Narcos – Pablo Escobar Saga (Seasons 1 and 2) – Review

Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar

Disclaimer – My usual norm for TV drama reviews apply, that is, I analyse only the story and not the other aspects of a TV drama such as acting, direction, background music, etc.

The first I heard of Pablo Escobar, the notorious drug lord from Colombia was whilst reading about the footballer Andrés Escobar (not related to Pablo) who was shot in Medellín, Colombia, in 1994 following Colombia’s elimination from the football World Cup owing to the own goal he scored. I read that if Pablo had been alive, the incident would not have happened as he is a die-hard fan of football and the Colombian team and nobody would have dared to attack a footballer in Medellín, Pablo’s hometown.

Thanks to the recent crime thriller from Netflix, being Narcos, on the life of Pablo Escobar – I could get to know more about him. The story is told from the perspective of Steve Murphy, an officer in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States who arrives in Bogotá on a mission to take down Pablo Escobar. He joins his DEA colleague Javier Peña – a Texan who has already been in Bogotá for a while.

The story then moves to Pablo Escobar, who starts his career as an ordinary smuggler of electronic items and cigarettes before starting to enter the cocaine trade – sending the drug in large quantities to Miami, US – and inevitably, the US has strong interests in bringing down the cartel. It shows the rise of Pablo Escobar in Medellín – how he forms an effective cartel combating his enemies, including Colombia’s communist guerrilla M-19 wherein he brings drug lords together to combat M-19’s kidnapping tactics. The story brought out the aspect of Pablo Escobar’s rise very well – how he rose to prominence so quickly.

The story then moves on to his next ambition – Escobar had a lot of money, and as he couldn’t hide it, he started distributing it to the people, building houses for them that he became very popular. As a result, Escobar ran for parliament, with ambitions of becoming the President someday but the fellow Congressmen were not too welcoming of Escobar’s presence in Parliament. As a result, Escobar’s downfall began when he started to kill politicians opposed to him. From here on, the series proceeds with the story of Escobar till his death.

The story had an all-round focus – the situation in the US embassy; the tiffs between the DEA and the CIA; the political situation and the campaigns for presidency in Colombia and Escobar’s interests in suppressing the campaigns; how the war affected the personal lives of two of the central characters – Steve Murphy of the DEA and Pablo Escobar himself.

From left to right: Maurice Compte as Horacio Carrillo, Boyd Holbrook as Steve Murphy and Pedro Pascal as Javier Peña

The story also brings out the character of each of the main persons involved – Javier Peña – who is willing to risk the means so long as it satisfies the ends, Steve Murphy – who becomes too attached to the task of finding Escobar that he begins to start to feel at home in Bogotá and even picks up a bit of Spanish, Horacio Carillo - the fearless head of the Search Bloc of the Colombian police and one of the rare incorruptible officers, Pablo Escobar – the astute and megalomaniacal drug lord who is also extremely concerned about his family, Gustavo Gaviria – the loyal cousin of Pablo and his right hand man, César Gaviria (not related to Gustavo / Pablo) – the Colombian President who begins his tenure on a principles and eventually starts to make compromises in the war against Escobar. The perspectives of the characters were portrayed so much in depth that at times, you’d have some sympathy for Pablo Escobar.

From left to right: Juan Pablo Raba as Gustavo Gaviria and Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar

In this story, they bring out a lot of aspects – such as the society in Medellín back then, corruption in the police, politics and media, etc. It also was a story dealing with various human obsessions such as power, greed, pride, jealousy and revenge making Narcos rather a complete package.

The first episode of Narcos starts with a quote:

‘Magical realism is defined as what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe. There is a reason magical realism was born in Colombia.’

We read / see a lot of characters doing absolutely unbelievable acts and we wonder someone could do it in real. On that note, Narcos scores high as they did pick up a real character, often showing real footages and photographs from the police records (such as Escobar’s mugshot) and videos from the Colombian political campaigns. The very fact that this story is about a real person and most characters who appear are people who are real and still be interesting is something that provides a significant boost to the series.

However, on that note, while the producers agree that there are fictional elements for the purpose of dramatization, that makes fact checking a very important activity for a trivia crazy person like myself. While most characters were real, there were a few who weren’t such as Horacio Carillo; who was an entirely fictitious character. Some names have been changed of key characters but I would understand that as owing to certain legal constraints (such as Escobar’s wife and his journalist contact – both of whom are still alive) but I felt having key fictional characters was something that could have been avoided. Moreover, the show suggests a lot of conspiracy theories which alleged Escobar to be the brain behind the incidents such as; the attack on the Supreme Court of Colombia carried out by M-19 and also the murder of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán to be actually carried out by Escobar whereas in reality = the link between M-19 attack and Escobar is yet to be established and Galán murder is unsolved till date. 

Considering that, I might have preferred if they had taken an entirely fictional approach based on Pablo Escobar which would have given them full creative liberty and at the same time, weave an equally interesting story. Instead, I had to often pause my viewing and perform fact checking and sometimes, was disappointed over the producers portraying as though at a particular point in time, Escobar was in fact the most powerful man in the world. I don’t know whether other viewers also would tend to pause the video often while watching but in case they didn’t; they might believe in the portrayal of Escobar verbatim.

Furthermore, I felt that they prolonged the story a little, just a brief look at the timeline, the first season portrayed Pablo Escobar’s life from the start of his activities till 1992 and the second season for the same length, covered till his death, which just happened a year later, in 1993.

