Fight Club

Writer: Chuck Palahniuk
Genre: Fiction

Probably for the first time picked up a book after watching the movie. So impressive were the conversations in the movie that I knew the book had to be better. Turned out, I wasn’t wrong!

The main protagonist of the book is an insomniac who is trying to get sleep by visiting various support groups for they help him vent his feelings and give him a nice sleep. However this solution to his insomnia goes for a toss when he meets Marla, another fake visitor to the support groups.
On one of his business trips he had met Tyler Durden and when his apartment is destroyed in an explosion he moves in with Tyler. Thus starts his association with Tyler, who, unlike him, is a carefree, no-strings-attached kind of human. Together they start Fight Club, a place where men just gather to fight. Fight Club proves to extremely popular and soon there are branches in every city. Meanwhile, Tyler becomes involved with Marla and this is not liked by our protagonist who feels she is taking Tyler away from him. However he keeps the thoughts to himself.

Tyler starts activities that disrupts society functioning and his Fight Club followers execute dangerous missions under his leadership. The protagonist wants to question him but Tyler disappears and his efforts to trace him lead him to a situation so dangerous that it threatens his existence.

The synopsis may sound vague but trust me it is not possible to explain the book without giving away its major plot. It’s definitely an amazing book with some top notch lines, a few of which I jot down here.


"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."


"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."


"The things you own end up owning you."


"If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?"

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."


"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." [This is my personal favourite]
 

Citadel

Writer: A. J. Cronin
Genre: Fiction/ Classic

Some beautiful old memories prompted me to buy this book.

Andrew Manson, a newly qualified doctor arrives to work under Dr. Page as an assistant. The town of Drineffy is primarily a coal mining community and Manson tries his best to fit into the community and keep his ideals intact at the same time. After some initial hiccups he soon befriends almost the entire town. He also meets Christine and they soon get married and move to a nearby town. Meanwhile Manson is also engrossed in a silicosis research which fetches him laurels and he moves to London with a post on the 'Mines fatigue Board'.

The move to London is uneventful and Manson begins his private practice. However the lure of money catches up with him and he gives up on his ideals and strays away from Christine too. When the bubble bursts he must make amends but not without paying a hefty price.

It’s a story retold so many times that it has probably lost it's sheen but reading the classic is still worth every penny!

The Emperor of All Maladies

Writer: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Genre: Non Fiction

No words to describe this marathon of a book! I took almost 2 months to finish it albeit the time frame is owing to my personal laziness :) But seriously it’s amazing to read an oncologist first hand.

The book is an epic about one of the most dreaded diseases - cancer. The first instances of cancer, the radical surgery procedures, the research that goes into identifying the causes, the palliative medicine, etc. almost everything related to the disease is covered in the book. It could well be reference guide for the medical fraternity (or so I think).

One wonders with so much statistics and information what is it that makes the book interesting. It’s the path that cancer cure has taken! From radical surgeries to regimens to palliative medicine....it explores the world of oncology like no one else. And this is precisely where it scores. Many of my friends kept the book down mid-way but for me every time I picked it up, it seemed to tell me something new that invoked a surprise. For example, that there was an advertisement which read - 'More doctors smoke Camel'  in the 1960s  advocating safe use of cigarettes took me by surprise .The last tobacco ad was aired only on Jan 1, 1971 which made me realize that this dreaded disease was not even linked to the biggest carcinogen till 1960's. Things like these were a sure page turner.

The book is huge and there is a fifty-fifty chance that normal readers would like it but if you want to try something unusual it’s worth a try!    

The Litigators

Writer: John Grisham
Genre: Fiction


Finley & Figg is an old firm that earns its revenues in petty accidents and divorce cases. The partners, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg , along with their secretary-cum-receptionist-cum-administrator, Rochelle make up the firm. David Zinc, an associate with a big law firm gets suddenly tired of his boring and monotonous career and decides to switch. However he ends up with Finley and Fig which is not exactly a great career move.

Together they try to increase their revenues until Wally hooks up some clients for a mass tort appeal. Wally is convinced that Krayoxx, a cholesterol lowering drug from the Varrick labs is the cause for heart attacks in many people and joins the bandwagon of lawyers who decide to sue Varrick labs. Reluctantly,  Oscar and David are pulled in too. However, in court all hell breaks loose as it is identified that the drug is actually safe and the partners with absolutely no courtroom experience are to argue the case themselves. All the other big firms in the case have mysteriously disappeared.

