I Am The Messenger - Markus Zusak

The biggest fear about reading another book by your recently discovered favorite writer is whether or not the creation will be able to uphold your expectations. So even after buying the book, I was skeptical about starting the book; fearing the worst. Thankfully my fears were poorly founded. 

I am the messenger is a work of art. Not as amazing as The Book Thief (I should really stop comparing books by the same writer; I mean you can't compare a rose and an orchid. They are beautiful in their own unique ways.), but brilliant indeed. Markus Zusak is the "master of the words" and he knows how to trigger the heart strings by them to create magic.

A nineteen year old cab driver Ed Kennedy is not some protagonist you will swoon over. But a simple man ragged with flaws. He lives in a house with his foul smelling dog, Doorman. At times he meet his friends Marv, Ritchie and Audrey for a game of cards or two (in which he is terrible). He loves his best friend, but she is too afraid to lose him as a friend to love him back. His mom complains about him all the time. He is not close with his brother. He is unsure about his destiny; just taking one moment at a time. "I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness."

But by chance he foils a bank robbery with his friends and shots to temporary fame in his home town. After that incident, he starts receiving Aces of cards riddled with cryptic messages.

At first, he ignores considering it to be a joke. But curiosity takes the best of him and he starts to follow the messages trying to understand the meaning. Slowly he realizes these messages means he has to be part of someone else life and help them get through their big and small problems; he simply needs to care about their lives. He fulfills the task diligently and in the process grows emotionally. 

In the end he realizes he is not the messenger but a message himself. "I'm not the messenger at all. I'm the message." And how a simple act of kindness reflects back to the doer. And how doing things for others means doing things for yourself.

The end is a little stumbling for me but the beautifully woven words make up for that.
A simple morale woven with words so deep that penetrates your heart.
A must read not just for teenagers as suggested but for everyone. I bet you won't stop laughing at the humorous expression every now and then.

HAPPY READING

Quotes

• Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.
• It's not a big thing, but I guess it's true - big things are often just small things that are noticed.
• Believe it or not - it takes a lot of love to hate you like this.
• I'm not the messenger at all. I'm the message.
• You can kill a man with those words. No guns. No bullets.
• I didn't know words could be so heavy.
• Only in today's sick society can a man be persecuted for reading too many books.
• Of course you're real - like any thought or any story. It's real when you are in it.
• I realize that nothing belongs to her anymore and she belongs to everything.
• No, I am not a saint, Sophie. I'm just another stupid human.
• Have you ever noticed that idiots have a lot of friends? It's just an observation.
• Things just keep going as long as memory can wield its ax, always finding a soft part in your mind to cut through and enter.
• The night is alive with stars, and when I lie down and look up, I get lost up there. I feel like i'm falling, but upward, into the abyss of sky above me.
• May be one morning I'll wake up and step outside of myself to look back at the old me lying among the sheets.
• It's impeccable how brutal the truth can be at times. You can only admire it.
• I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness.

The Partner- John Grisham

Though I have not reviewed any Grishams in my blog ( My heart and the diary has a different tale to tell ;) ), the partner is not my first book by the writer and definitely not going to be my last.

A captivating read. The story moves like fluid with mysterious twist and turns, revealing the secrets in its own pace and leaving the readers yearning for more.

Patrick S Lanigan- alias Danilo Silva - a junior partner in a firm in Mississippi in his past, is kidnapped in Ponta Pora, Brazil.

He is supposed to be dead (A victim of car accident four years back, leaving his beautiful wife and daughter alone). Six weeks after his death, $90 million disappears from offshore accounts of his firm. His partners become rattled and slowly the story unfolds- the chase begins.

Lanigan realizes his partners were going to cut him out from his share of profit from the firm, which is involved in defrauding the government through overcharging schemes in a ship building contract. Fed up of his life with a cheating wife, a daughter who wasn't his and double tongued partners in his firm he brilliantly devises a plan and waits to collect evidences. He feigns his own death. After the funeral, he goes into hiding with all the money. As time unfurls, he becomes close with Eva Miranda, an associate in a firm in Rio. Later, she ends up being romantically involved with him and also becomes his partner in crime. 

After his arrest, the trial begins and weirdly enough he is able to manipulate every evidences and circumstances in his favor, but does he succeed? 

Go read the book!

