Title: And Thereby Hangs A Tale
Author: Jeffrey Archer
Publisher: Pan Books 2010 (First)
ISBN: 978-0-330-51368-5
Pages: 288
This time, let’s take Jeffrey Archer for a change and to have some light reading. Archer is superb in his delivery of the story and the sudden twist at the end of it reminds one of O. Henry. The ability to keep the reader on tenterhooks in a suspenseful wait till the end of the story clearly delineates Archer from the several others of the same genre. His style is unstrained, easy to follow and easy to read – in short, it is a delight to have a book of Archer around, if you are bored or on a long journey.
There are 15 short stories in this volume, 10 of them related to actual happenings as claimed by the author. As usual, several of them relate to crime – since Archer himself was behind bars for a brief time so he had first hand experience of felons and surely might have extracted the roots of several stories from them. Among the non-criminal ones, a not-so-compelling one (Caste-off) is charactered in India. The author is familiar with India and her English writers, as we find the hero of No Room At The Inn reading R K Narayan’s Malgudi Days. His distaste of new-genre Indian writers is clear from a phrase in the same story which runs “He’d advised Richard to ignore the sacred cows of Indian literature and instead enjoy the genius of R. K. Narayan” (p.253). Whom was he referring to? Vikram Seth? V S Naipaul? Salman Rushdie? Impossible to tell.
Personally, I liked Stuck On You in which the protagonists manage to steal a very expensive diamond from DeBeers. The story is magnificently written with wit, intrigue and suspense duly thrown in, but the plot is too shallow. The hero sticks the diamond to his chewing gum pasted under the deal table. Even though a thorough search was conducted on his body, he had to be let free as he was clean. Soon after, the lady comes in and retains the diamond from under the table and walks away freely. It is inconceivable that the jeweller’s guards didn’t take it to their heads to do a painstaking search in the room as they had exhausted every possible options on his body! The story is thus not convincing, but it is admirably crafted.
The best among the lot seemed to be The Queen’s Birthday Telegram. Albert Webber, the lead character was overwhelmed by the love and affection shown to him by the townspeople on his 100th birthday. It was the practise of the British Queen to send a greeting telegram to people reaching the centenary. Albert was so overjoyed at receiving a telegram from the monarch that he framed and hung it on his study. He expected similar ceremonies for his wife who would turn hundred in three years. But to his consternation, no telegram is received from the Queen and gets upset. He dials the Buckingham Palace while his wife was out on shopping with their daughter and enquires about the discrepancy. The palace official replied that there was no oversight on their part and that they had actually sent her a telegram five years ago, meaning that she was older than him by two years and had kept this a tightly guarded secret even from her husband of more than 75 years. The story ends with the words, “Albert heard a car door slam, and moments later a key turned in the lock. He quickly put the phone down and smiled”, as if impressed by the steadfastness of feminine character!
The book is ideal for light reading and recommended for such an audience.
Rating: 3 Star
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