Oscar gets a medical condition and Wally turns to the bottle as Davis is left to fend for himself in the Varrick case. He does a decent job and draws his share of blood on one of Varrick's top notch executives. However as expected, they lose the case.

Another case on which David had silently been working, gains momentum as he realizes that he has another corporation under his scanner. But this time, he has all the facts and figures correct and this makes him win the case in an out-of court settlement. The book ends with Finley and Fig moving out of legal practice and David starting his own independent and satisfying career.

No high points in the book. Seems to be just another routine writing from one of my favourites! Skip the book.

The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati

Writer: Michel Danino
Genre: Non Fiction

The Triveni Sangam in Allahabad is a confluence of 3 rivers - Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati. Can someone please look at the map and identify those 3 rivers. Well, of these three rivers, Saraswati is invisible and is said to flow underground and join the other two rivers from below. Typical mythological references one would say! Is it so really? Why does it always take a non- Indian to dish out some amazing facts of our country?

A great book that dissects the history of the so called 'invisible' Saraswati river. A book with a lot of cross references and insight into various civilizations that flourished in the Indian sub continent! Towards the end one actually understands what lends the invisibility aura to this mystical river who seems to have passed most of her characteristics to the Ganges.

A great book for my collection!

One of the best reviews that propelled me to read this book can be found here.

The secret of the Nagas

Writer: Amish Tripathi
Genre: Fiction

The first book saw Shiva defeating the evil Chandrawanshis. And when that was done he realized that Suryawanshis and Chandrawanshis are just two different people or rather two different ways of lives. So who is the evil?

This book talks about Shiva deciding to vanquish the Nagas because they are evil. Evil, because they are deformed humans who are bearing the sins of their past life! But there is more to this vengeance - it was a Naga who killed his dear friend, Brahaspati. Just when Shiva is sure about evil - the Nagas, there is a change of plan by the almighty for his love, and now his wife, Sati is related to a Naga. And related in what way!

Shiva along with his trusted lieutenants decide to enter the forbidden Naga kingdom. And more surprises await him en route. As there seem to be no distinction between friends and foes, Shiva questions himself about what's good and what's exactly evil?

The second book of the trilogy is a fast read and the last lines of "to be continued" almost kills the curious reader. Well! no choice but to wait for the third and final part of the trilogy.

Immortals of Meluha

Writer: Amish Tripathi
Genre: Fiction

Shiva, the chieftain of the Guna tribe has an offer from the Meluhans to leave his native land and migrate to Meluha - a near perfect place. Tired of the constant wars Shiva and his tribe migrate to Meluha, the land of Suryanwanshis who are the descendants of Lord Ram.

The Meluhan kingdom is a near perfect place and on their first night stay at Sringar his tribe is affected by some kind of viral fever.Ayurvati, the doctor treats them with Somras and the treatment results in Shiva's neck turning into a blue color. The effect is dramatic and the Meluhan's declare him as the saviour they were all waiting for - the Neelkanth. Shiva travels to the capital to meet king Daksha who pleads with him to save the Meluhans. The Saraswati, which is the major ingredient for their Somras is drying up. The Meluhans know that their arch rivals, Chandrawanshi's are behind the river's fate. The Chandravanshi's have also taken the Nagas help to perpetuate terrorist attacks in the kingdom of Meluha.

Shiva ends up acknowledging being the Meluhan's saviour when he realizes that for marrying his love, Sati, he has to abolish certain laws which he can do only when revered as the Neelkanth. And so Shiva becomes the Neelkanth! When his friend, Brahaspati, is killed in a terrorist attack, Shiva decides to wage a war on the Chandrawanshis to avenge his friend’s death. The Meluhan's fight a fierce war and overpower the Chandrawanshis. When the Chandrawanshi king sees Shiva, he tells him that the Chandrawanshis have the same fable of a Neelkanth saving them. The dumbfounded Shiva is lost! He visits the old temple in the kingdom for answers and just then Sati is attacked by a Naga.

So ends the first book of the Trilogy.

Probably a first attempt by an Indian writer to humanize the gods albeit in a non-controversial way! It's a one-time read and my favorite part in the book is when the protagonist searches for answers about good and evil. More than the story I think I liked the attempt of putting the Indian scriptures and mythology in a story that's contemporary and a little less revered.