The book has got a perfect amalgam of the law thriller. Government; senator; feigning own death; embezzlement; law suits; theft and ways covered brilliantly using the loopholes of the law.

Immediately after completing the book, I was flabbergasted and my first reaction was - "someone tell me this book has a sequel. It can't end this way. Eva cannot just vanish. She is too good a character to do such a lowly thing. Totally chafed by the ending." But as I re-evaluated the end deeply, I was satisfied with the twist of fate. 

I think Eva stood up for herself at last. She was fed up of being a puppet and pawn of someone else's desire. She wanted to live life on her own terms. At least she had a huge heart to get Patrick off the hook and set him free. I still feel bad for Patrick though. So much brilliance; clockwork like mind; baffling plans; so much physical and emotional assault but ended up all alone, penniless. 

But again, if every sleazy man like the protagonist (yes! sleazy because what the firm did was wrong but his method of revenge was not holy either.), his partners, the senator gets his way unscathed; I would have to start questioning karma. 

Brilliant brilliant work.

A must read by Grisham.

Change Of Heart - Jodi Picoult

I came across this book in an exhibition and since I was going berserk, splurging my wallet out; I ended up buying it along with Murakamis, Browns, Grishams and a hell lot more. (Not complaining though cause this is more satisfying than running to shops trying outfits endlessly and not finding a single one to soothe your soul). 

Anyways back to the topic. The story is nice. But I have read better stories by Picoult. The mentioned religion, gospels were balderdash for me though it plays a central role in the plot (I am not an atheist; but rather a spiritualist as one character mentions it once. And as the book suggests - you follow the religion that your parents follow so I literally have very little knowledge related to things being brought to light in this book again and again). But I believe this book was not about religion and creating boundaries but rather about finding yourself in your beliefs and breaking the barrier of stereotypes. So all is well.

Isaiah Matthew Bourne AKA Shay Bourne, who had a juvie record, is caught red-handed killing Police officer Kurt Nealon and his step daughter Elizabeth Nealon. June Nealon (wife of Kurt) who lost her first husband in an accident is heavily pregnant and devastated. The trials go on And Shay is convicted of two counts capital murder. After much heated discussion, the jury finally decides on death penalty. Michael Wright becomes the last juror to agree. 

After 11 years Bourne is transferred to I-tier at the Concord state prison. Many 'hard to explain with logic' things happen around shay and his fellow mates believes it to be a miracle and him to be a messiah. Shay confesses to one of his fellow prisoner about his desire to donate his heart to a little girl after his death to make amends. The girl is non other than Claire Nealon, June's daughter, who is in desperate need of a heart transplant. He turns out to be a perfect match but his lawyer, Maggie Bloom, has a mountain to climb. She needs to go against all the odds with the jury to suspend the death penalty by lethal injection but opt for hanging so that Shay's heart will be viable for donation.

Michael Wright who is now father Michael from St Catherine becomes Shay's legal adviser because his conscience didn't support killing someone as a capital punishment. He opts for helping Shay out to donate his heart, so both of them can find redemption. He falls for Shay's recurrent quotation from Gnostic gospels and considers it as his religious foundation to defend his organ donation desire in the court.

June is in moral dilemma. She is caught between the devil and the sea. To see her only alive daughter die or take the heart of a criminal who killed her husband and daughter. 

But as always there is a twist in the story that makes you think how can someone be so selfless? Is what you see and what you believe - different things? How do you let go? How do you forgive?

Not a bad plot but I have read better books by Picoult. Not a bad read either but the description part made me halt the book  several times and make a fresh start. If you are too aware of your religion and don't want to mess the morals with your brains just avoid it. But if you do, please keep an open mind. Or just read the storyteller, nineteen minutes or My sister's keeper by the same writer instead.

 Quotes

• I don't belong to religion. Religion's the reason the world's falling apart- Did you see that guy carted out of here? That's what religion does. It points a finger. It causes wars. It breaks apart countries. It's a petridish for stereotypes to grow in. Religion's not about being holy. Just holier-than-thou.
• If you wrong forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you don't bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.
• Did you ever notice how sometimes it's mirror, and sometimes it's glass? There's light inside a man of light. It can light up the whole world.
• Words are like nets- we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief or wonder.
• I think finding god is like seeing a ghost - you can be skeptic until you come face-to-face with what you said doesn't exist.
• Family's not a thing, it's a place where all the memories get kept.