Litigators by John Grisham

After long time, I read John Grisham. The other two novels I have read are 'The Firm' and 'The Client'.

The story is about 2 mid aged lawyers, not doing well, and the third one, who is doing well, leaving everything and coming to join them, without any plan. And the story involves one of the biggest pharma companies in the world.

The novel is as racy as 'The Firm' and gives lot of insight into mindset & lifestyle of lawyers and anatomy of mass litigation.

I recommend this legal thriller, to everyone who wants to remain on edge till the end of the reading.

Sons of Fortune by Jeffery Arcxher

Hi Friends

I read this book by Jeffery Archer recently.

Throughout the book, I got the feeling of Deja Vu, reminding the story style of ‘Kane & Abel’, ‘First Among Equals’, ‘Only Time Will Tell’.......

I think, Jeffery has written the blocks of instances in his notebook, which when required will be injected in new book, with minor tweaking of names and locations. And I am sure, had he been an MBA, he would have used Microsoft Excel for the same J

Coming to the main story, as always, the master story teller keeps you on edge of the seat. But, the climax couldn’t keep the pace with the built up crescendo. In fact, the most awaited moment of the two main characters meeting with the facts revealed, is treated in very shabby manner.

So, if you haven’t read Jeffery Archer’s other books, I will recommend this book, but if you have, then don’t pick it with many expectations.

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer

Hello Friends

I have read Jeffrey Archer after long time.

This book is the first one of the five novel series known as 'Clifton Chronicles'.

Though, as advertised its the most ambitious and the best work of the author till now. But, I don't feel the same.

Its no comparison to the legendary 'Kane & Abel' and 'First Among Equals'. Also, to leave the novel with the ending 'to be continued....' type, is not accepted in the present trend of novels.

Apart from it, the style of Jeffrey Archer is quite the same, and he is still the master story teller, but who might have told his best story before this series

The Immortals of Meluha: A Review

Aah! Just finished with just another book by just another IIM graduate. But the story this time was not just another story that we listen to or read every other day. This story was of none other than that of Lord Shiva who has been portrayed as not the God but a superhuman who earned that status of Lord Shiva through his righteous fight against the evil.

The story is of Shiva, the tribal leader of a Tibetan tribe who’s invited by Nandi to his kingdom of Meluha in the lands of Sapt Sindhu. The people of this land are blessed young-forever because of the treasure called somras that they drink. This civilization is an extremely advanced one where everything seems to be perfect and everyone seems to be rational. They have the most advanced scientific tools at disposal with most intelligent people to develop them further. Everything seems to be fine with them, except one thing. They are Suryavanshis – descendants of Lord Surya and followers of Lord Ram – and they are faced by continuous attacks from their ‘enemies’ – Chandravanshis, descendants of Lord Chandra. This is where the story begins, but it ends with the defeat of Chandravanshis by the Suryavanshis under the guidance of Lord Shiva. To know how and why, you have to read the novel.

The story has been greatly put together. The research has been fantastic. It doesn’t look like the debutant novel by Amish, I thought he’s written atleast half a dozen novels before penning this down. If you are interested in mythology and fiction, this is the best book that you can read where mythology meets fiction and creates a great story. I’m waiting for the next two novels in the Shiva trilogy by Amish.

-Arun Sharma

(Originally published at www.whynothavefun.wordpress.com by Arun Sharma)

The Lost Symbol: A Review

I know it’s been quite a while since the book was out, but I read it just now and thought it’ll be great to give you guys a head start on it, in case you plan to read it.

If I rate Dan Brown’s other fictions, namely The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons at 5, I’ll rate The Lost Symbol at 4, or maybe even 3.5 due to some reasons. The Lost Symbol is another Robert Langdon stunner with the usual Dan Brown beginning that he wakes up in the morning not knowing where he’s going to end up in the evening. This plot has been followed in all his novels without exception. And I think Dan Brown is obsessed with three things - Europe, America and Christianity.

The plot of the story rotates about a mad man trying to find a Masonic Pyramid which is believed to be hiding the secret of some secret Word that leads to apotheosis of the man. And obviously, there’s only one man on earth who can find and decipher this pyramid and this word – Dr Robert Langdon. And out of nowhere, he finds himself trying to save his mentor and his own life from this madman who’s also being followed by none other than the CIA chief. The end, of course, you’ll have to find it yourself.

