Book
Review
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| Sitharaam Jayakumar |
This is a collection of short stories numbering to over thirty. They are
divided into five categories: Horror/thriller; Sci-fi/humour; Sci-fi/public
welfare; Sci-fi/miscellaneous; and General. Sitharaam Jayakumar, the author, is
an accomplished storyteller who has published a couple of short novels.
The first section in this collection is likely to remind the reader of
Somerset Maugham with a hangman’s noose. The stories in this section reek of
cynicism as they narrate stories of human wickedness. Betrayal and fraudulence
are the themes of these stories. The wife is unfaithful to the husband or
vice-versa and then one goes to the extent of murdering the other. In a few
stories the ghost of the murdered person returns to take revenge. Jai (as the
author is known among his friends) builds up the whole plot so adeptly that the
conclusion lands on our face like an unexpected slap. He is also an expert at
creating the apt environment. There is an eerie feeling dominating most of
these stories. See the opening sentence of the first story, ‘I will always be
with you’: “I climbed up the steep mountain slope moving away from the burning
wreck of the car I had left my wife Kathy’s dead body in.” Or look at this from
another one: “The tale went that the last occupant of the villa was a failed
painter couple who lived there as recluses.”
The stories grouped together under ‘Sci-fi/Humour’ can make us smile
with humanoids that behave like real humans. Romeo and Juliet in ‘Give me
five!’ and Andrei and Steffi in ‘The Five-Set Thriller’ are humanoids with a
nice sense of romance. The irony of our possible future falling back on the
past of Swift’s Gulliver as hinted at in ‘The Evacuation’ is also amusing.
The third section tries to convey some serious messages. ‘Lesser of two
evils’ has a superior extra-terrestrial creature throwing out some serious warnings
to the homo sapiens on earth who have destroyed the planet enough already. ‘Four
corners of the world’ is a powerful plea in favour of women. A humanoid in ‘The
Peace-Queen’ has better sense than his actual human creator.
‘Adam and Eve’ in the fourth section tells us about a possible end of
the earth. Ironically two scientists named Adam and Eve – one each from America
and Russia – begin the human race once again on another planet. The last
stories in the collection make up for all the cynicism that oozes out of the
first section. A touch of spirituality graces some of these pages too.
Jai sustains the reader’s interest throughout and that is one of his
strengths as a storyteller. The stories in the first section of this volume are
meant to shock and horrify and hence the cynicism in them cannot be blamed. The
stories grow into increasing sobriety as we move on.
My contribution to
the series to which Jai’s book belongs is: Great
Books for Great Thoughts
Interesting review...
ReplyDeleteregards
Thank you.
DeleteThe stories sound interesting. Would read them soon. With this review, may be picking it sooner.
ReplyDeleteGlad I poked you into that.
DeleteSounds like a riveting read. Downloaded and will read soon.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice time with Jai's stories. By the way, my next review is going to be on your book in this series.
DeleteOhh thankyou. Waiting. :D
Delete