Whilst I generally don’t have the patience to watch TV shows, Narcos proved to be something different, it made me binge watch, often six hours (excluding the hours spent on fact checking) at a stretch. This was a highly gripping plot and those who enjoy a story containing crime, politics, police procedural, all at once, Narcos is certainly a must watch. On that note, I would award the show a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Nikola Tesla: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History – Book Review

Nikola Tesla is quite the cult figure, especially after the 90s with a lot of inventions being attributed to his vision and experiments including wireless communication. However, he is also the scientist who became rather obscure after his death in the 1940s and even during his life; he was often described as the mad scientist. Best known for designing the modern alternating current (AC) supply system, this is a short biography of the scientist by Hourly History.

The book starts with his birth in modern day Croatia, how he was very sharp in studies but eventually dropping out of college because of his gambling addiction. It goes to describe his working life with telephones at Budapest and job as a teaching assistant in Prague before finally moving on to the United States. He initially worked for Edison and later, with his game changing invention of a working alternating current (AC) system for Westinghouse, became Edison’s direct competitor. It talks about his legal disputes with Marconi over the invention of radio. Tesla was debt-ridden and the book eventually ends with his death in absolute penury and moving into obscurity.

The book brought out the fact that Tesla was a visionary very well; that he imagined things and he worked to create them, even things which were unimaginable in his time such as wireless technology or alternating current. It also brought out how Tesla didn’t care for money so long as he was given his space to conduct experiments and invent things, such as how he tore up the royalty agreement with Westinghouse when the company was in crisis.

The book was slightly annoying in parts, wherein, no less than three times was it mentioned that it we must all be thankful to Tesla for the radio, the smartphone we are holding, the tablet we’re using, etc. While the need to acknowledge his contribution is fine, I don’t think it is logical to expect people to thank Alexander Graham Bell when they dial a number, John Logie Baird when they switch on the television, etc. Similar to my point on Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s biography by Hourly History, Tesla too was an engineer and some diagrams and illustrations would have helped (such as the Tesla coil).

Tesla did achieve a lot of things, but certainly not as what the cult projects, as being the inventor of practically everything and I might have appreciated the book more had they dedicated a small paragraph in the conclusion debunking those myths (such as Tesla inventing radar technology).

I would award the book a rating of six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Goat Thief by Perumal Murugan – Book Review

Genre: Short stories – narratives

Age group: 16+

The author Perumal Murugan is no stranger to controversy and before too long and considering his name continually featuring in the news, one can’t help but be curious of his works. The Goat Thief is a collection of ten short stories of Perumal Murugan in Tamil, translated into English by N. Kalyan Raman.

The stories explore various kinds of people whom we don’t normally read about – a night-watchman guarding a haunted house, a bunch of youngsters who discuss and offer solutions for every problem of the society but were unable to identify the problem in their own backyard, a goat thief in a village who is chased by a violent mob, an old woman who has forgotten nearly everyone in her life suddenly finds a meaning considering the unexpected visit by her great-grandson, etc.

The author in the preface talks about how the stories he picked up were featuring people who were exceptions in the society rather than conformists. The author touches upon various human qualities – for instance, the author brought out possessiveness and the need for space in the story Musical Chairs where there was only one chair in the house and the wife fights to get a second chair and gets too attached to it. In The Night the Owls Stopped Crying (my personal favourite), the author brings out how the night-watchman in his desperation to interact with people, especially women, decides to engage in conversations with a spirit of a rape victim in a haunted house he guards. The Goat Thief brought out the intention to seek revenge of a mob, which over the course of time becomes more of a matter of pride to attain the revenge than to seek any gains. The Man Who Could Not Sleep explore the jealousy and rage of an old man wherein his sons are lacking a vision whereas the neighbour’s son is building a house with a tiled roof at the age of 25.

I would not reveal the synopsis of any of the other stories but I would comment in general that wherever the stories had a rural setting, the author brought out the setting very well – a well, muddy roads, a house with a pyol where people sit and gossip, etc. The way in which the author brought life into non-living objects in some of the stories was also done very well, such as the well in The Well and the chairs in Musical Chairs.

What could pull down these books are normally the translations, but then, the translator has done a good job in bringing out the crux of the plot and even where he chose to retain the Tamil words (usually in case of pronouns), he did add a line to what that meant. Only translating proverbs was perhaps a grey area, wherein, some of them sounded weird like – ‘even a neem oil bowl could be of use someday’ – while the crux of the meaning is conveyed, a word for word translation makes the proverb lose the charm.

I would say that I thoroughly enjoyed nearly six of the stories and partially enjoyed two of them but then, while abstract elements with a lot of metaphors are quintessential of a short story, sometimes, it also renders the story incomplete leaving the author without a proper conclusion. I would also say that in this collection, two of the stories, The Well and Sanctuary was on very similar themes, just that the latter was less macabre and I felt that this repetition could have been avoided by placing some other short story of the author in the anthology.

This book would certainly be enjoyed by those who do enjoy short stories filled with imagery left to the interpretation of the reader and I did enjoy most of the writing and on that note, based on my above review, I award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Christopher Columbus: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History

It is this trivia that we hear in school - Columbus discovered America. While that statement is inaccurate on many counts, considering, the Viking explorer Leif Erikson arrived in Newfoundland around 500 years before Columbus did, and the first European explorer to first set foot in the American mainland was Amerigo Vespucci. Despite all these, Columbus did possess a lot of courage and introduced the Europeans to a whole new world and this is a short biography attempting to recollect the life and journey of Columbus.

