Book: Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

is all about Bridget’s life. . Parents trying to make a match for their unmarried daughter constantly.  Anyone who picks up this book knows that it is a lighthearted humorous book about a thirty something girl who struggles with the normal insecurities of her life and is fully in the diary form (the last part is in the title itself).

And it is all about how relatives are incessantly interested and matching the thirty something single woman with any male species and how her secret crush does not even acknowledge her. You initially wonder why this book, with mundane everyday particulars would be interesting until, without even realizing it, you get drawn into her daily doubts and predilections, and her little trials and triumphs and are chuckling along. It does grow on you, stealthily. 

 

You need to get past more talk about mundane things – read on. Then the story really gets rolling. She gets into the thing with the boss, Daniel. Daniel seems to blow hot and cold to her paranoid mind. It is funny to see her rise to the heights of joy and smashed to the depths of despair everytime Daniel seems to flirt with her and then ignore her!

Finally when she and Daniel meet, he tries to make it a ‘no strings attached’ date but she walks out on him, leaving him shocked and open mouthed. 

Once you get into the struggles of a thirty something single woman, you being to see the charm of the diary entries. Afterwards, Daniel still seems to be interested in flirting with her, much to her joy and annoyance at the same time. 

The sexual tension between Daniel and Bridget is fun to read. Her terror when the negative pregnancy test was falsely identified as ‘positive’ in her mind is interesting. Her womanly love hate relationship with Daniel and her friend circle’s passion about feminism etc are realistically funny. You begin to understand why this chick flick was well liked in the market and subsequently was made into a movie. 

She catches him with a tall and gorgeous blond once in his apartment and learns that Daniel intends to marry her. Devastated. 

Then starts her ‘he loves me he loves me not’ scenes with Mark Darcy who is rich but whom Bridget hated at first because of that awful taste in sweaters – turns out it was a gift from his then girlfriend. His mom hates dad and wants an independent life; she becomes a television presented and then ‘a common criminal on the run from the law’. Hilarious descriptions of a dinner that Bridget hosts – including a ‘blue soup’ (unintended). 

In spite of the mom’s bullying and dad’s whining, the story is hilarious. 

As you get more and more into it, you don’t want it to end. This is how good writers hook you in and keep you reading. Well done!

8/10

  — Krishna

Movie: The Pirates – Band of Misfits (2012)

If you like Wallace and Grommit series of ‘claymation’ style animation, you would definitely love this one. It has all the stamp of the silly humour, delightful expressions with the added bonus of having brought it to the digital world. Much of the background and water (sea for instance) are digital with the unmistakable characters in a claymation style. Purists may be aghast but it definitely works for those of us who are in it just for a good time. The story is silly as they all are (for instance Chicken Run by the same group) but keeps a smile constantly on our lips. 

The story timeline is 1837 – (A cute handheld signboard announces it at the beginning and sets the jolly tone for the entire movie)

The story, such as there is, runs like this. The initial scene shows Queen Victoria being treated to almost complete annihilation of her enemies. The French and the Spanish have both been defeated at sea and everything that England surveys is her domain – except for Pirates. In fact, Pirates are the most hated thing in the Queen’s mind. 

Meanwhile the bumbling pirate captain called (no, I’m not kidding) The Pirate Captain runs the seas with his motley and bumbling crew consisting of the following characters – each kind of interesting in their own way as the story develops. The Pirate Captain is voiced by Hugh Grant. 

The crew consists of a number two (Called Number Two or A Pirate With A Scarf), The Albino Pirate, The Pirate With a  Gout and the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (with a bushy beard – you guessed it, it is a girl in disguise but contrary to your expectations, there is no romantic entanglement here). He also has a cute – but slightly fat and therefore unable to fly – parrot. Every pirate needs a parrot, right? It is called – what else? – Polly.

Though inept, he dreams of becoming the Pirate of The Year in the contest held by the Pirate Club every year and when he enters his name, finds that he is outclassed by almost all Top Pirates – Black Bellamy, Cutlass Liz and The Pirate King. He is also laughed out of the room but is determined to get so much wealth by the time of the competition that he simply cannot lose. 

