Best Friends

Cursing myself for insolent attitude towards reading, I walked into the library with a determination that whichever book I walk outside with, I would read it completely in less than 10 days. I didn’t go into analysis of this decision which should have included the condition ‘what if the number of books is more than 1?’. Incidentally, I did walk out of library after half an hour(well, this part was certainty..i was never going to stay in forever) and not with one but three books. One of them, as usual, was a travel book from lonely planet called ‘Europe on a shoe-string’. There could be many reasons for picking up this book such as ‘that was the first one I happened to see’ or ‘I am in Europe, so I should learn more about it'(this one is, although true, very lame) or ‘I was terribly confused on the matters of decision which , in this particular case, required selecting a place for my next trip and selecting a suitable time’. The last one was much closer to reality(because the real reason, even I can’t remember)!! Lest the real reason of writing this post get lost in my gray cells, I move on to the description of next book that, unusually, was on dealing with Dutch people. I have been living here for 3 months now and if I survived these 3 months it should be obvious to myself that I can easily live without any book that teaches me Dutch manners. Well, this is not the last time the obvious things fail to become invisible to my totally disinterested mind. When I read the book, I realized how much I didn’t know about Dutch people!! But it will again be a gross mistake if, after reading that book, I begin to overestimate my cognizance of Dutch etiquette. Leaving this book also aside, I am finally reaching the main point of writing this post. Yes, I did it. I, at last, managed to finish a book in 10 days!! That’s it… that’s what I wanted to say in this post!!

Whatever I am writing beyond this point, is the main reason I started writing this post but it took me a full paragraph to reach to the point. That’s the usual way I conduct my daily business… taking long time to say main point. The third book that I was talking about in last paragraph was written by an author who had no previous record in my mind. His name is Thomas Berger and the book in this case is ‘Best Friends’. Frankly, I picked it because I liked the cover(see, how much the design of cover matters ;-)). But once I got through the inertial force, I got hooked to its very simple yet beautifully written story about two close friends who are quite different yet too close to each other. Because of its simple narrative I could finish it in 4-5 days without ever feeling bored. When I had to close the book in the middle, the reason was not the book induced boredom but my time schedule.

The story was pretty simple but it was the dissection of characters that made it so much fun to read. There are three central characters: two best friends and the wife of one. Roy Courtwright and Sam Grandy have been friends for almost twenty years and although Roy treats women admirably, he hasn’t had many personal exchanges with Sam Grandy’s wife, Kristin. Perhaps it was to to keep the very close friendship intact that he avoided any personal contact with Kristine or maybe either of them had the feelings of disinterest towards other. The exploration of this relationship is my favorite since it is funny, serious and bizarre at the same time. I should not reveal more about them 😉 There is a twist in the end which also leaves the plot open. I thought, I could continue the story where the writer left it !!! This is my recommendation if you are looking for something different to read in this holiday season!!