Columbus was from Genoa (present day Italy), and was from a middle class family. His brother Bartholomew was a cartographer and Columbus too was passionate about ships and the sea. It then moves on to Columbus' adult life, sailing as a business agent to various parts of Europe. Columbus always believed that there was a route to Asia through the west and believed that it wasn't too far away. However, his ambitious project didn't receive sufficient funding, and the King of Portugal was not interested in funding his expedition. Queen Isabella of Castille did respond and accepted to fund his expedition and he finally ventured past Azores, something carried out by no European in the past. It then talks about his three expeditions, his discovery of Hispaniola, Cuba, among various other islands and governing them on behalf of Castille. There were also scandals that broke out, saying Columbus was a fraud, and also on how he treated the natives and others.

The book brought out the fact that the task undertaken by Columbus was very daring, because Europeans were already comfortable with the Cape of Good Hope route to Asia and were not interested in taking such a big risk. The description of his disappointments upon realising that it wasn't Asia was also brought out well, his misgovernance, treatment of slaves and in fact, the slave trade he carried out with the natives, was all described very well in the book. I felt that in an hour, this book covered the details in a manner in which you could read it all in an hour and at the same time, revisit some of Iberian history of the 15th century.

The book concluded on how Columbus should be viewed - whether as a daring explorer who opened up Europeans to a world beyond Azores or someone who ill treated the natives, indulged in slave trade and forcibly imposed his religion on them. The book left the judgement on Columbus to the individual reader.

Based on my experience with it, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.
 
Rating - 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez – Book Review

Imagine going on a voyage on the sea and your ship capsizes, your fellow sailors drown and all you have is a raft and a few oars right in the middle of the sea. This was the reality of the Colombian sailor, Luis Alejandro Velasco, in the year 1955 and he stayed on that way for ten days. Years after his ordeal, he was interviewed by the then Colombian journalist who later on went to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel García Márquez who weaves an interesting novella from the perspective of the sailor Velasco.

On February 28, 1955, eight crew members left Mobile, Alabama, United States towards the Colombian port of Cartagena aboard the destroyer Caldas. En route, the chip capsizes and one of the sailors survive and make it to Colombia, surely, everyone would want to know his story but that is where the complications arise. Colombia was under military dictatorship back then wherein the regime declared all the sailors dead because of a storm. However, there was no storm and in fact, the ship was overloaded with contraband leading to a major factor for the accident and the government didn’t want the shortcomings exposed.

The story has a lot of parallels with that of the Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, however, there were some significant differences. Crusoe had Friday as his companion, Velasco had none; Crusoe had arable lands, Velasco’s sources of food was minimal. But then, both deal with the survival instinct and that aspect was brought in well wherein Velasco, desperate for food, commits the cardinal sin for a sailor, which is killing a seagull.

In this quest for survival, there were a lot of other things that were happening to Velasco, wherein, though he didn’t have Friday like Crusoe, he hallucinated a friend and indulges in conversations with him. It also gets him thinking about Caribbean islands with cannibals and starting to feel safer at the sea than land. Despite the fear, he was overjoyed when he did arrive at land and saw a fellow human being and shout for help. That was an aspect that this novella lacked a little, wherein, his arrival and first interactions back in land could have been described better.

The author also brings out how Velasco being celebrated as a hero and his sudden increase in marketability (considering his endorsement deals) started to lack meaning to him, as, if he had supplies in the raft, his story wouldn’t have been half as popular. The story did have a price, for Velasco, though, with the truth exposed, he was forced to retire into oblivion by the military regime and was soon, forgotten.

For once, I had a relatively light read from Gabriel García Márquez and I think this book does a very fair job in bringing out the story for a novella. I would award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Golden House by Sir Salman Rushdie – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from Bombay takes up residence in a cloistered community in Ney York’s Greenwich Village. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent and the unmistakable whiff of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons: agoraphobic, alcoholic Petya; Apu, the flamboyant artist; and D, who harbours an explosive secret even from himself.

The story of the powerful Golden family is told from the point of view of their neighbour and confidant, René, an aspiring filmmaker who finds in the Goldens the perfect subject. René chronicles the undoing of the house of Golden: the high life of money, of art and fashion, a sibling quarrel, an unexpected metamorphosis, the arrival of a beautiful woman, betrayal and murder, and far away, in India, the unravelling of an insidious plot.’

Who are you? It might sound like a very easy question but over the years, the issue of identity has been made so complex that there is no longer a very direct answer to the question any more. Although whether the complications are required or not is an entirely different debate altogether, Sir Salman Rushdie in his thirteenth novel explores the various identity crises in the society.

It starts with an aspiring filmmaker, son of Belgian academics, René is writing a film featuring his new neighbours, moving in to New York on the day President Barack Obama was inaugurated. But who were they – a man and his three sons (or is it?) trying to dissociate themselves from their old names, with the patriarch naming himself Nero Golden, with his sons assuming Roman names themselves – Petronius (Petya), Lucius Apulius (Apu) and Dionysus (D). Predictably so, René’s film is called The Golden House and the question he asks is – who are they? Is it really possible to be completely shed all your past identities?

In his quest, René does get some of his answers, the Goldens are an extremely wealthy family with Indian origins where the patriarch seems to have made the decision to move out of his past life post the death of his wife following the terrorist attack in Mumbai on 26^th November, 2008. But is that the only reason? While René tries to find the answers and to learn about the Goldens for his own film, René gets too involved that he becomes a part of the story of the Goldens himself.