So he puts his heart into ransacking and after a few failures, manages to board a ship. Only to find that this ship is the famous Beagle, and the owner is one Charles Darwin. Disappointed that there were no treasures onboard, only some dead animals, he decides to amuse himself by making Darwin (good ol’ Charles) walk the plank. 

Darwin is resigned to his fate and at the last moment, he looks at Polly and gasps. He tells the Pirate King that Polly is a Dodo, not a parrot – thought to be long extinct! He says that there is a huge honour and award if only the Pirate Captain will lend Polly for the competition to show rare animals – to Queen Victoria!

Not fully trusting Darwin and yet attracted by fame and fortune, the Pirate Captain and the crew go in disguise for the event, much to the chagrin of Charles. Hilarity ensues – a lot of clowning around. 

Finally, Queen Victoria finds out about the Dodo and tries to capture it. When that proves difficult, she offers Pirate Captain a full pardon and immense wealth if only he would hand her Polly for safekeeping. 

When he enters the Pirate Competition, his wealth gets him the Pirate Of The Year trophy but just as he was about to reclaim it, the pirate club discovers that he was pardoned (Pardoned!) by the Queen and so kick him out of the competition and also confiscate all his wealth. 

Now penniless, he is forced to confess to his mates that he no longer has Polly either and they walk away from him, disillusioned. 

He goes back to his dream of selling puppets but cannot forget Polly. He goes to meet her stealthily climbing the walls of the Royal Zoo and finds Polly’s cage empty. A dejected Darwin is nearby, who informs the Captain that Polly is in grave danger of being cooked and eaten by royalty from all over the world, as that is what Victoria likes to do every year. He says that he was also deceived by Victoria and is now fully disillusioned and dejected. 

The rest of the movie is how they do reparations and recover Polly. No, this is not a Spoiler – how else did you think that a movie of this nature will end?

Brilliant to watch, if you like this style of animation and storytelling. Juvenile, if you don’t. 

I belong to the first club and so will award 7/10

= = Krishna

Book: Hag-Seed by Margaret Attwood

We have reviewed some books from the author earlier. For examples, see The Handmaid’s Tale or Alias Grace.

First scene is a play. A boat in storm and panicked elites fearing drowning. This is the Tempest. This fun and enjoyable book is based on the Tempest by William Shakespeare and gets you to appreciate the play from an entirely new light – whether you have read the book earlier or not. 

 

Meanwhile the main story starts. Felix, an ageing, fallen actor envies Tony who is in demand still. Tony was his assistant and managed to upstage him by trickery. The downfall of Felix started with his wife Nadia’s death at childbirth and then the surviving child Miranda’s death due to meningitis. 

 

He plans a magnum opus, very over-the-top extravaganza as a tribute to her. But Tony gives him the news that his contract has been cancelled and that they had chosen him. Tony, as replacement for Felix.  Tony goes on to great success in the theatre and later joins politics where he becomes a minister. 

 

Tony sulks in a remote house he rented. And lives with dead ‘Miranda’ who hangs around with him. When he realizes his growing obsession is beginning to snap his tenuous hold on reality, he goes out and gets a job as a teacher for the local convicts. 

 

He revolutionizes the education system and becomes extremely popular with everyone hosting plays of Shakespeare which, by using unusual methods, he manages to keep interesting for the actors among the inmates and also improves their overall language ability. The fame spreads and when he hears that Tony, as a minister is going to attend the opening act, sees his chance of revenge.

 

Tony is unaware that Mr Duke, the name Felix now uses in life as well as for the teaching position, is the same as Felix and so is unaware that he will come face to face with Felix. 

 

He plans two versions of the play, one for the regular video and one version specially for him who cheated Felix out of his rightful place. 

 

Amazing dialog about the Tempest analyzes every character. This conversation alone makes it worth reading. Felix, while introducing the Tempest to the prisoners, goes into an analysis of the characters in the play that make you see the entire play in a different light. This is like going behind the scenes in a play or into a writer’s head to see how the characters were designed and is one of the best descriptions – strike that, the best analysis – of a Shakespearean play I have ever read. 

 

Amazing. 

 

He brings his old actress friend to the play inside the prison, to the astonishment and delight of the other inmates. 