Though the story is intriguing and the thought process has been great, but I think Dan Brown is getting caught into his own web. During most of the novel, it looks like he has written it just to show-off his intellect and knowledge. He has gone into so detail about the specification of events, even the ones that don’t have any impact on the story, that it starts getting boring and sometimes irritating. The description of Italian marble and 16^th century bible etc etc were some parts which were not at all required, but were there in the story. Such parts were enough to distract the attention away from the main plot.

Apart from this, I think the novel has been written very well and is a usual Dan Brown thriller with unexpected turns and twists. Though I’ve rated it below his other masterpieces, it’s definitely way above some of the other well-known authors.

Arun Sharma

(Originally published @ www.whynothavefun.wordpress.com by Arun Sharma)

State of Fear By Michael Crichton

It is my second reading of Michael Chrichton. First one was TIMELINE.

I sometimes wonder, what sort of research these authors do, to present such a real plot.

This book created all the doubts in my mind regarding Global Warming and all other Environmental Campaigns going on in the world.

I recommend this book to all the good citizens of the planet.

Its indeed an eye opener

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

This is the second novel I picked of Dan Brown. I picked it as lot of my friends told me that it is better than Da Vinci Code.

The style of writing is same of both the novels.

In this novel Brown has shown one organization named ‘Illuminati’ against Church. Again the clues are spearheaded by Robert Langdon.

I came to know a lot about secret scientific societies via this novel.

Now I m looking forward to read other works of Dan Brown

Prey by Michael Chrichton

This is the second novel by Chrichton I ever read. The first one was ‘Timeline’. This novel is similar to Da Vinci Code, as its breathtaking.

The novel is about the fusion of Nanotechnology, Computer Technology and Biotechnology to create Artificial Intelligence. I was unable to sleep many nights after reading it.

And was not able to leave it after 30 pages.

I sometimes, wonder what authors like Chrichton do to write such a novel. Its totally beyond the normal human imagination.

I am sad that Chrichton died, I will miss his good work.

Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I picked this novel for the third time. Last two times I couldn’t get past first 30 pages. And I kept on wondering, whats so special about this boring novel, that all my friends are crazy about it.

This is what I realized on my third time. The moment you get past the first 40 pages, its breathtaking. I used to wait whole day in the office to get it over, so that I can get home and read it.

It made me doubt the very foundation of Christianity, and gave me lot of glimpses of Pagan religion.

No wonder, it’s one of the best novels ever I read.

Hong Kong by Stephen Coonts

It was the first novel of Stephen Coonts, which I read, as it was highly recommended by my sister.

The plot is about the anti communist revolution in China, with the epicenter in Hong Kong. The novel was good showcase of changes in Hong Kong after Chinese took it over from Britain. The plot was indeed thrilling, with people, emotions, conspiracies, hi tech warfare and what not. But, I will think twice before reading next novel of Stephen. As, though the story line was good, but the flow was very abrupt, which is not a sign of good author.

Still, I will recommend this novel for the people who want to be thrilled via vicarious experience of reading.

Code To Zero by Ken Follet

hello Friends

After long time, I picked up fiction.

Its the second book of Ken Follet, I went through. The first one was 'The Third Twin'. It was pretty gripping. And I had the similar expectations from Follet this time also.

The very name suggested me, that its some sort of a sci-fi. But, that belief was totally wrong. Still, the book was good read, throwing lot of light on aspects of espionage, Cold War, Communism and Rocket Science.

The plot was quite gripping, which starts with a man who lost his memory, when he wakes up. The grip was so tight, that I finished it in two days, pretty difficult in my latest schedule.

So, I will recommend it to read in bit of relaxed time, else your expectations may not come true.

TO WHERE IS THE INDIAN IT INDUSTRY HEADING?

Release 2.0: The Bangalore Imperative
250 pages
Fiction



Spanning from January 2005 to December 2008 and set in the continents of Asia, America, Africa and Europe, Release 2.0 is an interesting science fiction novel and thriller concerning the Indian IT industry. This futuristic novel explores two possible outcomes of the Indian IT industry- both utopian and dystopian. From another perspective, it also chronicles the rise of the IT industry in India and its expected future.