The other identity issues that the author raises through his various characters are intriguing – one is that of Petya and alcoholic and agoraphobic, Apu – an artist who longs to return to his homeland and original identity and that of D, their half-brother who is confused about whether he is man or a woman or the category of transgender he falls under. The women have a significant role too, Riya D, helping her boyfriend (or girlfriend) D through the identity crisis and at the other end, Nero marrying a significantly younger Russian woman, Vasilisa, whose entry eventually makes all the sons leave the Golden House as she assumes absolute control.

The author has made a good decision to return to realism rather than the usual genre of his being magic realism. This book lacks any element of magic and in the era of post-truth or truthiness (coined by comedian Stephen Colbert) the question is always as to whether everything we hear or see or told is actually the reality. The author doesn’t leave that stone unturned and frequently makes allusions to the current President of the United States as the story moves towards the end of Obama’s term. Without ever taking names, he refers to the winner of the 2016 Presidential Election as The Joker and his principal opponent as Batwoman. Considering René’s own background, he makes a lot of pop culture references, from Batman to The Great Gatsby, which considering my lack of knowledge in the area, started becoming difficult to follow and appreciate.

The author fills the book with various other allusions as well – such as Nero himself alluding to Trump, a rich man who considers himself all powerful and invulnerable, with a young wife from Eastern Europe, and a highly murky past from when investigated would open a can of worms. The author also brings out that even if you wish to shed your identities, they would eventually catch up to you and when it does, the Goldens start to fall apart.

René the narrator was very unlike Saleem Sinai of Midnight’s Children wherein, René is not the principal protagonist and as a writer of the Golden family’s mockumentary – what he describes as a story where he assumes the events whenever he wasn’t present, what we often do about people around us. Thus, René being the narrator rather than being one of the Goldens was indeed a very good choice.

The final third is where the author chooses to bring up the murky past which again, has a lot of allusions to reality and this is where, the extent of thrill would vary based on whom you are and the extent to which you know the history of the city of Bombay / Mumbai and how closely you followed the campaign of the current President of the United States. Since I am reasonably aware of both, it was very clear to me as to where he was alluding to Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim (Mumbai gansters) and also Donald Trump and based on the sequences, I could predict what was going to happen.

However, for those who aren’t familiar with those, along with the various issues of identity he has raised – touching upon blind nationalism, gender politics, other identity issues, this would also be a thriller plot unravelling along with an interesting political backdrop. But it could also be argued at the same time that for the plot, the political background was quite unnecessary.

The author has taken up a courageous task, of making political connections on an interesting plot, and that too, taking a position contrary to the trend in the two countries he hails from – being United Kingdom and India and also the country where he is currently residing, being the United States.

To conclude – it is an intriguing plot that keeps you gripped till the end and on that note, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Joseph Stalin by Hourly History – Book Review

Stalin is known for his moustache, his role in the Second World War, and his controversial deportations. policies leading to famines and labour camps resulting in deaths of millions of people. This is a short biography of the Soviet leader, whose name translates to ‘Man of Steel’.

The reason why I didn’t say Russian leader was because Stalin was in fact not Russian and this book starts with his beginnings in Georgia as Ioseb Jugashvilli, going on to work in a factory in Tiflis, Georgia, rising up as a union leader, gets arrested and exiled to Siberia. The book then talks about his meeting with Lenin in Siberia and how he gets influenced by the Communist ideology. The book marginally touches upon the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution leading to the establishment of the new Communist Government with Stalin rising up as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. It moves on to Stalin’s role, his attempts to broker peace with Hitler in 1938, eventually leading to a war against Germany, and how his charisma urged the Soviets to fight the Germans unto death. Post his victory in Stalingrad and Second World War, it talks about Stalin’s rise in stature as he had a commanding position in the Tehran Conference with Churchill and FD Roosevelt. It then talks about the eventual decline, his administrative mishaps leading to criticism and denouncement from his successor, Nikita Khruschchev.

The book covered most highlights of Stalin’s life, if not all important aspects. How the Soviets were totally in awe of him and in a position to demand anything from public was brought out well in the book. His skills as an astute negotiator was also brought out, from his days as a union leader, then as the General Secretary of the Communist Party, his negotiations with Hitler and finally, the Tehran conference.

With that said, the book was quite short, and I think it took me barely half an hour to read the whole thing. While there is nothing wrong with it being short, it missed out on his schemes which lead to mass famines, his policy to deport ethnic Tatars to far off places such as Kyrgyzstan, among various other things leading to a death of a lot of people. Stalin, often considered as a villain in history, a biography on him is incomplete without coverage of both sides of the coin.

On that note, I would award this book a rating of five on ten, where the aspects of his rise to power, his ability to negotiate and his war tactics were brought out well but not so much, for his flawed policies.

Rating – 5/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Elizabeth I: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History – Book Review

Most are aware of the current monarch of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, but not so much about her 16^th century namesake, Elizabeth I. This is a short biography of the English monarch by Hourly History.

It starts with how when Elizabeth took over, the country was in turmoil. She took over from her half-sister Mary, notoriously known as Bloody Mary for her aggressive push to reintroduce Catholicism in England. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII from his second marriage, to Anne Boleyn and many Catholics in the kingdom viewed her claim to the throne lacking legitimacy, as they didn’t recognise the annulment of Henry VIII’s first marriage. It goes on to talk about how Elizabeth had to initially consolidate her power and at the same time, also maintain religious harmony between Catholics and Protestants. However, she was faced with succession battles from both internal and external forces, with the French supporting Mary, the Queen of Scots (Elizabeth’s cousin) to succeed the throne and many Catholics in England seeing her as the legitimate successor. It then elaborates on her decision to not marry and keeping her suitors guessing and also about her various military victories, most famously the Spanish Armada. It also focused on her relationship with her cousin, Mary the Queen of Scots and the eventual souring of the relationship, considering the latter’s constant push for claiming the throne herself.