 

The scenes that follow are no less spectacular, where Anne-Marie delights in her role. Felix, though, as Mr Duke, continues to ‘see and talk to’ Miranda. 

 

Now, how they provide a dual end to the play, one for the regular police officers who are watching the play oblivious to the other ‘immersive experience’ doled out by Felix to his old enemies who are powerful politicians makes for an amazing and at once humorous and satisfying experience. 

 

The aftermath of his redemption and restoration to former glory is satisfying as we have by now come to like and sympathize with the brilliant but eccentric old man. 

 

As a bonus, there is a very creative (and multiple) re imagining of what happened to the (Shakespearean) characters after the novel ends. All brilliantly told. The actress Anne-Marie’s finding love at an unexpected site is also satisfying, if cinematic. 

 

All in all a very enjoyable ramp – brilliantly imagined, well told. 

 

8/10

– – Krishna

Book: All Creatures Great And Small by James Herriot

If you have not read the world famous stories of James Herriot’s anecdotes of his veterinary practice in the Yorkshire Dale, a quiet corner of England, you should as you would be in for a treat. 

. His keen sense of observation bring what would be an everyday humdrum anecdotes in any other hand vibrantly to life with great humour and wonderful empathy and love for the profession. This is the first omnibus edition of his works. He has written numerous slim books that have been compiled into four big editions. This is the first one, and if you put all of them together, they make the first four lines of Cecil Alexander’s Hymns for the Children poem. 

He talks about starting off in his practice, this being the first of his omnibus collections, and the book is funny from the first page, where he is trying to pull a calf out of a pregnant cow in a rural Yorkshire village. He talks about going to meet Siegfried Farnon for an interview. It is amazing how he can find fun in a rural everyday setting and what’s more, manage to communicate his infectious enthusiasm to you and even more amazing how, long after the book was published, and even longer after the timeframe when the events happened (1937 onwards) the writing and the imagery is still as fresh as it happened yesterday. This is an extraordinary achievement from the pen of an accomplished writer and thinker and a fundamentally nice human being. 

There are just vignettes all through the book, each an individual case that can be read separately. Yet, they all hang together with the key personalities (himself, Siegfried and a few others), the locale and the mores of the times. This is a timeless classic. 

What remains is to recount a few of the episodes in the book that tickle your funny bone or make you get a small lump in your throat – sometimes both together. 

His initial interview with Siegfried is told as well as the others. His finding himself on a limb when he realizes that Siegfried was away and that the housekeeper had not even been told of his arrival, his imagining Siegfried to be a plumb German with an impossibly thick accent, only to find the real man, when he arrived, a thin young man with a pure British accent is all well told. Even his encounter with the dozen or so dogs and how he ‘handled’ them is told with great warmth and wit. 

He then goes for his first trip with Farnon and attends to a horse’s hoof that was infected and gets knocked over by a well aimed kick from a cow, with Farnon watching with suppressed amusement. The drinking session on the way back gave opportunity to meet a colourful old countryman who gave a ‘miracle remedy’ as a favour to Herriot. 

He talks about his first solo mission where he had to take a decision to put down a horse that ‘just had a bit of colic’ according to Mr Soames, the cantankerous villager who threatened to sue Herriot for the horrible judgement. 

Next comes Tristan, Siegried’s happy-go-lucky brother. (Their father was obsessed with Wagner, so the classical sounding German names for the kids).  The tension between the two widely different nature of the brothers; Siegfried’s asking for a sharp steel knife from a farmer wife and after sharpening it asking the terrified wife  for her husband through a mistake in the address – he was trying to do a post mortem on a dead sheep but had forgotten his surgical knife at home – are hilarious. 

Tristan and Herriots playful pranks, you get the idea. It is on the whole lightweight innocent fun to read. Not deep, not philosophical but just a vet enjoying his work and company and seeing humour in everyday things. 

There is the story of  revenge taken by an older vet who takes offence at the smallest slights and makes Herriot wear an outlandish suit just to pass an implement to the growing mirth of witnessing farmers. 

One where Siegfied gets showered with the cow’s stomach contents as he is trying to retrieve a wire that got into the stomach. 