The current contribution of the Indian IT industry sadly mostly pertains to the services sector. The ultimate contribution of the IT industry to India as a nation is almost nothing apart from the minor revenue earned. IT work is outsourced to India because of the cheap labour the country provides. India however faces competition from Hungary, Iceland, Morocco, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as far as outsourcing is concerned.

Release 2.0 prophesises that if India’s IT industry relies heavily on services not only will it stagnate but bears a risk of actually being wiped out. The author has drawn a wonderful parallel with the mills in Mumbai that relied on cheap labour. In the 1850s India had a booming export business of yarn. The Japanese mills however improved in productivity by investing in new technology. Soon the Japanese mills superseded the Indian mills and took away the Chinese market. The author paints a grim image of the carcasses of the defunct textile mills in central Mumbai waiting to be sold for their land value. IT firms will face the same consequences if they don’t innovate. This is the dystopian outcome of the Indian IT industry.

A major part of Release 2.0 is set on the tiny isle of Mauritius. Mauritius, which is known as a tourist and leisure destination actually houses a backup centre for the software development centres in mainland India. It stacks seventeen and a half tonnes of back up batteries and its diesel generators has four thousand gallons of fuel to provide fifteen days of power supply in case of power failure India. A mysterious figure called Mr.Mauritius heads the operations out there. His real identity is kept under wraps and is only revealed at the end of the novel.

A special feature of Release 2.0 is that it is very grand in its technological vision. The author goes into intricate detail to lucidly describe these new innovative technologies.

Release 2.0 suggests that the Indian IT industry should follow the steps analyzing, designing, building and testing to innovate. The characters of the novel create a computerized hair cutting machine which creates a data base of every strand of hair. An electronic pair of scissors clips hair. An identical scalp is created bearing the desired haircut which was replicated on the human scalp. The customer is given the privilege to review the progress of the haircut by checking out its image display on the computer screen. This technology is furthered into the collection of data from across the world through wireless means using secure data-channels which itself is the most beautiful ramification of a seemingly simplistic technology. A concept as easy as putting ‘individual’ tags has been given an entirely new dimension in the wireless future.

The characters use RFID technology (radio frequency identification by electromagnetic and electrostatic coupling) to precisely identify any object or person any where in the world. This system bears a striking similarity to the futuristic technological system of global tracking shown in critically acclaimed motion picture Minority Report.

The inflowing information is stored in a mammoth data base. A brick wall astonishingly lights up to form a gigantic plasma screen. After all to exhibit mammoth data a screen which is the size of a wall is needed.

A normal ball point pen turns out to be a digital pen. It’s activated by removing the cap. It’s deactivated by replacing the cap. The pen has an inbuilt modem which is the size of a hairpin. The pen has an invisible digital camera. Its optical sensor captures any work done with the pen and duly registers the pen’s movements. A processor digitalizes the words and images. The data thus collected is then transferred to the ‘wall’ through the hairpin modem thus enabling the building of a huge database at the backend.

The book suggests an amazing networking strategy to help in the innovation. Like minded people are who want to want to see India’s IT industry innovatively flourishing are encouraged to be a member of the South Asians’ Network for Research and Development. The members may actively participate in the research or help by financing the projects. They must be well-coordinated like the Al Qaeda not in promoting terrorism but in evolving a sophisticated and secure system for information dissemination. Though the members of this network are not directly connected to the head person the IT related information that they send are reaching the headquarters. The back-end data may be available to the front end whenever required simultaneously maintaining top secrecy. This is only possible by the way of an emerging telecom provider. Banks and the President of India are also involved in the networking.

Beauty contests are eyed for choosing beautiful woman who has in depth IT knowledge. It is a refreshing change to see IT companies sponsoring a beauty pageant instead of cosmetic companies. Instead of asking clichéd questions on world peace, IT related questions are asked.

Release 2.0 suggests that new overseas markets like France need to be tapped by the Indian IT industry. If through innovation India seems to be a lucrative IT hub, the brain drain trend may be reversed. Indeed eminent IT personalities may be motivated to pack their bags and return to their mother land India.

