Four past midnight - Stephen King

I have always been fascinated by the horror and macabre genre in literature and have recently started reading the works of Stephen King, an acclaimed master of this genre. One of the best features of Kings writings are that he manages to inspire a feeling of foreboding and fear by employing psychological tactics without resorting to the usual blood and gore fest that many writers fall prey to. 'Four Past Midnight' is a collection of four novellas each dealing with different aspects of the macabre (each for one hour past midnight). Since this is a collection of four novellas, I am obliged to review them separately

1. The Langoliers - My personal favorite of this collection, 'The Langoliers' is a stunning tale that offers a refreshing and innovative twist to the concept of time travel. A motley group of ten passengers including an off duty airlines pilot, a mystery writer, a paranoid investment banker and a blind young girl with psychic powers (quite the mix) take off on a red-eye flight. When the plane passes through a time-rip, these ten people wake up from their sleep to realize that they are the only people on board and the rest of the passengers and crew have simply vanished. Any more details after this will give away the story but I can just say that this novella offers a completely new perspective on time travel and is truly unputdownable. The ending of this particular novella is also extremely novel and will have you guessing. To the credit of the author, the ten passengers are well etched out characters which is often difficult to realize within the length of a novella. If you just read one story from this collection, this has to be it.

2. Secret Window, Secret Garden - This tale modeled as a psychological thriller narrates the story of a well known author who is suddenly confronted by a man who claims that one of the authors best selling works has been plagiarized from one of his works. The tussle between the author and this person and the various lengths the both of them go to prove their point forms the basis of the story. There is also a twist in the tale at the end which can either be a stunning revelation or a damp squib (depending on your familiarity with different works of this genre). All in all, this could have been a better read had it been a little shorter as the story rambles a lot in the middle without actually moving forward. Nevertheless, it is worth a shot if you have the patience to go through it.

3. The Library Policeman - One of the two true blue horror stories in this collection, 'The Library Policeman' explores the story of Sam Peebles who is terrified of going to the library due to a traumatic childhood incident associated with the place. However, he is forced to confront his demons when he is forced to revisit the library and issue a book from an enigmatic librarian. The loss of this book and the terrifying turn of events that it leads to forms the basis of the story. As mentioned before, this is a true blue horror story and to the credit of the author, he succeeds in creating a haunting and mysterious aura in the introductory pages and then moves on to a more of a crime-thriller format. The only reason this story didn't work for me fully is that towards the end, the story looses its subtlety and takes on a more verbose and in your face approach. Although the intent for this might have been to increase the shock value, it made me a little disappointed with the story. Nevertheless, still worthy of a read.

4. The Sun Dog- Another horror story and the most disappointing one in this collection for me, "The Sun Dog" tells the story of Kevin Delavan, a teenager who gets a Polaroid camera for his birthday. However, every photo he takes with this camera always shows a dog standing in front of a fence with the position of the dog changing with every shot. The rest of the story deals with how Kevin solves the mystery of this camera and confronts the horror that the camera wants to unleash. Although the premise of the story is interesting, it fails to sustain the momentum and ends in a rather haphazard manner without giving us any real insight to the mystery behind the sun dog. Not recommended very strongly.

So, in order of preference - The Langoliers, The Library Policeman & Secret Window, Secret Garden (Tied), The Sun Dog

Brunelleschi's Dome - Ross King

I recently had the good fortune to visit Florence - the seat of the Italian renaissance. One of the key attractions of Florence and the focal point of this beautiful city is the splendid Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore or simply known as the 'Duomo'. This stunning piece of architecture is admired for its exquisite neo gothic facade and the masterful use of white, red and green marble to create a stunning texture rarely seen in a basilica. The crowning glory of this edifice is however is the dome of the basilica. This dome is the worlds largest free standing masonry dome and still stands proud dominating the panorama of Florence.