I must admit though, that after all these years, it does not read as fresh and as riotously hilarious as it sounded about thirty years ago when I read it first. Still, it is a very good book which elicits a chuckle or a mild sadness as  the case may be. 

To carry on, there is the health inspection for cows that goes wrong in every place; the suspicious but wealthy farmers who try home remedies before calling a vet. 

His romance with Miss Anderson goes in a parallel stream. 

All in all a fun read and very enjoyable if you are reading it the first time, if a little old fashioned in its views. But the second time, not so much. 

7/10

= = Krishna

Mega Mind (2010)

I know.  I know… the movie is an old one. I also know that I have not spelled the name as the producers spelled it, but I prefer this version.

What an interesting movie. I will be honest. I generally do not like the brand of comedy favoured by Will Farrell but this is one movie of his that I enjoyed. The reason is that it adopts an interesting trick that has been later followed in many other movies like Despicable Me, to quote only one example: it does not take itself very seriously and just provides a fun ride for you to go along with.

 

Consider this: An alien planet is being destroyed and two babies are saved in two spaceships – the two babies are all that survived from that planet. (This is not a logical movie so don’t ask why they did not send a bigger ship with more people or any of the hundred questions that may occur to you. Remember? Just go along for the ride). You would expect them to be identical in features etc, right? Wrong! One of them looks like a strong hunk, and is the superhero (called Metro Man). He is played by our own Hollywood Hunk Brad Pitt (ie after the baby grows up). The other baby is not strong in body, is blue with a bloated head and is not even good looking but a man with phenomenal mental powers. Since the shallow world of ours hated him and mistreated him almost from childhood, he turned into a Supervillain Mega Mind (Will Farrell)

 

They both reside in the same city. (Metro City, which if, of course, in America – where else?). Metro Mind is of course, adored and the city even opens a museum for him. Mega Mind has had enough. He gatecrashes into the opening ceremony, with the help of his assistant – well, it is a fish in a bowl bolted onto a robot’s body. As an aside, the assistant is called Minion. The most interesting thing is that Despicable Me (the original of the sequence) was released in 2010 and so was this movie. So is the name Minion chosen in both a true coincidence?

 

However, on with our tale. He came to get his revenge and lures Metro Man into a sealed lab by kidnapping Metro Man’s girlfriend Roxanne Ritchie (played by Tina Fay). He tries to destroy the entire museum and so kill Metro Man who has been his enemy and envy all his life but the stupid laser takes too long to heat up.  Just when he feared that Metro Man had escaped, Metro Man finds that the copper plating of the entire building prevents him from getting out and he gets burnt down to his skeleton. Roxanne escapes in the melee.

 

Mega Mind is thrilled. No one can save his victims in Metro City anymore. He has a free hand. But he finds that he has lost the will to torment. There is no fun in tormenting without a worthy opponent like, say, the Metro Man. It is sooo boring to be in charge of everything with nothing going wrong, no surprises whatever.  He mourns Metro Man’s death and goes to the museum to pay his respects. There he meets Roxanne (she did not see Mega Mind when he kidnapped her earlier) and posing as a curator of the museum, strikes up a friendship with her. Roxanne is bitter about “this Mega Mind” who destroyed Metro Man and hopes that a new hero will rise to take Metro Man’s place because ‘heroes are created, not born’. That gives Mega Mind a terrific idea. He uses Metro Man’s DNA to create a serum that will turn anyone into a super hero!

 

Meanwhile, Mega Mind finds Roxanne refreshing and begins to hope that he can leave the life of crime if there is a chance of a life with her. She is funny, charming and most amazingly, seems not to hate him! But he still needs to create a superhero with the serum before retiring.

 

When he is ready with it and pondering whom to turn to a super hero worthy of opposing, the serum accidentally is ingested by Hal Stewart, the most annoying photographic assistant of Roxanne, who has a crush on her to boot but is completely ignored by her. Mega Mind, seeing him ingest a serum, decides that he is The One and trains him (disguised as Space Dad).

