mother’s “feministic funeral”. During the journey back, he meets the real Ellen James, who vehemently denies being an “Ellen Jamesian” and admits her admiration for his work. Garp decided to do what Jenny would have done and adopted her.
The extended family finally comes a full circle, and moves back to the steering, where Garp takes up the position of the wrestling coach. As he got more involved in his wrestling team, he also stopped writing, again. One of Garp’s critics puts it in perspective - “As he became more autobiographical, his writing grew narrower; also he became less comfortable about doing it. It was as if he knew that not only was the work more personally painful to him – this memory dredging- but the work was slimmer and less imaginative in every way.”
We can hand Irving one thing at least – he finished what he started. It was a neatly “completed” book, where no character was left hanging in the end. All the characters that were mentioned in the book at one point or the other were seen through till their demise.
At hindsight, maybe that’s not really the best of things. As T.S.Garp wrote, after a key turning point in his life, his “life has felt like an epilogue”. The second part of the book was just that – an epilogue of Garp’s life. From hilarious anecdotes, the second part of the book became a documentary of Garp’s life. From interesting and fun, it became a story on “the last few days of Garp’s life”.
Iforces us to wonder if the change in writing style was intentional. Was it meant to make us believe that till Jenny’s death, the story was actually, through Jenny’s eyes, and after her death, the missing details were filled in Garp’s biographer?
Verdict:
the first 300-odd pages steal the show; should be a definite read to appreciate the art of simple and witty writing.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Synopsis:
One girl's atonement for an innocent and life changing error in judgment due to an over-zealous imagination.
Category:
Words-wordy, Serious
Genre:
Drama
Language:
Simple Language, Minimal Profanity.
Favorite Quote:
Only in a story could you enter different minds and show how they had an equal value.
Review:
Atonement is my first Ian McEwan read. So I really didn't know what to expect out of it. It was much more than the first part's family drama; the second part's after effects of war, and definitely much more than a young woman's atonement for her crime for almost 64 years.
The book starts with the gathering of the Tallis family at their country house in 1935. 12-year old Briony is the youngest in the household, preceded by her elder brother Leon and sister Cecilia. She is engrossed in preparing a play for Leon's homecoming, casting her cousins Lola and twin brothers Jackson and Pierrot and thus, proves to be a perfect object for Ian McEwan to show the oddities of a writer's mind. For example, on hearing about her cousins' parents' divorce, Briony muses - "She vaguely knew that divorce was an affliction, but she did not regard it as a proper subject, and gave it no thought. It was a mundane unraveling that could not be reversed, and therefore offered no opportunities to the storyteller; it belonged in the realm of disorder." In fact, through Briony, Ian McEwan admits that "Self-exposure was inevitable the moment she described a character's weakness; the reader was bound to speculate that she was describing herself. What other authority could she have?"
Cecilia on the other hand, had recently returned from Cambridge and was busy sorting out her feelings for her childhood friend and university acquaintance, Robbie Turner. An encounter between them near the garden fountain makes them aware of the strong undercurrents running between them. While Cecilia is still too angry to think it through, Briony's singular thought, watching unobserved from her window, was the way of describing that incident in written form. "She could write the scene three times over, from three points of view", which, interestingly, is how the author has narrated the scene. Ian, (through Briony) believes that "Only in a story could you enter different minds and show how they had an equal value", thus effectively summing up the narrative style of atonement.
By the time Leon arrives in the Tallis house with his friend Paul Marshall, all the three main characters are facing internal conflicts, holding a promise of an explosive conclusion by the end of the night. We are not disappointed.
Robbie, for his part, pens down his feelings for Cecilia, but in his haste, passes on the wrong and much cruder version of the note to her through Briony. Briony, on reading it, decides that Cecilia was threatened and needs to be protected. Her overripe (and immature) imagination results in the commitment of a gross error in judgement, which has a long-lasting impact on everyone involved.
