The Sunday Haul- Three Books and a mini-review

(Ian Rankin, Milan Kundera, and Hugh Leonard)

About three weeks ago when he was making a lot of news in the Indian press, I came across Ian Rankin’s book at Abids on a Sunday. ‘Tooth & Nail’ was the book I saw. Only a couple of days earlier I had read a lengthy interview of Rankin by Prakash Karat, the Communist leader, in ‘The Hindu’ daily. Some more days later another interview of the writer was carried in the Metro Plus supplement of the same paper. This time the interview was at Chennai and the interviewer was curiously, not a journalist but a top cop- an IGP of the Tamil Nadu Police department. Which goes to show that Ian Rankin has readers in pretty top places. Shortly afterwards there was a write up on Rankin in ‘The Week’ magazine. Of course, I read all the interviews and was sufficiently curious to know about the writer and his books, especially the Inspector Rebus series.


So last Sunday I picked up his book- ‘Tooth & Nail’ which was still on the rack unsold. I guess there aren’t many people in Hyderabad who read his book or if there are, they are the sort who don’t come to Abids to pick up second hand copies. They'd rather buy them new. Anyway, I got the book for the jaw dropping price of ten rupees only. It was a book in the Inspector Rebus series. I have already started reading the book and found it engrossing enough to continue reading it. However, I was not very impressed and I guess it is because only the day before I had finished reading Elmore Leonard’s ‘Swag’ that I had found two weeks ago.

Needless to say ‘Swag’ is another fine novel by the master of crime fiction, Elmore Leonard. It was an unputdownable book that has some pretty terrific action and trademark Elmore Leonard dialogue with razor sharp wit. It is about two men Stick and Frank who team up to commit armed robberies of liquor stores etc, and have a nice time enjoying the loot. Trouble begins when Frank convinces Stick to take part in a heist of a supermarket that is planned by another guy who brings in his own team of hoodlums. Stick is reluctant and thinks it will go wrong. As expected it goes wrong with a couple of killings. There’s a neat twist in the climax with another dose of killings. Stick is a gutsy and cool character who is the smarter of the lot. However I was a bit disappointed with the ending when Stick and Frank are arrested at the airport while trying to flee. I had expected Stick to get away with the money but the smart cop ‘Cal’ nabs them. It is a great read though with a superb plot, action and as usual, some great dialogue.

Back to the Sunday haul, another book I found after picking up Ian Rankin’s ‘Tooth & Nail’ was Milan Kundera’s ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ that I have been meaning to read since long. Only hitch was I wasn’t able to find a copy at Abids. Last Sunday I found one that I picked up from a heap of books selling for twenty rupees. The copy was formerly owned by a ‘Nancy Lawrence’ of Seattle according to the neatly stamped address on the flyleaf, that included the phone number neatly written in black ink. I wouldn’t do such a thing, leave my name and number on my books. I don’t even write my name on my books save for those I really value.

The last haul of Sunday was an autobiography of a playwright- Hugh Leonard titled ‘Home Before Night. It is first of the two book autobiography. I picked up mainly for two reasons. First, because it was by a playwright, a species I am finding increasingly interested in and two, because it was a Penguin edition with an interesting type face called Monophoto Photina. If ever my book gets accepted by any publisher I am going to ask them to do the book in this typeface. Meanwhile, I have to keep looking for the second book of the autobiography- Out After Dark.