 

When Minion leaves because he cannot comprehend that super villains wanting to be good people, and when Roxanne discovers who he really is and rejects him, the universe comes crashing down on Mega Mind and he goes on an evil rampage, true to his Super Villain form. He expects Titan to come to the rescue of the town but when he does not, goes to Titan’s home to find out why! Titan is bored of being good and wants to be a supervillain and almost kills Mega Mind when he protests.

 

Mega Mind remembers that copper was, so to speak,  Metro Man’s Kryptanite, and surrounds Titan with copper but it seems to have no effect on him. There is a new supervillain rampaging Metro City and there is no help at all to be found. He persuades Roxanne to take him to her ex boyfriend’s pod to see if they can glean any other clues to contain Titan when they discover a big twist regarding Metro Man.

 

The movie slowly makes you love Mega Mind and at the end, you rejoice when he finally vanquishes Titan and saves the city. (A small twist at the end can be revealed, though – he gets his own museum now!)

 

A lovely movie, well crafted, well animated, very intelligent and tugs all the right spots in your heart.

 

8/10

–  –  Krishna

Book: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

This book shows why Roddy Doyle can justifiably claim to be one of the best chroniclers of life in Dublin as it is. This is one of his best books. He is known for his Barrytown Trilogy and also for , all of these good books, but I think this takes the cake.

 

The mix of humour and pathos is a combination that the author uses expertly, moving you to burst out laughing one minute and have your heart strings tugged the next. Let us look at the story.

Kevin and Patrick Clerk (the ‘Paddy’ of the title)  are friends – they are young boys – and Kevin  has a little brother called Sinbad (Francis, really). They have teachers who are partial to some boys. Liam, another boy in class soiled himself one day.

 

Kevin and Patrick pretend people are chasing them and leave Sinbad behind. They try to put lighter fluid in his mouth and try to burn it to simulate the fire breathers. This has the classic feel of a small town Irish boy group trying out various stuff and is really in line with Roddy’s other great books. You are horrified at the casual cruelty of boys to boys but do recognize it as a feature of the seventies life in small towns all over the world.

 

Nice intro into the school and all the mischief the kids get up to. How the teachers treat them, how they play with the peeling paint in the portacabins, all of it is very entertaining and rings true at the same time.

Just small touches like how he is careful cleaning the house and how he hides sandwiches under the desk until the pile  grows so big that the ink bottle wobbles, how his dad gets mean because Sinbad will not eat his vegetables, how the Jesus in the picture “with his heart showing” has his head tilted ‘a bit like a kitten’ are all hilarious and interesting. A true kid’s perspective of life is what you get.

 

And who knew you can make a school medical examination so interesting? And the mix of deep religiosity with the childhood natural instinct of mischief make for lovely combinations.

 

The kids speculate that a couple in the neighbourhood are childless because “she ate them”.  They have races through neighbour’s carefully tended flower gardens. The object is to escape before they are caught but also make so much noise that the slowest of the group does get caught!

 

Lovely little pieces like the above are strewn all over the book. It is simply a pleasure to read.

 

Paddy’s attempts to not eat lettuce (quoting an African who ate a leafy vegetable and got a severe stomachache that, upon being operated, turned out to be lizards in the stomach hatched out of the eggs in the lettuce are scenes that make you laugh out loud. Also the game where the Lord punishes each with a painful poker strike in the back when they given themselves vulgar names – titties, mickey and the worst of all, fuck – is interesting.

 

There are heart wrenching scenes where the da and ma are fighting and he is very puzzled.

 

Ending is very touching too. A great read, all in all.

 

8/10

 

• – Krishna

Book: The Internet Is A Playground by David Thorne

Hilarious real emails start off the book, with the now famous “I drew a spider in lieu of the $233 and odd that I owe you because I judge this to be of that value” email chain. Then there is a hilarious interchange about creating a logo for a new business that the founder expects to be the next Twitter.

Then it deteriorates to one liners from David’s family – his son’s utterances at various points lovingly collected and presented, for example. Then comes a tedious piece about monkeys which is not very humorous, nor very creative. With very little effort and imagination, one can write hundreds of these, and the author has written, literally, what seems to be hundreds of pointless musings.

