I was trying to inhibit the novel reading as an habit in me for a long time. But some how i couldn't make it due to various reasons. One of the main reason is that, i was in a thinking that i may not understand the writing as such. In fact out of curiosity and pride i bought the full Sherlock home book series at a book fair near my school when i went for a visit with my friends. But i don't know why dint i ever complete that first chapter. I ostensibly say that i dint have time and the situation was not conducive... But whenever i start reading i will find all the other things interesting...like watching TV, playing cricket, chatting with mom etc... some how i ran away from it and on one festive occasion i gifted it to one of my close friend..and i regret for it now.....I learnt that it was just fugitive once after getting started with my first novel....It was the TRUE CRIME written by ANDREW KLAVAN.
The way i picked this novel to start with in itself is a funny thing. I had a second hand book shop near my house where you can rent a book to read. The deal is 10Rs for any novel for rent and 50 to own it yourself. I liked the 10Rs deal. The owner of the shop was the only man in the shop and he dint have any knowledge on books. He will just keep them in order in the shelves. I felt he is the next man to me to know about the novels at that shop. My friends usually say much about Sidney Sheldon and that helped me a lot. I started looking for that author. Whenever i pick up a book from a pile, i end up sneezing and dusting out the book to look in to it. I couldn't find Sidney in that pile. I knew it is going to be of no use to ask the shop person for help, but still i am not going to lose anything to ask him about it and i asked...as expected he said “whatever is there in the pile is all we have”....hmmm...then i started depending on my instinct and my discretionary powers to pick one. My objective is to read a bulk book...so that i can show myself that i am done with a novel....and my next funda is to pick up a romance story which should have lotta things written to keep a man interesting in reading...or a crime novel which shouldn't allow me take my foot off from the pedal...i picked some worthy books on romance but i knew my mom wont allow me enter in to the house if she sees the front cover of it....hastily i centered with one thinking then, to go for a crime novel....I found lotta such novels....but almost all the books had the tag “America’s best seller”.....”As thrilling as a roller coaster”.....”award winning novel” etc..etc....this dint really help me....then randomly i picked this TRUE CRIME which had a decent 440 pages and its bulkiness would surely reveal to others that i really read a novel....also the thing which really impressed was the story line that was put on the back cover saying “a condemned man who is really innocent is saved in the last second just before the execution by a journalist with which the journalist get his life and career back on track and all he had is the 18 hrs to do this”....appeared to be a seriously good plot....after some 15 minutes ordeal in that pile of books, i proudly took that book to the shop fellow and gave him a 10rs. He asked me for 50rs. I said i am going to return it soon. He asked me for a guarantee....i asked him what guarantee does he want...he said a 40rs guarantee will do...i bit my teeth badly for not understanding this caution deposit funda right away...everything is done....Thank god....the platform is set...its all with me to keep it going now....
Sat down with the book....crawled thru the pages about the author and the praises the book has reaped from various critics...it dint amaze me...after all all the books gonna have such prefaces...started with the first chapter...i found the writing simple and i could understand everything....FUCK, ASS HOLE, GODDAMN....just thinking if any of the 400 pages is devoid of any of these three words....The author of the story is the journalist himself and he is kicked away from every paper he works, as he finds someone to sex with at all the places he work....either his Boss’s wife or the Boss’s daughter...Is it a pride to write about how he impressed a dignified lady for a sex??? I could just feel the big contrast between the movies that portray the life of the people in my country and that of the other....i could see the huge cultural difference between us and the west....but still the author’s life is not the only thing symbolizing their culture and the things i see here are not the only thing that my country is all about.....even though i could travel with the story i took long breaks whenever i stop reading some where....But once my friend said a movie was made on that...i just googled out some posters of the movie to see the faces....once i could put the faces to the names in mind...i could imagine things clearly and the reading became easy...i dint take long breaks after that....in fact i used all the opportunities i get in completing reading the book..
The writing started before the 18 hrs before the execution time...the happenings at the death cell and at the journalist end were written one after the another, this way and that way....some thing like all even chapters abt the condemned man and all odd chapters saying about the journalist...except for one chapter where they both meet in the jail....