The utopian future that the book envisages is IT people making a beeline for Bangalore, leading Indian IT companies merging thereby forming one of the world’s largest company, villages being digitalized and the IT industry providing a major share of the GDP. The key to India being an IT powerhouse according to the book is through innovation and meticulous networking.

Besides its visionary ideology, the book stands out for the way it has chronicled and caricatured some of the chief architects of the IT industry.

Though this book is set in the IT industry it is not meant for just IT professionals. Any person who enjoys thrillers should find it an enjoyable read.

The Prayer by Al Raines

This novel by Al Raines comes with the label ‘the first ever horror novel from India’ on its cover. Authors of the cult supernatural novel November Rain unfold yet another spine chilling tale through “The Prayer”.

The novel is set in Riverdale - a town otherwise well known in Archie’s comics. However Al Raines’ Riverdale is not at all a mirthful town as it is haunted by an evil prayer. Prayers are meant to give hope and heal. Unfortunately a prayer bearing a Wiccan curse is being forwarded to the inboxes of the citizens of Riverdale. This sinister prayer comes with the pledge that if read before bedtime it’ll make the reader’s dreams come true. By ‘dreams’ the prayer doesn’t refer to ‘wishes’ but ‘what the person dreams of when asleep’. Not all dreams are sweet, nightmares plague one’s consciousness when in slumber and some of those nightmares may indeed be of death. Reminiscent of the film The Ring in which every person who sees an evil video is supposed to die, in The Prayer, whoever has a nightmare of death after reading the prayer loses a loved one or dies. Life soon becomes a living nightmare with the characters in the book desperately trying to stay awake over cups of coffee to prevent themselves from falling asleep and dreaming in the process. Weariness however catches up and before they know it the characters are asleep and having ominous nightmares which will soon turn to reality once they wake up.

Eight-year-old Jamie found this prayer on a parchment on the windshield of his family’s car. He read that if he sent this prayer to seven people his dreams would come true. He diligently forwarded it with the hope that his separated parents reconciled. The characters affected by this forwarded prayer are shown to be within six degrees of separation.

The author does claim to be inspired by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkin’s theory of memetics. Meme is Dawkin’s unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene. The Prayer file not only infests the computers of the recipients like a virus, annoyingly popping up on screen just refusing to be deleted but adhering to the principles of memetics it seems to mutate in the brains of the recipients to be ready to jump to new vehicles. Adhering to Dawkin’s theory there seems to be a power struggle between the hosts (recipients of the prayer) and The Prayer which plays the role a gene in this case. Dawkin’s Selfish Gene theory says that the genes usually win without a fight. Only if the host is intelligent enough to realize its interests can there be a true conflict. As the prayer recipients begin to die one by one, the surviving members diminish their six degrees of separation to bring their heads together to solve their common problem by consolidating all their dreams to one dream and deciphering its symbolisms.

The authors do not seem to delve into well known dream symbolisms established by Carl, Jung and Freud. Rather they give the dreams a unique Wiccan supernatural touch. However Wicca even if practiced in scary rooms with black paint and no bulbs as shown in the novel may not necessarily always be ominous in its effect. The authors go on to show that Wicca is not synonymous to evil. ‘Evil lurks in our minds’ the novel says. ‘For those whose hearts are true, the light always shines on them.’

The authors also claim to have drawn inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe. There are special references to Poe’s poems A Dream Within a Dream and indirectly to The Raven. The circulating prayer of the novel in fact reads very similar to Poe’s poem A Dream Within a Dream. Poe’s poem questions the thin line between reality and fantasy with the rhetorical question as to whether everything is just a dream within a dream. In the novel fantasy becomes reality thereby becoming synonymous.

The characters of the novel see a raven in their dreams. Poe’s raven seems to ominously foretell that he will soon fly out of the poet’s life just like his friends have flown away from him along with his previous hopes. Similarly as the characters lose their friends, gradually they lose hope but ironically a mysterious character called Ravenclaw, the worshipper of the Goddess of Dreams can redeem them from the evil effect of the prayer.

Other than being a supernatural horror novel The Prayer beautifully explores the lives of Alcoholic Anonymous members in a foreign first-world-nation among whom the prayer is circulated. Some of them are trying to regain control in their lives sometimes by aiming for perfection when in reality they are following the path of self-destruction and returning to the bottle.