 

And then David decides to publish all this junk into a book. It still would not fill a decent sized book and so what does he do? Decide to write just one or two sentences per page so that you get it to fill in enough pages for a book. Problem solved.

 

And the wise-ass comments on interminably long emails tend to get boring after a while.

 

The piece about the missing cat is mildly amusing but the one about the head lice is simply stupid.

 

And what about the “Internet” part in the title? Most of it is email correspondence. Probably made up. Does David think that Internet is all email? If it is because the contents of the book started off as a blog, that is a pure excuse for this title anyway.

 

Why do they all look made up? Because the insolent and stupid replies to their questions elicit unexpectedly puzzled responses from people trying to just do their job (impose fines, or collect electricity bills). In real life, the notes would have been ignored with just a warning that if he does not pay the fine, the services will be terminated or he would be evicted or whatever. Not interminable questions on why he has disguised the dog as a bear by putting a blanket on it or what a portal could be.

 

And incredibly, at the end of it all, they agree to waive the fees or verify meter reading or whatever David wants, without even his asking. This definitely could happen, in a juvenile mind’s daydreaming world. Chalk up another point for why I think it is all made up.

 

The entire book is filled with such frivolous babble. It may have worked on a website – not for me there either –  but not as a book, unless you are already a dedicated fan of David’s website.

 

Also reminds me of the 12 year old goofs in exams which you can see collected on the Internet. From the minds of a twelve year old, some of these may be really funny – because of the context. From an adult writer? Judge for yourself. Here is a sample : “ So then suns are really clouds of light? Yes, and then they rain sunshine”.

 

And a bit of autobiography where we are treated to all the details of David’s first ever trip to the United States, which is another piece in the same, boring, mode as the rest of the book.

 

It does not deserve more than 2/10

– – Krishna

Movie: Fifty Fifty or 50/50 (2011)

A nice movie regarding an average Joe called Adam Learner (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who goes to a doctor to check his back out (he had back pain for a few days) and learns that he has cancer. His whole world goes upside down. His friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) tries to cheer him up. This movie follows his adventures.

The story is told with sensitivity and humour but without much melodrama or slushy sentimentality. Adam’s reactions are totally credible: when told of his cancer, he first blanks out all the words from the doctor after the word ‘cancer’. His incredulous reaction is “But I don’t even smoke!”. His mom’s reaction on hearing it is also totally credible.

The friend is a happy go lucky fellow who tries to cheer him up. “Don’t worry, many celebrities have had cancer” reels off names including Patrick Swayze. Adam stops him by asking “Isn’t he dead?”

Kyle gets a brilliant idea that this cancer is a chick magnet and they should “use it” to get girls.

At the same time Adam’s struggles to come to terms with the fact that his life may soon end is also told very well. He researches and finds out that the chances of survival after a cancer is fifty percent. (Hence the title of the movie) He also finds that if the cancer metastasizes, the chances drop to less than 10%. He rants to his psychologist Katie (Anna Kendrick)  as to ‘what is the use of all this? So that you can tell your family how you helped your third patient and feel good about yourself?”

He befriends two other old men who are undergoing cancer treatment and their first reaction is “But you are so young!”44

The story telling is intelligent and natural; the end is logical and near perfect (in terms of his disease not the romantic ending).

The story has enough humour and natural feel to it that it is endearing. The reactions of the friend and the mother, and how Adam discovers that they both care in their own way is very touching.

The father seems to be the only artificial character. If there is a grouse I have about the movie, it is that the father is shown as a complete idiot, not just a man who has Alzheimer’s disease. (Unless I am totally mistaken about how that presents itself)

It is not the seat of the pants thriller that you see in Hollywood but very enjoyable, touching, very sensitive and sympathetic portrayal of a young man coming to terms with discovering that he has a serious illness. But told without cloying or maudlin sentimental mush.

Well done, and deserves a 7/10

— Krishna

 

 

Book: Summer’s Lease by John Mortimer

This is a comedy by John Mortimer, a well known British author who has written a series of books involving Rumpole and most of whose books have been serialized on BBC Television.