This book revisited English history during the 16^th Century, the constant question of succession looming over Britain. The fact that there was a looming threat of political instability throughout her reign was brought out well. Her ability to deal with the nobles within her own kingdom and negotiate with other kingdoms, such as Spain and Netherlands, was also well explained. Ultimately, this also fit the time frame of one hour, as that was all it took to complete it.

The aspect that was lacking in the book was that though it asserted that Mary and Elizabeth shared a close relationship, it was never convincing, as, throughout, Mary had been plotting to usurp the throne and mercy seemed to be only from Elizabeth’s side. Perhaps, if the authors had substantiated one of the letters that had been exchanged, it could have been brought to the fore better.

On the whole, this was a well compiled biography and I would award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

The Clicking of Cuthbert and Other Golf Stories by PG Wodehouse – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Who but P.G. Wodehouse could have extracted high comedy from the most noble and ancient game of golf? And who else could have combined this comedy with a real appreciation of the game, drawn from personal experience? Wodehouse's brilliant but human brand of humour is perfectly suited to these stories of love, rivalry, revenge, and fulfilment on the links.’

The Clicking of Cuthbert and Other Golf Stories is a collection of stories with golf as its background theme and the British author PG Wodehouse attempts to bring out some humour. To start with, I am neither a fan of golf nor a fan of Wodehouse but I would solemnly affirm that I did not read this book with pre-conceived notions.

Most of the stories involved humour (attempted) around golf, with a golfer being in love with a woman being the central theme in all of them. It starts off with the Oldest Member narrating a golf story off his memory. The stories are as follows:

1.       The Clicking of Cuthbert – The title story where Cuthbert Banks who is passionate about golf, falls in love with a woman who prefers intellectuals and fancies a writer.

2.       A Woman is only a Woman – Two friends, also amateur golfers, fancy the same woman and decide that the one who wins a golf match get to propose her.

3.       A Mixed Threesome – Mortimer, a rich man who is totally disinterested in golf; is engaged to a woman who loves golf. She fancies one of Mortimer’s friends – an explorer. Mortimer himself starts to learn golf for her sake.

4.       Sundered Hearts – Mortimer is the main character in this story as well, now so passionate about golf, gets married and his wife goes missing, getting Mortimer to exhaust all his wealth in search of her.

5.       The Salvation of George Mackintosh – This is about George Mackintosh, a golfer engaged to a woman. The only problem with George is that he can't stop talking. 

6.       Ordeal by Golf – The post of treasurer goes vacant in a company and the Oldest Member suggests the proprietor to decide the candidate through a game of golf. 

7.       The Long Hole - Two friends fancy the same woman and they decide to settle it through golf. They get into a lot of arguments over ‘rules of golf’ and leading to funny humorous incidents.

8.       The Heel of Achilles – An American millionaire is engaged to a woman who lays a condition that she’d marry him subject to him winning the American Amateur Golf Championship.

9.       The Rough Stuff – Ramsden Waters fancies a woman, teaches her golf and they pair up for a golf match.

10.   The Coming of Gowf – A group submits a story of King Merolchazzar modelled along the lines of a Babylonian kingdom but seems to be in the vicinity of the British Isles. The king embraces Golf as his new religion.

The book maintained the consistency – each of them was around twenty pages. The book had a really good start to the stories, The Clicking of Cuthbert was excellent, humorous, short and well written. I would say the same for the A Woman is only a Woman, mostly because when I first read a story with that theme, it was funny. Apart from that, Sundered Hearts was an enjoyable read and so was The Long Hole, especially the golf lawyer aspect in The Long Hole, notwithstanding the repetitive nature of two men fancying the same woman.

Barring those, the other stories were repetitive or silly or mostly, it was both. I mean, what sort of a woman accepts proposals solely based on golf skills? While the whole thing is meant to be light hearted, there is no point generating humour through means of absurdity which is what PG Wodehouse always seems to do. There could have been a variety of aspects from which he could have generated humour surrounding golf but then, the author chose the same – mostly two men fancying the same woman. I felt the story; The Coming of Gowf was not funny and totally absurd. I also don’t understand why the author chose be a narcissist through his own stories – wherein, in Clicking of Cuthbert, a Russian author in the story claims, ‘No novelists anywhere any good except me. P. G. Wodehouse and Tolstoi not bad.’

On the whole, as seen above, four stories were good and six were bad, and the last was quite awful. The stories were highly repetitive and after reading this, I continue to maintain my stand that PG Wodehouse is highly overrated (refer my review of his book Pigs have Wings). Going by a wholly mathematical approach, four out of ten stories were good, so the rating of this book is four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Ancient Greece by Hourly History – Book Review

Greece is fascinating – it is nearly impossible to completely avoid Greek influence in various things you read, watch or do – if you are a sports enthusiast, there is the Olympic Games influenced by Greek tradition, mathematics is full of Greek symbols owing to the early discoveries by Greeks in the subject, literature has a lot of ancient Greek influences, among various other things as the list goes on. This is a short compilation of some of the important aspects of Ancient Greece by Hourly history.