While visiting Florence and seeing the dome literally from every corner of the city, it made me wonder of the ingenuity of the people who conceived and executed this gargantuan task without the support of any modern or sophisticated machinery whatsoever. The fact that the key architect Brunelleschi was a goldsmith and had no formal training in architecture whatsoever intrigued me even more. After returning from Florence, I was looking for a good book to answer these questions and I ran across this particular book while browsing through the library catalog. I had expected a dry treatise on engineering and the different techniques employed in the construction of the dome but I was pleasantly surprised. The book does not take a dry architectural textbook approach to the subject but instead leads us gradually through the entire process with Brunelleschi himself as our guide. Beginning from his beginnings as a goldsmith, his lifelong competition with Ghiberti (another artist who made the stunning bronze baptistery doors in Florence), his ingenious and revolutionary engineering techniques that were unheard of at that time we witness the different events that shape the dome (and history as well) and rejoice with him when the dome is completed. Although there are a lot of architectural and engineering terms scattered throughout the book, these are so skilfully woven into the plot and so lucidly explained that even a layman would enjoy this volume.

So do I have any complaints with this book ? Well, the fact that this book is so enjoyable is somewhat marred by the fact that the length of the book is quite short. I had a feeling that there are several more interesting anecdotes involved in the construction of the dome which were left out of the book for reasons unknown. Anyways, that does not take anything away from the book and its author who has managed to transform a story that could have been an architecture lecture to a veritable page turner.

Under the Tuscan Sun - Frances Mayes

A latest trend observed in travel writing is the genre of "villa renovation and restoration" tales. The premise is simple - the author decides to purchase a large and rambling villa (preferably in an exotic location) and then proceeds to renovate and restore it to its original glory together with a commentary on the local populace and the culture. One of the earliest books to explore this idea, "Under the Tuscan Sun" is the story of the struggle of an American family who buy a villa in the picturesque Tuscan countryside and proceed to renovate it to make it a permanent home. The prose is delightfully cheery and upbeat and to the credit of the author, she succeeds in making the dreary job of renovating a house sound like a cheerful year long party. Also, the added descriptions of the Tuscan countryside, the descriptions of Italian customs and traditions and the endless number of excursions, picnics and parties makes for good escapist reading.

However, the very same reasons make this book worthwhile only for a one-time read and prevents it from acquiring the status of a classic. The author fails to inject any humanity into the myriad characters present in this book and none of them stay with you once you've put down the book. This book had the potential to become a classic like 'My Family and other Animals' as the theme of renovating a villa has been explored in the latter as well, but sadly the book fails to reach perfection in terms of character exploration. Still, this is still worth a one-time read especially if you are tired of the drudgeries of city life and want a momentary escape to a quaint and idyllic place.

Perfume : the story of a murderer - Patrick Süskind

Based on an extremely unusual and haunting premise, Perfume narrates the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - an man born in one of the smelliest markets in 18th century Paris. However, there is a rather macabre twist to this seemingly ordinary phenomenon. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille does not possess any sort of personal odor whatsoever but has an almost superhuman sense of smell enabling him to explore the world of scents like an open book. The author skillfully guides us through his life, his introduction to the world of scents and his obsession to create the ultimate perfect scent that can manipulate the very fabric of human emotion and which will set him apart from all the perfumers in the world. However, as is soon observed, the perfect scent is not to be achieved via the conventional sources of perfume and requires going that extra length ( I guess you can justify the full title of the book now).The obsession and struggle of a man to achieve his life's desire and the complex relationship between scents and human emotions forms the basis of this book.

I do not wish to divulge any further details lest it spoil the reading experience but I would like to complement the author as of the five senses, the sense of smell is most difficult to translate onto prose but to a large extent, you can almost feel the different scents described in the book. Although a tad repetitive and abstract at times, the book is an enjoyable read and it will change the way you perceive scents forever.