While Part one of the book, dramatic that it is, is set in the relatively calm atmosphere of the country house, the second part of the book is set in the world war II in 1940, a time when the British expeditionary force was retreating from France. Robbie had now joined the army and was leading his team towards the channel to escape to the United Kingdom. Through written and re-read letters from Cecilia, we learn that she had broken ties with her family and had become a nurse. After the eventful night, they had met three and a half years later, a day before Robbie had to report for duty. It is through one of these letters that we come to find that Briony had, surprisingly, taken up nurses' training and wanted to meet Cecilia. Cecilia is excited about the thought that Briony may want to recant and change her evidence. The possibility of that makes Cecilia very excited, and Robbie hopeful.
Walking through barren lands, with taunting corporals and looking our for air attacks, this hope is the only thing that seems to keep him determined to reach the channel. When they finally reach it, they face a sight that should have been obvious to them earlier: Thousands of soldiers spread across the beach, but no boat to take them back. The chapter ends with the soldiers waiting for the next boat to take them back to England.
Part three of the book shows the war's opposite side of the coin - The plight of the soldiers and of the doctors and nurses attending them in England. There is a subtle and noticeable change in narration to suit the situation. While the earlier chapter described the miseries of war in as crisp a manner as possible, this chapter builds on the shock and awe factor of the war. Briony is undergoing hers nurses' training under Sister Marjorie Drummond, of "menacing meagre smile and softening of manner that preceded her fury". Briony's busy rituals in the hospital and her constant run-ins with Sister are charted out in an amusing and at times, pitiable manner. Briony unsuccessfully carrying a stretcher was, for example, equally funny and horrifying. Briony then hears of the British army retreating from France, and hopes that Robbie had survived it. As fate would have it, the injured British army are sent to her hospital for treatment. McEwan makes us wince at every page and sentence with graphic descriptions of the war wounds and Briony steadily improving efforts at treating them.
We keep waiting for the moment when Briony would come face to face with an injured Robbie and nurse him back to health. As Briony herself imagines "she would dress his wounds withought knowing who he was, and with cotton-wool tenderly rub his face till his features emerged, and how he would turn to her in gratitude, realise who she was, and take her hand, and in silently squeezing it, forgive her".
After the horrors of the war patients, Briony goes on to meet Cecilia the next day . She finds Robbie there with her, and her relief in finding him safe and well is almost negated by her dread of confronting them both together for what she had come to say.
I will have to admit that while part II was interesting, even though it did nothing to the spine of story, part III was, to a large extent disappointing. The climax of the part, the confrontational scene between Briony, Cecilia and Robbie, fell short of expectations somewhere and became unrealistic. Cecilia, "murmuring" to Robbie to "come back", seemed to come straight out of a romantic novel.
It is the final part of the book which clinches it. Any complaints that we may have had in the first few parts of the book are answered and put in perspective here. To say more would spoil the impact this chapter had.
The brilliance of the narration is in getting multiple points of view across. For instance, during his idle times of retreat, Robbie wonders what could have led to Briony blaming him for a crime he did not commit. His memories take him back to an incident when Briony had innocently admitted she loved him, and he wondered if that had carried on through the years, and this was one way of avenging herself for his apparent betrayal. Later on, during Briony's narration we come to find that her love for Robbie was just a passing fad and she had forgotten about it as soon as she had confessed to him.
Another equally interesting idea was to include an editor's review for the story written till now. We can easily notice that the review comments have in fact been incorporated into the first part of the story, in a way explaining why the narrative style is the way it . For instance, the editor, through his letter, says, "Rather than dwell for quite so long on the perceptions of each of the three figures, would it not be possible to set them before us with greater economy", thus justifying the need for showing the perceptions of the three characters in more detail.
McEwan's biography helped in understanding certain characteristics of the story better. While I have read and reviewed this purely assuming that it is a drama, I understand now, that it should have been read as “drama set in World War II era”. So, instead of saying it is a woman’s atonement for 64 years, it should rather be, a woman’s atonement during world war for 64 years. The detailed descriptions of the retreat, which I found dragging at times, and the graphic descriptions of the injuries, which I found irrelevant, are what lifted the story from being characterised as “just a family drama”.
