Monsignor Quixote

Book Name : Monsignor Quixote

Author : Graham Greene 

What is it about : One would think a tale about two middle-age men travelling in Spain cramped in a temperamental old car did not have the dynamics to develope into an interesting story  - but if the characters turned out to be a communist and the other a priest, both riddled with doubts about their respective faith and belief; and the story was penned by the strokes of a genius writer, think again ! Monsignor Quixote received a promotion unexpectedly after having given shelters and a meal of horse meat steak to a religious big-wig and thus began his motor journey across Spain, using his faithful old car, "Rocinante" with a mayor of communist-leaning ideals. Along the way, the two would share bottles of wine, making themselves suspicious to local policemen, giving a lift to a robber and would at the same time, exchange their view points over religion and politics.

Some thoughts after having read the book : The author's wit and intelligence came to mind immediately when I came to write this little amateur review. Running parallels between Communism and Religion could easily backfire if the subjects were to be treated without care and resulting in disappointment and dismay from both camps. But GG did the job of delivering the contradictions and similarities between the two camps admirably and with sure-foot confidence; with tons of laughter and memorable set-pieces along their motor journey across Spain. To name a few of the hilarious scenes, a confession of a dishonest funeral undertaker, took place in the male lavatory ; the Monsignor and the mayor trying to out-wit the ensuing local policemen ; the two men went into a cinema watching a soft-pornography film with vastly different attitudes and expectations - the mayor hoping for a more overt version whereas the priest found it hard to figure out how such a film can be named "A Maiden's Prayer". Enlightening, thoughtful and amusing but not the laugh-out-loud kind of book.

Would I recommend this book to you : Read a Master at work, effortless and plenty of wit ! Greene also threw in his two-cents sideways, on the topics of Communism and Religion, making excellent arguments as well as mockery of both camps. The mayhem at the festival in the last 40 pages would stay with me for a long while - hilarious yet unexpectedly shocking.

The Silent Patient

Book Name : The Silent Patient

Author : Alex Michaelides 

What is it about : Alicia shot her husband Gabriel five times in the face and refused to utter a word ever since. She was charged murder by reason of insanity / diminished responsibility and was sent to a psychiatric ward, The Grove, to be "further analysed" and "mentally assisted". Out of reasons only he knew better, psychotherapist, Theo,  himself a victim of parental abuse and a failing relationship, came in to The Grove, to attempt rescuing Alicia from this damaging downward spiral, only to find himself being drawn into a dark past which he had no escape.

Some thoughts after having read the book : To become the present day best sellers, one would need to write the story in easily-digestible chunks of 5 pages to no more than 10 pages per chapter - just as not to be over-taxing our present day attention-lacking general reading public; so they could have an easy read with the occasional check for their incoming SMS or get themselves a refill of wine and so that the book would not hurt their brains too much with over-length development which they failed to cope and would eventually give up - instead with the book divided into simple chew-able bits and in reaching the end of the book, they would reflect : "oh, that was a pleasant, wonderful straight-forward read, I would give it high marks.". The style and structure of this bestseller deployed exactly such technique; so in my case, my train of thoughts and concentration were constantly disrupted by the shortness of story development and I felt rather annoyed at the lack of substance to feed my curiosity and hunger for a solid read. And yes, of course I could have read more pages in one go, but in that case, the book would be finished quickly without much to mull over.

Would I recommend this book to you : The book would receive a good "Pass" grade from me, although the story-telling had an artificial feel to it and did not flow easily since the book was divided into too many short sections, as I had mentioned above. The rather shocking ending would make up much of the frustration but it still lacked the "oomph" to mesmersie the readers. Perfect book for that lazy holiday by the pool - a bit of barbecue, a sip of beer, a quick cool-off in the pool and a bit of reading to catch up on the story. Relaxing !