The novel ends with ample scope for a sequel to follow. Let’s hope that Al Raines is soon back with an equally scary The Prayer- 2.

November Rain by Al Raines

Cult novel and possibly India’s foremost pop-fiction November Rain written by Al Raines seems to take a cue from the epic rock ballad November Rain by Guns N’ Roses. The bride in the Guns and Roses song is often presumed to be killed abruptly when a lightning strikes during her church wedding. Similarly young Sandeep unexpectedly loses his sweetheart Arpita while fixing their marriage date when their car crashes during a rainstorm in November.

We’ve all heard of the wedding vow to love ‘till death do us part’. However what may happen if we continue to love our partner not only after he/ she dies but in his/ her next life as well? After all it is often believed that when you meet your lover from your previous birth, you instantly feel a deep and natural affinity with him/ her as he/ she is your soul-mate.

England-born Erica paradoxically sees her dream man in her nightmares from childhood. He holds a red rose for her in the fog. She seems to be on an unending ominous wait to meet him. Medicines, hypnosis and counseling just won’t cure her recurrent nightmares. Heeding to her grandfather’s advice on his death bed an eighteen-year-old Erica flies to India to find this soul-mate of hers.

November Rain uniquely explores the concept of fate, love and loss. It shows how a single incident may have a far reaching impact affecting many people over generations. Maybe it’s better to stoically accept fate, love and loss instead. Another relevant issue explored is whether we do end up in marrying our soul-mate? And should we just let the dead rest in peace instead of invoking their spirit through a planchette?

A supernatural thriller, November Rain subtlely builds up climax through nuances. An invoked spirit scrawls that he wants to watch a ghost movie. Two cars narrowly miss a head-long collision maybe symbolically indicating that the passengers narrowly miss meeting one another despite being intertwined by fate. A painter purposely does away with all light bulbs as he likes to paint by candlelight. Out-of-season rain in November acts as tragic foreboding. The novel breaks clichés to juxtapose a sinister touch to the number ‘16’ than the predominantly used ‘13’. 16 whether in birth and death seems to be of ominous significance.

Written in epistolary style, November Rain often narrates the same incident by the various characters in their own perspectives. The narrations randomly shift between the 70’s and 90’s decade in both England and India. One of the narrations is actually by a spirit called in a planchette!

The language alters in accordance with the narrator. When an orthodox ageing NRI couple is the narrator it is full of the usual grammatical errors they are typically prone to. When college-going-youngsters narrate, the language has slang and references to rock bands.
Though this book may have more takers among those open to the supernatural especially Stephen King readers, maybe skeptics should know that November Rain is partly based on four inexplicable incidents in the authors’ present lives

OMERTA

OMERTA, a mafia operation..!!

It’s the second novel by Mario Puzo that I have read. The first one was “The Last Don”. Though I read the previous novel a long time ago (probably 5 years) but yes I do remember that the author has good style of writing and has fine ability to present a clear picture of organized crimes.

From both the novels, I could easily conclude that the basic theme or general idea is kept same by Mario throughout all his books. There is a hero (or a Big Mafia Don) who protects his empire by winning over others. But the art by which he creates a different story every time and make us learn how an organized crime works is something to learn.

We do get good management lessons from it. How to protect your own team and to manage various operations simultaneously. We can see a good combination of system driven crime and people driven crime which can be seen as another style of management. Various Mafia Dons are organizing crimes against each other that can seen as system driven game and how one wins over other that can seen as the result system driven + people driven game.

Coming down to synopsis of this book, here’s a guy Astorre Viola who was adopted by Don Raymond’s Aprille from another Big Don of his own times. Don Raymond trains Astorre Viola about the organized crime and finally makes him a protector of his children, who were kept away from Raymond’s crime world and banking business. At the time of retirement Don Raymond was killed by anonymous guys, and that seemed to be the first step towards the end of Raymond’s empire and family. But Astorre Viola, as expected takes the responsibility of protecting Don’s children and the banking business.

The idea is how a new guys works in a preorganized crime world, his strategies and arts of working is something what makes Mario, the author, someone special.