Verdict:
Needs time and patience, but should not be given a miss.
One girl's atonement for an innocent and life changing error in judgment due to an over-zealous imagination.
Category:
Words-wordy, Serious
Genre:
Drama
Language:
Simple Language, Minimal Profanity.
Favorite Quote:
Only in a story could you enter different minds and show how they had an equal value.
Review:
Atonement is my first Ian McEwan read. So I really didn't know what to expect out of it. It was much more than the first part's family drama; the second part's after effects of war, and definitely much more than a young woman's atonement for her crime for almost 64 years.
The book starts with the gathering of the Tallis family at their country house in 1935. 12-year old Briony is the youngest in the household, preceded by her elder brother Leon and sister Cecilia. She is engrossed in preparing a play for Leon's homecoming, casting her cousins Lola and twin brothers Jackson and Pierrot and thus, proves to be a perfect object for Ian McEwan to show the oddities of a writer's mind. For example, on hearing about her cousins' parents' divorce, Briony muses - "She vaguely knew that divorce was an affliction, but she did not regard it as a proper subject, and gave it no thought. It was a mundane unraveling that could not be reversed, and therefore offered no opportunities to the storyteller; it belonged in the realm of disorder." In fact, through Briony, Ian McEwan admits that "Self-exposure was inevitable the moment she described a character's weakness; the reader was bound to speculate that she was describing herself. What other authority could she have?"
Cecilia on the other hand, had recently returned from Cambridge and was busy sorting out her feelings for her childhood friend and university acquaintance, Robbie Turner. An encounter between them near the garden fountain makes them aware of the strong undercurrents running between them. While Cecilia is still too angry to think it through, Briony's singular thought, watching unobserved from her window, was the way of describing that incident in written form. "She could write the scene three times over, from three points of view", which, interestingly, is how the author has narrated the scene. Ian, (through Briony) believes that "Only in a story could you enter different minds and show how they had an equal value", thus effectively summing up the narrative style of atonement.
By the time Leon arrives in the Tallis house with his friend Paul Marshall, all the three main characters are facing internal conflicts, holding a promise of an explosive conclusion by the end of the night. We are not disappointed.
Robbie, for his part, pens down his feelings for Cecilia, but in his haste, passes on the wrong and much cruder version of the note to her through Briony. Briony, on reading it, decides that Cecilia was threatened and needs to be protected. Her overripe (and immature) imagination results in the commitment of a gross error in judgement, which has a long-lasting impact on everyone involved.
While Part one of the book, dramatic that it is, is set in the relatively calm atmosphere of the country house, the second part of the book is set in the world war II in 1940, a time when the British expeditionary force was retreating from France. Robbie had now joined the army and was leading his team towards the channel to escape to the United Kingdom. Through written and re-read letters from Cecilia, we learn that she had broken ties with her family and had become a nurse. After the eventful night, they had met three and a half years later, a day before Robbie had to report for duty. It is through one of these letters that we come to find that Briony had, surprisingly, taken up nurses' training and wanted to meet Cecilia. Cecilia is excited about the thought that Briony may want to recant and change her evidence. The possibility of that makes Cecilia very excited, and Robbie hopeful.
Walking through barren lands, with taunting corporals and looking our for air attacks, this hope is the only thing that seems to keep him determined to reach the channel. When they finally reach it, they face a sight that should have been obvious to them earlier: Thousands of soldiers spread across the beach, but no boat to take them back. The chapter ends with the soldiers waiting for the next boat to take them back to England.
Part three of the book shows the war's opposite side of the coin - The plight of the soldiers and of the doctors and nurses attending them in England. There is a subtle and noticeable change in narration to suit the situation. While the earlier chapter described the miseries of war in as crisp a manner as possible, this chapter builds on the shock and awe factor of the war. Briony is undergoing hers nurses' training under Sister Marjorie Drummond, of "menacing meagre smile and softening of manner that preceded her fury". Briony's busy rituals in the hospital and her constant run-ins with Sister are charted out in an amusing and at times, pitiable manner. Briony unsuccessfully carrying a stretcher was, for example, equally funny and horrifying. Briony then hears of the British army retreating from France, and hopes that Robbie had survived it. As fate would have it, the injured British army are sent to her hospital for treatment. McEwan makes us wince at every page and sentence with graphic descriptions of the war wounds and Briony steadily improving efforts at treating them.