The first thing that the book started with was describing the various characters of the Greek mythology and their importance to the locals. The next the book tried and established was that Greece back then was no a homogenous unit as it is today, and the city states (Athens, Sparta, etc.) were often hostile to each other and united only in case of facing a common enemy – Darius and Xerxes of Persia. Followed by that, there were elaborate descriptions of the two most famous cities, being Athens and Sparta, followed by Literature, philosophy, art and architecture and science, in Ancient Greece.

I liked how the book was structured, that it had a short five page focus on all the major aspects. It also established how ancient Greece was run and the various types of Governments that were present throughout – some with tyrants and some being democracies (a word whose etymology has Greek origins). I am also glad that the focus was not entirely on mythology, for that has been highly popularised by Hollywood and in my case, by games (Age of Mythology was my first encounter with Ancient Greece). The book touches upon most of the famous aspects of ancient Greece, being the Colossus of Rhodes, Archimedes, the war against Persia, etc and thus, they chose the right topics.

I don’t have any major flaws to pick, with this book, maybe they could have made a passing mention of Alexander of Macedonia, perhaps the most famous emperor of Ancient Greece but then, that would probably be a biography of its own from Hourly History.

I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Indira: India’s Most Powerful Prime Minister by Sagarika Ghose – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Indira Gandhi is fondly remembered as the Durga who won India its first decisive military victory in centuries and the strong stateswoman who had the courage to look American bullying in the eye and not blink. Equally, she is remembered as the terrible dictator who imposed the Emergency and tried to destroy institutions ranging from her own party to the judiciary; she is seen as the source of many of the problems that afflict Indian democracy today. Even so, for politicians Indira is the very definition of a strong leader, and a role model on both sides of the aisle.’

Various thoughts come across minds of people across India when it comes to the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, among those who lived during the era of her premiership and even among those who were born much after their death, including myself and everyone knows the famous line back then – ‘India is Indira, Indira is India, the two are inseparable’. This is a biography of the former Prime Minister written by the veteran journalist Sagarika Ghose, thirty three years after the death of Indira Gandhi.

The book is focuses on the following aspects; Indira Gandhi growing up during a revolution for freedom in India, with her own house being a hub of political activity and the role her mother and father played in shaping some of her ideas and personality. It is then followed by Indira’s student days followed by her troubled marriage to Feroze Gandhi and her days in waiting to succeed her father as the Prime Minister of India. It then moves on to describing how she managed to consolidate her powers and challenging the Congress establishment comprising Morarji Desai and K Kamaraj, leading to a split in the party with Indira emerging as the leader of the dominant faction. It is then followed by Indira’s premiership, focusing on all her major decisions, such as devaluation of the Rupee, bank nationalisation, the victory in the war against Pakistan leading to liberation of Bangladesh, the emergency, the influence of her younger son Sanjay in all these decisions, her downfall in 1977 and re-emergence in 1980, the Operation Blue Star on Harmandir Sahib leading to her assassination.

I appreciate the author for having not attempted a hagiography, for she doesn’t go about defending every act of Indira. In fact, there were instances where she was bold enough to criticise some of her flagship policies such as bank nationalisation as being merely a populist measure and not driven by sound economics. Like most typical biographies, she has also provided for citations for most claims that she has made in the book, and thus, she has put in a lot of effort to compile a reasonably accurate biography. I don’t know whether the author intended it but she brought out how Indira didn’t have any sound political views (unlike her father) and merely did acts to retain her power – she criticised right wing Hindu politics but she pandered to them herself, claimed to be a staunch defender of democracy and institutions but she destroyed all of it herself, began the culture of ‘dynasty politics’, among various other things.

With that said, I would say that this is a very poorly structured biography – the book was temporally inconsistent, for instance, to display the arrogance of Indira, the author mentions the derogatory remarks Indira made during activist Jayaprakash Narayan’s death in 1979, but then goes on to describe how JP Narayan opposed her government during the emergency going back in time to 1975. This is not an isolated instance and there were several repetitions of the same. The next was the fact that she wrote the book with her similar journalist mentality, wherein, you mention a name and you are inclined to give every detail you know about the person. For instance, when she mentioned the name of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed as a loyalist in her cabinet (back in 1967) and she made it a point to include how he would go on to become the president in 1974 and continue with his loyalty signing the emergency declaration. There was no need to give so many details as and when you mention a name, instead, you could have mentioned how Indira nominated her loyalist cabinet minister while discussing her premiership in 1974 and his eventual signing of the emergency declaration in 1975.

It is always a disadvantage to write a biography of a person thirty three years after the death of the person, especially when a lot of updates have taken in the political scene that one keeps making references to the current environment to explain a point, which in most cases turned out as pointless deviations. I also felt that her prime focus was how she was a national phenomenon despite a lot her flaws and none of her opponents were of the calibre to face her than bring out why she became such a phenomenon – was it just the Bangladesh liberation or other populist schemes? There was a lack of focus on why she was a phenomenon than on what she was.

However, to the extent of my limited understanding of independent Indian political history, she has covered almost all major aspects of Indira Gandhi’s premiership. Additionally, it is also commendable that the author despite having very strong views on political subjects, she did not try to express her views through this book.

This is a good refresher for those who have lived through Indira Gandhi’s time, and can provide a good understanding of the political scenario in India back in 1960s and 1970s but at the end of the day, this was meant to be the biography of a person and on that count, I don’t rate this book very highly and as a result, I rate the book a four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

George Patton: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History – Book Review

George Patton, the American general from the Second World War has always been a curious figure, known for bravery and tact, but at the same time, riddled with controversies. This is a short biography of General Patton by Hourly History.