Overall the novel is a good read and a good time pass. One doesn’t get bored at all throughout the complete story. Mario Puzo goes more on detailing of complete event which brings a clearer picture as if we are watching a mafia movie and not reading. If you are opting for this book to read, do realize the fact that it will be a Mafia story similar to any other Mario Puzo’s novel but his style of presenting the complete picture will keep you moving through the pages.

Another good review available is at the following link:
www.sfsite.com/~silverag/omerta.html

Vivek Nagpal
viveknagpal1981@gmail.com / viveknagpal@yahoo.com

Shadow Laws by Jim Michael Hansen

If you love to have your skin crawl, this is a tale that will do it. Chills creep up and down your spine as Detective Bryson Coventry tries to catch a stalking killer. A fast-paced thriller with plenty of action and characters that will have you looking other books by this author.

The Firm

by John Grisham

This was my first reading by John Grisham. I read it around 6 years ago. The only other book by John Grisham, I read is 'The Client'. His works are normally thrillers but wound around law. I can understand, that John is in love with his education of law.

The story is about a young rookie lawyer, who is brilliant by all standards. But, he was more brilliant then both himself and his employers thought him to be. He, was big dreamer and hard working guy. But, more than money he was dominated by his values.

So, the story is clash between, persons value system and monetarily driven environment around him. To create the scene, all the good guys and bad guys come in to the picture.

But, the good thing about this reading is its speed. I read this book in 2 days and throughout two days I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what next?? And I was always shocked to get unexpected.

The novel has all the spices for the modern day reader. And also, the novel has been transformed into superhit movie by the same name 'The Firm'. But, I must say, I enjoyed reading more than watching.

The Godfather

By Mario Puzo



What should I say about this legendary novel by Mario Puzo?
I think most of us know about it. But still I will jot down my thoughts.

It was the novel I waited for 2 years to read. It was my father’s favorite and he used to tell me the excerpts from it since childhood. When I got into 11th Standard, the desire of reading became very strong. And to my bad luck, pirated copies were not available in my home city. And I couldn’t afford the original paper print. So, I talked to my dad about my wish. He simply said that wait for your admissions in engineering college, and then he will gift it to me. So, it happened I was gifted this novel by dad after two years of my request. And it was my first novel in life.

I liked the starting line among all the lines in the text. The line is “Behind every great fortune, there is crime”. Well I don’t totally agree to this, but it entices me.

The story revolves around Corleone family, which is strongest among five families controlling mafia of US. All these families belong to migrants from Sicily or better known as Sicilians. Godfather, Vito Corleone is head of Corleone family.

Godfather according to Christianity is the person who is responsible to take care of child next to his/her parents. But, Vito was not only known as Godfather by his godchildren who range from truck driver to movie stars but because of his conduct, his genuineness and balls.

The novel describes in management terms the whole Supply Chain of Crime. One can learn lot of things from it like Manpower Management, SCM, Change Management and what not. It was proper business set up and the only thing missing was legal entity.

Then to most of the youngsters’ page no. 28 will entertain a lot, animal like sex.

Number of movies has been made on this novel -Godfather series in English & Dharmatma, Sarkar, Atank hi Atank, Zulm ki Hukumat and many more in hindi. Recently I saw one real life movie City of Gods. I think it was in Spanish, but again the underlying situation and conduct was similar.

And I have read and heard lot of business tycoons, claiming that this novel is their mentor.

So, its one of the books that I gift to my friends who wanna start reading. And most of the times they don’t leave it till they finish it. But, still there are others who are unable to read it completely. For them, I will just say “If you can’t be interested by this, then you can’t be interested by anything”.

Kane & Abel

By Jeffrey Archer

On the same day, on opposite sides of the globe, two boys are born. The boys are William Kane and Abel Rosnovski. While Kane is gold, Abel is steel.

The style of writing is typical of Jeffrey. The two stories are parallely running in a way that one chapter is dedicated to Kane and the consecutive one to Abel. The style continues till they finally meet.

Again Archer weaves the story into history by beautifully portraying the characters involvement in Titanic and WWII.

The two boys are the deadliest enemies and the fastest friends. One is from Poland the other one from US.

The story is a thriller jampacked with action, drama and business.

And the most beautiful thing is the two characters met only thrice in their life and still always think of one person that is each other only.

