Sacred Games : Pointless, Meandering.

Author: Vikram Chandra

Rating: 5/10

Genre: Crime/Mystery

Sacred Games is a grandiose, pompous, and a highly embellished story about a Sikh Inspector in Bombay, Sartaj Singh, and his colleagues who are investigating the circumstances leading up to the death of the leader of the G-company, Ganesh Gaitonde, and the subsequent aftermath of it. Gaitonde is an unwitting accomplice in a ‘sacred’ game which threatens to wipe out Bombay from the face of India, so life can start afresh.

Written by Vikram Chandra(brother-in-law of the acclaimed Bollywood director Vidhu Vinod Chopra), tries hard, very hard, to go the Shantaram route. But it fails miserably. Chandra is a master storyteller and styles his characters with exquisite craft. But, everything converges on aggrandization of Bollywood, Bombay mafia and especially the skill(or the absence of it) of the Bombay Police, covered with a thinly veiled veneer of philosophical pretense. Read it. Get frustrated. And tear out your hair for reading it in the first place.

The Sense of an Ending : Imperfections of memory

Author: Julian Barnes

Rating: 9/10

Winner of the Booker Prize, 2011

The Sense of an ending is a head-scratcher, and a very difficult one at that. It is not remotely surprising that it was written by Barnes, also known for other head-scratchers(Read: Flaubert’s Parrot,Metroland).

In inimitable Barnes’ style, wry humour combines with teenage pretentiousness as we follow a master manipulator(and narrator) Tony Webster who guides us through his typical oh-so-English life with philosophy and wit thrown in for good measure. Now, Tony is in middle age with a satisfactory career, average marriage, and a bovine life until a lawyer’s letter turns everything upside down. Adrian Finn, childhood friend(too intelligent for his own good); Veronica, his former girlfriend, both combine destructively leaving Tony to pick up the pieces and follow the trail.

With trademark precision, Barnes does in 150 pages what Robert Ludlum couldn’t do in 800. He captivates, enthralls and shocks you with an ending you wouldn’t see coming. Read it. And re-read it. You would need it to pick up the clues you initially missed. And be glad that you were born in the same era as Barnes. Period.

Quotes:

1) History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meets the inadequacies of documentation.

2) History consists not only of “the lies of the victors,” but also of “the self-delusions of the defeated.”

3)  A₂+v+a₁*s=b.