059. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. (2007),

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (2007).

This is a truly unique book. The rise and fall of Changez, a brilliant Pakistani who lives trough turbulent time (9/11) in America as an elite businessman, a sophisticated (and somewhat twisted) lover and possibly a most logical patriot (of Pakistan, off course), is told by Changez himself to a stranger whom he just met in a café in Lahore, Pakistan.

It’s no wonder that this book won tons of awards. It totally deserves them and in fact, I think we should make this a mandatory reading for all college kids. This book is that unique.

And, no. This book has nothing to do with terrorists. There is suspense and bitterness but author achieves this with dialogue not with violence or action. Just a brilliant work.

Players. –

Changez. A smart and idealistic Pakistani man who went to Princeton to study and after insanely pressure-mounted interview, got a job as an analyst in prestigious Underwood Samson & Company.

Just to make it perfect, almost same time, he meets a gorgeous, mysterious and filthy rich girl Erica who is resonated with bright light which pulls everyone around her to her like a center of the black hole.

Then off course, things happen and everything goes into spinal downward (chaos!!) and he is forced to dig deep into his identity and find out who he truly is which off course is the central theme of this book: why do we do what we do and how to explain it logically to the third party who has no intention of listening even if just sparing 30 mins for a simple dialogue will resolve a lot of differences without killing each other.

Erica. A gorgeous girl. Changez falls in love with her with the first sight.

She turns out to be exactly opposite of what she projects to the outside world and that is the game changer for Changez’s life for better or worse

Although I’m not 100 % sure, she might represent USA itself. Powerful, rich, passionate and smart but also, dark, depressed and stuck to the past glory. Like I said, I’m not sure.

Jim. The top guy in Underwood Samson. Amazingly smart guy who sees a younger version of himself in Changez’s bright eyes and helps him becomes a top analyst in the company which is no easy feat.

He stays supportive of him until the very end. A father figure.

That’s about it. Other characters include Changez’s family, Erica’s family and co-workers of the company.

Also, there is an American who just sits and listens to Changez at . I know that sounds weird but if you start reading you’ll understand what I mean.

P

lace. –1911. A small town of old Texas, Alabama where Smonk terrorizes everything on his site. After the town, it is vast horizon of sand, heat, wild dogs and vicious criminals. Just a perfect setting for this savage western.

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lot. –As you all know by now, the story is created by its main characters. And since there are not even one NOT-INSANE PERSONS in this book, the story naturally is totally crazy. However, the insanity here is created by design and intention and brilliant but twisted mind of another brilliant writer (that nobody knows, which I think should be considered as a crime), the story itself is actually quite captivating and well-structured and totally, madly entertaining.

Everyone shoots, kills, fucks and beats each other up as they pleased just to survive the day.

The story is jumping around four main characters (for whom I mentioned above), but the fundamental storyline is, naturally, based on Smonk. Another word, everything starts and ends with Smonk. At the beginning, Smonk is on trial for all his crimes against the state of old Texas or town or something like that. People in the village however, ignoring all the legends and horror stories about Smonk and how invincible he is, decide to take matters on their own hand and plan the big ambush. Smonk off course avoids the jail term or ambush or even a trial by blowing away everyone in the vicinity of the building with one big mother of all machine gun.

Every single men in village is literally torn in pieces except two men: Mckissick the bailiff and Portis Gates, the blacksmith (Well, actually three but it’ll become two in a hurry). With order from Mrs. Tate, a woman who owns the town, they go after Smonk. And maybe something else.

Meanwhile, on the other side of old west, a young but street smart hooker Evangeline is chased by innocent but really twisted, right-wing fanatic, Christian Deputy Walton who has crazy sexual desire toward Evangeline.

Eventually, their path intervenes and reveals all the sick secrets behind the sunny town of Texas, Alabama.(the secret itself is so fantastically bizarre, I have to read it carefully twice to get the entire picture

The writer uses the style of writing which I first encounter with “No Country For Old Man”: there is no distinction between narration and dialogue and since all of them speak with very thick old Southern accent, it takes me some time to get uses to the book. However, this style of writing is perfect for this book because it adds raw energy and harsh realism to already brutal atmosphere.

As for a story, I’ll bet that you will not find any story more insane/disturbed than this any time soon. Or never. The setting is absolutely crazy and the deeper we get into the story, the crazier it gets.