Once I picked the book, I couldn’t keep it down and read it in 2 days. The funny thing was that it is during my final exams of engineering I picked this book. I needed to prepare for the exams but at the same time couldn’t forgo the lust of the novel. So, along with my batchmate I studied it in a manner that I used to read one chapter of the novel and then pass it on to my friend. And studied the course till he didn’t give it back to me. This way we spent two days reading the book and course and if I talk about food, then it was only water for two days. Such is the grip of this book.

Fight Club - Complete Mayhem.

The First Rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.

The Second Rule of Fight Club is "You DO NOT talk about Fight Club".


Well, I am gonna break both of them and talk about it, because this book is like my Punch Bag. Yes, the bag you hit repeatedly to remove your frustrations. It’s the book I would read when I am most frustrated, when I want to boil the scum of this earth and shatter every window I see. Yes, this cult classic is my Catharsis. You must be knowing what I am talking about, because this book was adapted into one of the most brilliant and complex films of our generation - a cult of its own - Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.


Chuck Palahniuk - the creator must have been in one of his most devastating moods when he started his first book. Or probably his hatred for this Hypocritical Life we lead must have been at its Zenith. Whatever it may be, his passion for destruction, his frustrations, his knowledge of the forbidden and the trivial, come out in words as sheer vengeful literature. Yes, I would go so far as to say its modern or futuristic literature, modern philosophy.


Fight Club is narrated through a Nameless character - he could be you, me or any person living this monotonous, routine life trying to go one up on his competition, trying to mimic the fashion, lifestyle, career of someone else, trying hard to be something he is not. This character works, buys every damn luxury item in trend and creates the ideal life - one he believes to be ideal, but he can't sleep. In insomnia - everything is a copy of a copy of a copy, everything is distant, you can't touch anything and nothing can touch you! He goes to various support groups faking to be terminally ill and in their misery he finds solace, happiness, blithe and indeed, sleep. Until, one day, another faker - Marla Singer comes into his life. She's the indigent, suicidal types. Then he meets Tyler Durden - who's everything he isn't, everything he wishes to be. Together they start Fight Club, their medium to channelise their pain, their frustrations and their fast track to nirvana. Every night they die and are born again, as new, invigorated men. Fight Club has 7 simple rules and its popularity grows; so does its reach - throughout America.


The story takes a twist when Tyler starts Project Mayhem. When the Club Fight sessions take an ugly turn, when the arena become the city, targeting the rich, the fortunate, the government, the system. Our nameless hero realizes that things have gone out of hand, but it is futile to resist, because this uprising consists of people who serve food, who do laundry, who protect people while they sleep; they are in the system to break it. He tries upsetting their plans, which he believes would have disastrous aftermaths, but the evil twist towards the end completely takes him off-guard. You yourself are thunderstruck with what happens because it transcends beyond your comprehension or belief. Finally, our Nameless Hero finds a way to suppress Tyler, once and for all, and save Marla - who he loves. But Mayhem continues, as Tyler successfully creates separate pockets of his army, completely capable of acting independently.


This Book is a cult, because it’s a revolt against the things we take for granted. The book says "You are not the clothes you were, you are not the books you read, you are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are part of the same composite pile! " That’s philosophy for you. Give up all the worldly pleasure, give up your vices and only when you hit bottom will you truly be free. Only when you have given up everything, that you fear nothing. Only when you are close to death do you have a Near Life experience. I think so passionately about this that I could go on and on and on. The book is full of amazing little fundas. Added to this, Chuck Palanhiuk has written this book in a chaotic manner. Lines appear between sentences from no where. The premise itself is chaotic and its accentuated by the style of writing. And within the chaos you find tranquility.


Many would find it complete and utter crap and many more would fall in love with it. After you read the book, you want to hit someone --> for completely different reasons. But that’s the point, either you love it or you hate it, but you can't ignore this piece of modern art. Get a hold of it and let your imagination go wild. I am sure one read will make your mind work in the fight club mode. Its the fight club effect. I myself stay in the Fight club mode for hours, sometimes days. Most of my best pieces of work come after a quick read of an inspirational excerpt from this book or after watching a scene from the movie. Enjoy complete mayhem. Enjoy.

"The first step to eternal life is you have to die" - ChUcK PaLaNiUk