The starting point of the book is the extensive military background of the Patton family who have served both in the army of the United States and also the Confederates. The book then goes on to describe his time at the United States Military Academy in West Point followed by his first experience with conflict during the Pancho Villa expedition against Mexico followed by the First World War. Post that, the focus was on the Second World War with him leading the American campaign in the Mediterranean, the scandals he was involved in, and his eventual post war career as the military governor of Bavaria during the interim United States administration of Germany.

The book did a good job in bringing out Patton’s very aggressive personality – callous and would do anything to get his job done. It also touched upon most of his wars and also his relationship with the other Generals in the military, including that of Eisenhower.  I also appreciate that they didn’t try to justify all his actions, the controversial ones and stated them as they were and the judgement was left to the individual reader.

However, I think the book had contents for less than an hour and the author could have focused on more description on the conflicts he was involved in, similar to what was done in Hourly History’s book on Erwin Rommel (who was incidentally Patton’s opponent in Africa).  That was a serious let down as this is a biography of a military general and the description of his military tactics and actions were inadequate.

I would say this is a good read for those who want to know about some of the less known figures of the Second World War and on that count, I would award the book a rating of six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Murphy’s Law by Arthur Bloch – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘For more than a quarter of a century, Murphy’s Law has provided the last word on things going wrong. Positive thinking is all very fine when the world is treating you right, but when things go awry, it's Murphy's Law that comes up with the goods-the pithy revelations and undeniable truths that document our limitless potential for misplaced insight, hopeless wit, and pessimistic wisdom.

This special anniversary collection features the best of Murphy's Law--plus new 21st-century entries proving that with advances in technology, even more can go wrong.

For example:

No matter what goes wrong, there is always somebody who knew it would.

Anything is easier to take apart than to put together.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

The less you do, the less can go wrong.

Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter since nobody listens.’

Murphy’s Law is a hilarious take on why things go wrong; compiled by the American writer Arthur Bloch. I make a lot of statements and hold certain views which are often deemed highly pessimistic (even though I take cover under the word pragmatic) and yes, needless to say, a certain friend of mine relentlessly suggested this book. It was felt that I would definitely like it and as I could relate to the book a lot and I did get a killer of an offer for the Kindle edition at INR 31 (~0.41 EUR) and before too long, I started reading the book.

Have you ever wanted to fish something out of a bag, where there might be three possible things you might draw and what you want would come to you only the third time? This book is a collection of one liners (or maximum of four) as to why things go wrong, some of which are sensible and relatable, some of which are outright pessimistic and a few are just needless smart alec comments which could get you into trouble if you actually go about making those statements to the intended (such as your boss). It covers on most common subjects, as to why things go wrong, such as technology, office, hierarchy, economics, government, bureaucracy, etc.

I liked the way in which the book was presented, collecting some popular quotes (though I don’t know as to how much of it was the author’s imagination) and sometimes, for a purely positive quote, providing a negative corollary to explain why things go wrong. I also felt the author covered almost all topics where the reader could link to at least 15 out of the 20 chapters in the book. It was also a book where I highlighted a lot, at least around a hundred statements made in the book, and incidentally, some of them were things that I had said it myself in the past (such as my views on plagiarism).

The flipside of this book is also the fact that it wasn’t too detailed, just a collection of one liners, with absolutely no elaboration.  Additionally, some of the situations he quoted are those which you find as a nuisance only when something goes wrong for you – for instance, to quote the argument of Richard Dawkins – ‘certain class of events may occur all the time, but are only noticed when they become a nuisance. He gives as an example aircraft noise interfering with filming. Aircraft are in the sky all the time, but are only taken note of when they cause a problem.’

This was a really enjoyable read, and also very quick to read, but a note of caution is that this is not something that is to be read with a serious frame of mind. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I am sure that most readers would, too, because the situations are something that we have encountered ourselves. It is an occasion where I have really enjoyed a book that came as a suggestion and on the whole I would award the book a rating of eight.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Mao Zedong: A Life from Beginning to End – Book Review

This is a short biography of the controversial Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, who is regarded by some as the architect of modern China and others, as a brutal dictator comparable to Hitler and Stalin (incidentally, he had a close relationship with the latter).

Mao had a modest beginning, and considering the standards back then, he was from a wealthy family considering they held a farmland of their own and the book goes on to describe how his father instilled the discipline in Mao. It then goes on to talk about his failed pursuits of higher education and as to how he was suddenly inspired by the ideas of revolution, the communist ideology even though he differed with the Soviet version as he believed China was more agrarian than Russia. It then went on to describe the conflict between the Nationalists and the Communists and how they united to face the common enemy in Japan. It then goes on to talk about Mao’s retreat – the long march, followed by his eventual victory against Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalists, thus officially establishing a Communist State in China (barring Taiwan where Chiang Kai-Shek was in charge of the government in exile) and what he did later, the policies he had in place, the Red guards that he created, among various other things.

The book was very detailed, and gives a glimpse of the situation in China, with regard to the society, their leanings and their inclination towards the nationalists. It also gave a reasonable account of their role in the Second World War against Japan and some of the gruesome events as part of it. It also established Mao’s personality in detail, the pragmatist, idealist who wouldn’t hesitate to impose his ideology and his relentless fight against imperialism. As aforementioned, Mao’s effectiveness is debatable and this book made a reasonable effort in touching upon both good and bad aspects of his administration.