We keep waiting for the moment when Briony would come face to face with an injured Robbie and nurse him back to health. As Briony herself imagines "she would dress his wounds withought knowing who he was, and with cotton-wool tenderly rub his face till his features emerged, and how he would turn to her in gratitude, realise who she was, and take her hand, and in silently squeezing it, forgive her".
After the horrors of the war patients, Briony goes on to meet Cecilia the next day . She finds Robbie there with her, and her relief in finding him safe and well is almost negated by her dread of confronting them both together for what she had come to say.
I will have to admit that while part II was interesting, even though it did nothing to the spine of story, part III was, to a large extent disappointing. The climax of the part, the confrontational scene between Briony, Cecilia and Robbie, fell short of expectations somewhere and became unrealistic. Cecilia, "murmuring" to Robbie to "come back", seemed to come straight out of a romantic novel.
It is the final part of the book which clinches it. Any complaints that we may have had in the first few parts of the book are answered and put in perspective here. To say more would spoil the impact this chapter had.
The brilliance of the narration is in getting multiple points of view across. For instance, during his idle times of retreat, Robbie wonders what could have led to Briony blaming him for a crime he did not commit. His memories take him back to an incident when Briony had innocently admitted she loved him, and he wondered if that had carried on through the years, and this was one way of avenging herself for his apparent betrayal. Later on, during Briony's narration we come to find that her love for Robbie was just a passing fad and she had forgotten about it as soon as she had confessed to him.
Another equally interesting idea was to include an editor's review for the story written till now. We can easily notice that the review comments have in fact been incorporated into the first part of the story, in a way explaining why the narrative style is the way it . For instance, the editor, through his letter, says, "Rather than dwell for quite so long on the perceptions of each of the three figures, would it not be possible to set them before us with greater economy", thus justifying the need for showing the perceptions of the three characters in more detail.
McEwan's biography helped in understanding certain characteristics of the story better. While I have read and reviewed this purely assuming that it is a drama, I understand now, that it should have been read as “drama set in World War II era”. So, instead of saying it is a woman’s atonement for 64 years, it should rather be, a woman’s atonement during world war for 64 years. The detailed descriptions of the retreat, which I found dragging at times, and the graphic descriptions of the injuries, which I found irrelevant, are what lifted the story from being characterised as “just a family drama”.
Verdict:
Needs time and patience, but should not be given a miss.
F1 for this blog!
"I can read better than anyone who can read faster, and I can read faster than anyone who can read better."
For the sake of clarity(mine) and for lesser degree of subjectivity, I thought of some Key Performance Indicators for judging a book. Here goes:
1. Synopsis: A one or two line description of the book's contents
2. Category:
Style of writing:
For the sake of clarity(mine) and for lesser degree of subjectivity, I thought of some Key Performance Indicators for judging a book. Here goes:
1. Synopsis: A one or two line description of the book's contents
2. Category:
Style of writing:
- Wiki-wordy - Usage of convoluted and unnecessarily complicated words
- Words-wordy - Usage of too many words
- Simple-wordy - A simple NCERT kind of a write-up - just enough to convey the message
Story line:
- Nail-Biting
- Witty
- Serious
- Funny
- Non-Fiction
- Children
- Fantasy
- Horror
- Sci-Fi
- Thriller/Page-turner
- Poetry
- Biography
- Autobiography
- Romance
- Drama
- Fiction ( any book which doesn't fit in the above category)
4. Language: More of a profanity alert.
5. Favorite Quote: Any interesting quote(s) in the book
6. Review: The section with the detailed review of the book.
7. Verdict: The final recommendation
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Fantasy Fiction
How can J.K. Rowling, Christopher Paolini, Robert Jordan and Tolkien create such wonderful, new worlds?! Inventing new characters, new powers, more senses than five or six, new places, new games, new rules, new government, new species and what not?!
