Sunday, December 26, 2010

The firm

When a friend says something is good, and reccomend to you, you take it and experience it yourself. An avid reader of John Grisham's fiction, I was asked to try his another well recieved fiction "The Firm" by a close friend. It was another thriller, with the like of Hollywood bluckbuster. I say that such reading is pure entertainment, and fantasy. The writer knows what sells in modern time. It is money and sex, and action. There are plenty of those element in the fiction, besides suspense and twist in the tale. John Grisham's novel has the underlying themes of virtues vs nonvirtues. The central character represent the writer's conscioustiousness. Someone who is dischanted with the profession of law. Besides the intricate plot and detailed character sketch, Grisham is a writer who holds to certain value. I like his protrayal of honesty, , trust , intergrity, love and friendship over any other mundane things.  Despite of the some unseemingly plot, the author manages to give a sense of practicality and reality to the circumstance, event. When the main protaganist from the novel finally escaped to an Island, and it ended with a realistic possibilities of what future hold for them. No doubt, he is a gifted story teller, and it is sweeping, gripping and breathtaking. Ones you turn the pages, it is hold on your seat, and get going till to the end. ...
I read for knowledge, entertainment and pleasure, and I derived all these from the novel "FIRM"
But then there was another book, that I laid my hand upon, "The Shanghai Girls". It is a heartrending account of a two Chinese girls tryst with distiney. The story is good, but it lacks the literary strength and favour, without which it is pretty distasteful. 

Friday, December 3, 2010

21st Century Monk

His Holiness the Dalai Lama urges Tibetan monks to  be  a monk of the 21st century . I believe no one represent this call more better than venerable Lobsang Moelam, who is the opineer of Moelam Tibetan online dictionary, and many Tibetan scripts.