However, the extent of detail was a demerit as well, considering, while the Nanking Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese war is an integral part of modern Chinese history, they failed to establish as to how it was relevant in this book considering Mao stayed relatively silent during the period. Additionally, although I did state that the book did touch upon some of the bad aspects of his administration, it failed to quantify any of it, wherein, it is alleged that through his flawed policies, he has been responsible for the deaths of close to 71 million people (upper limit) through the purges he conducted against counter-revolutionaries, his failed industrialisation policy leading to a mass famine, and the atrocities committed in the name of The Cultural Revolution. Considering the seriousness of his flawed policies, I felt it required much more attention than whatever it managed to garner and in that sense, it is a failure of this biography.

I would say this was a decent biography considering they didn’t try and go out of the way to justify every action of Mao but then, I felt the attention was fully on Mao the revolutionary and very little on Chairman Mao. Considering that, I would award the book a rating of five on ten.

Rating – 5/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘It is August in Edinburgh and the Festival is in full swing. A brutally tortured body is discovered in one of the city’s ancient subterranean streets and marks on the corpse cause Rebus to suspect the involvement of sectarian activists. The prospect of a terrorist atrocity in a city heaving with tourists is almost unthinkable. And when the victim turns out to be the son of a notorious gangster Rebus realises he is sitting atop a volcano of mayhem about to erupt.’

Mortal Causes is the sixth instalment in the John Rebus series of Ian Rankin. In this book, Rebus deals with the sectarian crimes and paramilitary groups related to The Troubles at Northern Ireland. Note that the book was published in 1994, four years before the end of The Troubles.

It is the time of the Edinburgh festival, and the city is abuzz with tourists while the police find a body inside a cellar in a more isolated area of Edinburgh, seemingly tortured before killing, in a modus operandi typical of that of the paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, especially the Irish Republican Army. It also so happens that he is the son of a notorious gangster whom Rebus crossed swords with in the previous book (The Black Book), being Big Ger Cafferty. The special branch has been assigned to track down this crime and this is perhaps, Rebus’ most dangerous case till date, considering, he is dealing with groups that have dangerous weapons, receive funding from across the world and don’t have second thoughts about killing those who might potentially trouble them.

Rankin claimed in one of the interviews that he brings out issues of the society through his crime novels and considering the time of release of the book, it was appropriate that he chose the topic of paramilitary groups and their links to Scotland. As always, I enjoy the cynicism (I’d quote his view on Scottish-Irish relationship below) in his writing, especially the ones expressed by Rebus along with his tongue in cheek comments. The book had very little scope for sub-plot and every chapter focused on Rebus and his investigation, and Edinburgh, in particular was used very well – the various locations, the historic distrust between Catholics and Protestants (eg; left-footers) and how each side had different sympathies for various factions during the troubles. I also liked it where the author took it out of Scotland for a short while, wherein, Rebus revisited Belfast; he did have an army background serving in Northern Ireland as introduced in Knots& Crosses and it was good of him to bring back this background of his, considering Rebus does have experience with these groups in the past.

‘Scotland had enough problems without getting involved in Ireland’s. They were like Siamese twins who’d refused the operation to separate them. Only one twin had been forced to marriage with England, and the other was hooked on self-mutilation. They didn’t need politicians to sort things out; they needed a psychiatrist.’ – Page 114

This book might perhaps disappoint those who expected to see a bit of the personal side of Rebus, there was no mention of his ex-wife Rhona, or his brother Michael, there was a passing mention of his daughter Sammy where it was revealed that she was in London. Additionally, I felt a way too many people were investigated, for a 320 page book that sometimes, I lost track and even used to get confused between two different persons that I had to flip the pages back again, to confirm the identities.

It was a very good rebus novel, containing all quintessential elements of a Rankin and Rebus novel, and yes, solve before the police is possible in this novel. It has also laid a strong foundation for the next book, establishing further animosity between Cafferty and Rebus and thus, it would an interesting instalment to look forward to. I would award the book a rating of seven.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

The Wars of the Roses by Hourly History – Book Review

This is a short account of the event in English history during the 15^th Century; The Wars of the Roses, an event that has inspired several other stories, with the most famous one being The Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin.

The book starts with the description of the events leading up to the war of succession to the English throne, caused by the turmoil after the English defeat to the French in the Hundred Years war. This started as an internal power struggle within the ruling House of Plantagenet between the cadet branches of House of York and House of Lancaster; with the ruling king being Henry VI, a member of the House of Lancaster. Over the 30 years of the war, the power changed hands several times, the House of York was in power for twenty years before the war ended and the Tudor era began.

The book made a proper start, that is, from the Hundred Years war before getting into the finer details and the breakout of a gruesome war. I was always interested in knowing about the details mainly because of my following of British sports and very often references are made to the Roses Rivalry, whenever there is a match between Yorkshire and Lancashire (in cricket); as the House of York was symbolised by a white rose and the House of Lancaster by a red rose and the same logos are used by the respective cricket teams. The book was concise, while managing to give a crux of what had happened during the War of Roses and the detailed account of how the fortunes turned for both sides throughout and its eventual conclusion.

The only issue I found was that considering all these are coming from one publishing house, one book should not contradict with another; while it is evident that the Hundred Years War resulted in a defeat for the English forces and the book stated the same, rightly so, in a book of Hourly History called British History in 50 events, the same claimed that it was a status quo ante bellum with no clear winner.

Based on the above, I would award the book a rating of seven on ten; it is a good read for those who are interested in English history and also, all those Game of Thrones fanatics, who could spend some forty minutes knowing about the event that inspired the story.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy