“While there may not be a book in everyone of us, there is often a damned good short story”
Jeffrey Archer is a very famous English author and a former politician. Though his political career was not that bright, he had been convicted and subsequently imprisoned on charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice. However, as an author his series of short stories and novels are bestsellers around the world with sales crossing over 200 million copies. His novels and short stories include Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, First Among Equals, A Twist in the Tale, Kane and Abel etc. The author is married with two children and lives in London and Cambridge.
Short stories have always appealed to me more than a novel (No offense intended here to the huge population of novel readers!) primarily because it finishes off early and hence you tend to read each and every line and not constantly try to jump to the last page in order to find out as to what the ending plot would be like. The suspense, which is created while going through the storyline does not fade away due to the sheer length of the text or mere exaggeration of a particular set of events as might be the case with a novel !
Jeffrey Archer’s short stories have always been a subject of fascination for me. I have read almost each and every collection of short stories by the author, which has been released in the market till date.
Every short story by Archer is designed perfectly with an altogether different plot and the manner in which the author portrays the story line with a unique style of delivering which makes the reader start considering himself an integral part of the theme while he is going through the sequence and this engagement further intensifies the random thoughts and emotions linked with different characters of the story to the extent that you start associating yourself with them. His stories often end with a sting in the tale stimulating the reader’s imagination leaving him all on his own to think what possibly could have happened next. Sometimes the endings are in a way mocking coupled with light humour arousing the “Aahaa !” expression from the reader.
And Thereby Hangs a Tale is yet another spell bounding collection of short stories by Jeffrey Archer. Several of these he gathered in a span of six years while on his travelling escapades around the world. Ten of them are based on known incidents and marked in the book with an asterisk while the remaining are the result of the author’s imagination.
The book begins with a heart aching story of a young guy of modest means falling in love with a rich girl who loves him in spite of being aware of his financial status until one day something happens…
Some of them are remarkably amusing like that of A Good Eye, which comes from Germany, a story of a priceless oil painting that has been the sole possession of a particular family for over two hundred years until…
A highly suspicious case of High Heels unravels when a woman explains to her husband why a pair of designer shoes couldn’t have caught fire because…
A hotel room in Italy makes a short story ‘No room at the Inn when a young man trying to book a hotel room ends up in bed with the receptionist unaware that she…
There are many other humorous and mind boggling stories in the book, which would surely rejuvenate you and would be a welcoming break from daily monotonous chores. So all book lovers out there, go and grasp a copy of “Thereby Hangs a tale “available in all leading book stores.
Padmavathy Dhillon
No comments:
Post a Comment