But there is a catch here. There is a necessity to read all the series written by these four brilliant writers one at a time. You mix them up, you better start reading again. I found that out at a very time-consuming cost.
I started with the Harry Potter series, and am more than glad that it’s over. That helped me enjoy it to the fullest and live the different world effectively for many years.
Then I made the biggest mistake of my book-worm life. I took the following treacherous path:
- Eye of the World - Wheel Of Time (WoT) Series
- Eragon - Inheritence Series (IS)
- Eldest - IS
- The Fellowship of the ring - Lord Of the Rings (LOTR)
- Brisingr (started) - IS
- Googled for IS, read the wiki entry to refresh my meory.
- Brisingr (completed) - IS
- The Great Hunt (Started) - WoT
- Googled for LOTR, to find where I am going wrong in understanding
- Googled for WoT to discover that I had completely forgotten the plot, and mixed it up with Inheritence series
- Googled for IS, to find out what is WoT, IS and LOTR.
- Make a Venn Diagram for future reference.. ggrrrrr!
Warning:
Kindly don't repeat the mistake that I did. If you have done it already, here is a little something for reference.
However, this does not guarantee a confusion-free reading, as the three series are deeply inter-connected. You may have to re-read everything again. What with WoT spanning 11 books, and still going strong, you don't want to take THAT risk!
Disclaimer:
I am a consultant and a follower of KrishAshok - hence propagating the usage of charts and graphs.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Noise levels - in a book?
Books are like colofully lit magical boxes with beautiful or interesting thoughts floating inside them. Any book is meant to be lovingly held, cherished and opened, so that the one reading the book can bask in these lights and floating thoughts.
The above corny lines are mine, and I believe in them everytime I open a new book. That is why when a book disappoints me, it feels like I have been slapped hard by each floating thought, and blinded by excessive lighting.The slapping and blinding happens when there is too much of noise in a book. Noise, in this case, is commonly termed as 'wordy'.
Theoretically, ( my theory that is), there can be two types of 'wordy' books:
- Words-wordy:This is when simplicity simmers and whimpers everytime she is ignored. For example,the previous sentence is wordy. I could have said that ignoring simplicity is undesirable. Even if that sounds unappetizing, its simple. With patience and the right frame of mind, words-wordy books can be read and enjoyed. ( We all like Rushdie don't we?)
- Wiki-Wordy:This results in a book full of irrelevant knowledge and facts, a classic symptom of a megalomaniac writer. I don't know what it takes to tolerate a wikipedia-type-wordy book.
Let me know tell you a story:
Once there lived an Indian Woman in a foreign land. She thought and made herself believe that she could write well. She took all the necessary courses and decided to make her debut with a collection of short stories. But she wanted to show how MUCH she knew, how rich her (cross) cultural knowledge is. So she ended up writing stories that could have been summed up in one line, but dragged on for 30-odd pages.
That is how, I ended up reading the story of a woman's survival after divorce. The author decided to take the seldom-used path, and covered the whole plathora of topics ranging from the protaganist's village, her husband's family, his work(which, for all of 5 pages, still remained a mystery), to the typical east-west divide, our cultural values, abortions, divorce and finally, her making out with another woman.
Most of the poets and writers are full of themselves and want to be in the spotlight in every forum and have maximum hits to their name in google. For example, when they are introduced to a person X with a "You know, X has written many short stories and has got herself published in so-and-so", these people go with, "Oh its a pleasure to meet you. You write stories? I understand, I myself have written more than you can even count, got more of my works published than you any-day, and can beat ou up in any contest, should it ever happen".
Beware of these specimen. They argue for the sake of arguing, do a lot of google to make their write-ups seem intelligent, and write stories, which can be easily renamed as "what's on wikipedia" or "Did you know? I do".
PS: I could have made this post shorter, but this post is a tribute to all the editors, who are scared to let the writers know that half of the book is a truckload of .. undigestable stuff. grrrr.