At the end of the story, there is not one innocent soul standing in old west and then there’s a strong indication that another massacre is in order for the next generation.

V

erdict. – This book is like a watching Tarantino Western directed by a psychopath: full of cool dialogues with dirty and quite often, disgusting and meaningless actions.

It’s not everyday you find a book where all the characters are filthy-sick murderers yet so incredibly COOL at the same time. So if you don’t mind a bit of violence (actually, it’s a lot more than “a bit”), please read this book. This gross and violent action thriller (with touch of black humor and tons of outrageous characters) will entertain you until the very last paragraph

058. Kill the Dead (2010).

057. The Scroll of The Dead (2009).

The Scroll of The Dead by David Stuart Davies (2009).

As the title mentioned, this is another good story of master sleuth from Titan Books’ The Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes series.

Not overly exciting or creative, but for a Sherlock fan like me, this book is more than good enough for a couple of days reading.

P

layers. – Sherlock Holmes. The God. He is exactly as he is supposed to be. The writer wisely NOT add any new characteristic to the master like married with children or new lover, etc.

Dr. Watson.  Same good old loyal Dr, Watson whom we have known for decades.

It is impossible not to love him. I’ve always wanted him for my family doctor ever since my first Sherlock Adventure.
  
Inspector Hardcastle.  Almost identical to our beloved Inspector Lestrade for his vigor and determination. Less imagination, off course. 

Sebastian Melmoth.  A villain. A big, elegant, intelligent menace who is dying to get the secret of immortality. A mad man.

Felshaw.  Melmoth’s side kick. Big, mean, brutal, elegant man who kills without remorse. Exact opposite of Dr. Watson.

Sir Charles. An expert of Egyptian history. 

Catriona Andrew. Sir. Charles’s smart and forceful daughter.

P

lace. – It starts from, where else?, 221B Baker St. London. Then British Museum. And a small island called Grebe Isle which is a few hours train ride from London where also all the main actions take place. And then back to London. 221B Baker St. for the final confrontation. So very Conan Doyle-ish.

P

lot. – It’s very straight forward story. Something precious is stolen from famous British Museum with little or no trace left.

 What’s worse for Scotland Yard is what little evidences they collect are either too simple or too confusing to make sense at all.

With request of Yard, Sherlock Holmes join the game! And naturally, mystery intensifies, bullets starts flying and corpses turn up frequently, all the fun stuffs happen with rapid succession until the final showdown. And one more final small climax after that.

This is a very typical Sherlock Holmes Adventure written by a writer who obviously is very familiar with Conan Dolye’s writing style. 

The center of the mystery is an ancient papyrus called “The Scroll of The Dead” written by Egyptian high priest Setaph which is believed to contain the spell of immortality. Hence it attracts all sort of intelligent but obsessive people and as you can guess by now, most of them are mad!! Or more precisely, the promise of eternity drives them mad. 

So off course it’s up to our hero duo to save the day and ...well, you know what happen if you go up against Holmes and Watson. In fact, every living soul in London, or possibly Europe, knows what will happen to them if they start fighting against Holmes except off course all the stupid villains who think they are better than the master. How stupid.

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erdict. Quite a good adaptation of Sherlock Holmes Adventure.

There is nothing awkward or out of place in this Sherlock Holmes Adventure. Everything including dialogue and atmosphere is in its right place. But since this one is involved with Egyptian papyrus and mysterious toms and also we live in an age of speed and action, this book puts more emphasis on Adventure than Mystery.

Therefore, in order to reach the conclusion, our heroes have to go through Indiana Jones kind of action to get to bottom of it, which is surprisingly fun.

The only down side is the ultimate villain Melmoth who enters with grand promise of being evil-er than Moriarty evilness just isn’t living up to its promises. At the end, instead of taking entire London as a hostage for 1 billion pounds or bring back army of Zombies with "Scroll of the Dead", he goes down like an idiot. Sight.

Other than that, this book is a fun adaptation of Sherlock Holmes Adventure and good enough for your collection, I think.

Now, if you look at the rest of the catalogue from this Sherlock Holmes Adventure from Titan Books, it will blow your mind away!!

In this series, Sherlock and Watson are up against, get this! aliens, villains more vicious than Moriarty(again), American bad guys and much more.

There are also a story about their first contact with each other which should be an interesting setup if told by right writer.

Also, cameos including Houdini, Roosevelt and young Professor Moriarty.

I can't wait to get my hands on these.