A lady at the paper is to write a sidebar in the next day issue...she was scheduled for an interview with the condemned man to know about the things going in him just hours before the execution...she meets with an accident and meets her destiny. So our hero...Steve Everett...oops..should i call him a hero?? Nope...gets a call, when he is having sex with his editor’s wife, to take over this job..the editor, who is a very good man knows abt his paper man’s thing with his wife...he waits for a moment to fire him....but the paper’s chief is Everett’s friend and the editor dint have much to go against the chief and that kept Everett alive at the city paper....he takes over the day’s task and goes through all the script recorded for the 6 yrs when the condemned man is victimised...he goes to the crime spot and talks with the witness....he felt things are not substantial and firmly believes there are all the chances in the world for the condemned man to be innocent...the jail people are serious about the execution as they were worried that the condemned man shouldn't do any agitation at the last moment...when Everett meets the condemned man Frank, Everett says he believes that Frank is innocent and asks him to reveal about the chance of some other people at the spot...but Frank doesn't remember that thing...and the cops forcibly push out Everett and complain to the paper about the seriousness of the confusion that Everett has caused in the last hour....The editor already waiting for an opportunity to fire Everett takes this in both hands and recommends the chief to fire Everett...Everett’s wife whose patience already went to the hilt, throws out the wedding ring on Everett’s face as his sex affair with that lady was disclosed...Also with the rumor that the condemned man has confessed, Everett felt he lost everything and goes to the bar and drinks beyond the limit and lose his balance and everything....it was just some 45 minutes before the execution time the drunken Everett suddenly feels he got a solid proof...he goes to the victim’s father(the victim is the pregnant lady who the condemned man was judged to have killed) to reveal the facts...But as he is drunk he was not believed and he was chased out of the house....
Even though Everett is not a man with clean habits and characteristics of an hero, his desperate efforts to save a man who is innocent makes us respect him....the witness who held herself back all the 6 yrs from revealing the truth that could have saved the condemned man, have to grapple fighting her conscience.... she trying to save the innocent man in the last few seconds is very thrilling and it is certainly a commendable character.....The writer’s skill that made our heart to jump in to our mouth till the last page is stupendous...it certainly is a far thrilling experience than a roller coaster ride....i felt watching a thrilling movie is not as better as reading a thrilling novel....When the drunken man is not believed i dunno how many times i cursed on his drinking habit....the cops chase Everett’s car when he takes the witness to save the innocent man just few seconds before...i dunno where actually Everett is taking her but i couldnt control my self and just had to glance in to the next few pages to see if the cops will catch Everett or not...when i was reading last few chapters in my office bus in the morning, i knew i cant complete the book before i reach office....but i was reading as fast as i can...i peep through the window to see how far i was from the office and read more fast than before every time the bus is moving towards the office....i wondered why should the driver drive so fast as if his ass is on fire.....i want to read the book at office but i know my colleagues will certainly go wild making fun on me and i was left in a lurch that day...waited for the evening bus to get the story going....the stupid light above my head in the bus went off suddenly and i was showing the pages in the direction wherever get some light in that moving bus...the people in the bus should have wondered at my quirky untrammeled attempt of mine in reading that book...but i dint mind....no one at my position would have refrained from making such attempt in reading those last pages of the book..so engrossing it was..when i was done with the book i got a big relief like some achievement...i found that i traveled some 90 minutes in the bus which was unbelievable...actually i was just few metres from the stop i should get down...i dint realise these things...wow...how much can this novel whip me up??....how good a novel reading is??....how much such pleasure have i missed in my life before??....cha...i dunno if am extortionately saying so much about the author as i am not an aficionado in telling about the novels...in the next few days i should read some more such novels and see if this is a special one or all the crime novels are like this....
But now all i feel is i will miss Frank Beachum, Steve Everett and everyone here after....things look bit void...i decided to spend anything to keep the book myself...am not gonna ask that 40rs back from the book shop man so that he will not ask the “TRUE CRIME” back.....
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