This story is about Molly Pergeter, a housewife in London, who goes to Tuscany, Italy to rent a villa for a few weeks’ vacation. She plans to go there with her husband Hugh, and her daughters Samantha, Henrietta and little Jacqueline. Her father, Haverford Downs, who is an old man into ribaldry and lewdness a lot, manages to gatecrash into the party using emotional blackmail. He is a writer in the local paper, and his column `Jottings’ is about to be axed by the Editor, even if he is oblivious to the fact.

Hugh, an attorney, has a mild crush on a previous client, Marcia Tobias and sees her for lunch often. Caught by his father-in-law in a mildly compromising position with Ms Tobias, he is in no position to vigorously object to Haverford joining in the party. Thus winning a moral victory, the extended family starts off for the vacation.

The castle Molly rented is called `La Felicita’ and belongs to a Buck and Sandra Kettering, and all arrangements have been made by letter. When Molly visited the castle, she found only the caretaker, Mr Fix-It, one William Fosdyke.

The family arrives into a little mystery, with Molly finding clues of marital discord. She is puzzled by explicit instructions left by the Ketterings on what kind of family should rent the castle (`Must have three daughters’) and by the sudden and inexplicable issues with water that all buildings seem to have.

She goes snooping and makes contact with neighbours – a Nancy Leadbetter, who happens to be an ex-Flame of Haverford, the huge gang of teenage school kids which include Chrissie Kettering, the daughter of the Kettering couple, a priest who befriends Haverford, the weird Prince Tosti-Castelnouvo, the old and friendly couple (the Tapscotts), the Ketterings themselves, and a lot of others.

The humour is dry and wry. The book beings with Molly, prospecting the castle for possible rent, encountering a snake on the way to the castle. Unfortunately, that is the only interesting thing that seems to happen for much of the book, until nearly the end. The attempt at mystery and humour together fails to work: it does not do justice to be a mystery novel (not enough clues, no tempo or suspense) nor it is very humorous (funny attempts to make you smile, with Haverford taking a leak in the garden and setting off an alarm is not the kind of humour that works very well).

I would even rate Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe (See Review earlier ; I was not very impressed with that either) as a far more humorous book than this. I hear that Haverford is a typical Mortimer character – risqué old men seem to be a staple of John Mortimer.

The book does pick up towards the last 15 pages but by then you are too tired to feel any elation.

Let us say a 2/10

— Krishna

Book: Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

This is a book that intends to be both a humour book as well as a science fiction book but it fails miserably on both counts in my opinion.

The story is about Prince Teppic, who is the son of the current King Teppicymon XXVII of Djelibeiby, a remote desert kingdom. He is off to graduate as an Assassin in a far away Academy, when the King kicks the bucket  and he has to assume the throne. Against his and the late King’s better judgment, they try to build the biggest Pyramid ever, not realizing that they were tearing the very fabric of time.  (‘Wait… what?’ you say? It gets weirder. Please standby)

The story involves the all knowing minister Dios, who is really the power behind the throne, his assistant Koomi, Ptaclusp who is the builder of Pyramids and his sons Ptaclusp IIa and Ptaclusp IIb (Yes, really).

The science fiction part fails because the country looks and feels very much like Egypt, except that it is populated fully by Englishmen, thinking and talking and behaving like the English (that they are), but worshipping animist Gods with all kinds of animal heads and body parts (like the ancient Egyptians but in a much more skewed way). The humour part fails only because exactly two or three ideas do the rounds for ever, being repeated ad nauseum… For instance, a camel called You Bastard (No, I am not kidding) is, like all camels really are (according to the author),  a genius in maths. So you get endless variations of it thinking of bivariant equations and stuff like that when it appears to be peacefully chewing the cud… You get the idea.  It is funny the first time, sure. But after the twenty fourth time, you want to scream ‘I want a different idea! Please write something else funny“. And the endless repetitions of how, due to the time variation, people get cloned and appear four in a row (don’t ask)  gets to be very irritating as well.

This is the start of a Trilogy called The Gods Trilogy, but I guess I will not be reading the other two, as I am not exactly waiting with bated breath to find out what happens next.

In defense of the author, it may be just that I don’t get his kind of humour.

Please save your time and give this one a miss, if your taste in humour is anything similar to mine.

Let us say a 1/10

— Krishna