Lust for Life - Irving Stone

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most well known artists today in the Post-Impressionistic field of painting. However, he was not given his due recognition during his lifetime and had an extremely disturbing and sometimes violent life. Irving Stone attempts to reconstruct the life and times of this talented artist and uncover the man behind the artistic masterpieces like 'Starry Nights' and 'The Potato Eaters'. Written on similar lines as Stone's other works, this fictionalized biography is based on Van Gogh's letters written to his brother Theo (who was one of his major support systems) and chronicles his life - from his beginnings as an assistant to an art dealer, his subsequent transition towards religion and becoming a missionary in a mining town, his inspirations that propelled him towards a new form of expression through a radical new form of painting, the interactions with equally famous contemporaries like Cezzane and Monet, his attempts to create a place for himself in the then rigidly conservative art world and his final self destructive years when he veered towards insanity. Also, similar to the 'The Agony and the Ecstasy', the most engrossing parts of the book are the ones describing the creation of his most famous works and we get a clear picture of the process of the transference of the inherent emotions and feelings of an artist from his mind to his canvas.

It must be clear at this point that this book is definitely not a fun read. Given the bleak and dark nature of Van Goghs life, this reconstruction of his life is also an extremely dark and sometimes severely depressing read. However, I would still encourage people interested in European art to give this one a shot for it paints a rather engrossing picture of Van Gogh's life and is a tribute to one of the most influential persons in the art world who sadly never lived to see the fame he enjoys now.

A fortune-teller told me : earthbound travels in the Far East - Tiziano Terzani

What happens when a hard hitting journalist (who is often in the line of fire) is told by a fortune teller to not fly for the next one year or he'll die ? Well, this is what was foretold to the author of this particularly interesting travelogue. Any normal and cynical person would have dismissed this as pure balderdash. However, the author in the true Asian sense decided to tackle this prophecy by submitting to it and follow it religiously (pun intended). What follows is an account of one years travel experiences in south east Asia using all possible forms of land transportation and no air travel whatsoever (much to the consternation and surprise of some of the involved people).

Again, this is not your regular travelogue. Similar to the writings of William Dalrymple, the travel writing is often interspersed with the current socio- economic conditions and an exploration into the mindsets of the locals. However, the USP of this book is that since the basis is entirely based on a fortune tellers prediction, the author decides to have his fortune examined by the most famous fortune tellers of every place he visits. The experiences with the different fortune tellers and how the nature and the pattern of the predictions change according to the place and the ethnicity is extensively described and certainly makes an interesting read. I would recommend this one to all readers who like travel writing and are looking beyond guidebooks. Although this one is not so well executed as the works of William Dalrymple , the premise is quite interesting and certainly unique.

My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell

One of those rare books which one never gets tired of reading again and again, this is a semi-fictionalised account by the famed naturalist Gerald Durrell of his childhood years in the island of Corfu (Greece). Gerald Durrell had a passion about animals (of all species, shapes, sizes and varying degrees of danger) since the age of six and this passion was inflamed when his family moved to the quaint Greek island of Corfu following his fathers death. The premise might not sound very appealing to many people at this point but is extremely difficult to explain the charms of this book in a short blog post.

This book could have easily fallen into one of those nature journal categories where the description of each animal and the behavioural observations are discussed which cannot interest people having no idea about biology. But then again, the 'family' comes to the rescue here. Gerald Durrells family is an assorted motley of characters comprising of Larry (Lawrence Durrell, the famous author) the aspiring author and the brains of the family whose highbrow friends are a constant source of consternation and irritation for the family, Leslie (the second eldest brother) who is passionate about hunting and guns, Margo the perennial fashion and diet obsessed girl whose conversations start and end with diets and fashions and finally his mother who struggles to maintain sanity in these motley collection of people (and animals). The presence of a further assortment of supporting characters (each unique in their own right) simply adds to the flavor of this wonderful concoction. To the credit of the writer, none of these characters are caricatures and are infused with humanity to make them real, living people. Although there is a fair chance that the animals might get lost in this crowd of people, the accounts of animals and their behaviors are skillfully interwoven in the narrative. Although it is impossible to describe this book in a short review, I would strongly encourage every one to read this (somewhat underrated) book as it one of those rare books that ensure you have a smile on your face throughout the experience.