Saturday, July 31, 2010

Thanks for the memories

I have lately started finding logic in almost everything around me and actually get irritated when I dont find it. Picked this habit from someone else but now it has become a way of my life. That is why , Thanks for the memories, my latest read failed to strike a cord with me. Although my search for logic has not made me a non-believer in fairy tales and with Cecila Ahren, I am prepared for a great treat of fairy tales. But Thanks for the memories tried to mix up science and imagination, which may sound quite cool right now since I am not being specific. But no , it was not. For the record let me mention that this does not mean that I didnot like the book because I always love Cecilia Ahren's sensitive writing. All her previous reads has unexplainable events which were perfectly acceptable to me. Lets start with her first novel P.S I l love you ...nothing really "fairy-tale" about this one actually. A dying husband writes some letters to his wife which are delivered to her one by one after his death hence keeping his memories and in a way,him,alive. It is a story of how the girl survives the death of her husband and tries hard to move on. Romantic, sad, moving and in parts draggy and boring. But, nevertheless, lovely!
The next book I read was "The Gift". Story of an overambitious man who gets some pills which makes it possible for him to be in two places at one time. Now! there is no explanation to it and sincerely it is not possible. But this book is so far my favourite Cecilia Ahren book. It has that fairy tale in the modern world thing to it which I always search for (even in my real life ...especially in my real life) Her sensitive writing again wins hands down.
Next: A place called here. This book is about a place called "Here". Story of a gardai (police officer in Ireland) who is obsessed and troubled by things getting mysteriously misplaced when you actually saw them 5 mins ago. All these things and people especially, who are lost under strange circumstances actually end up in a place called "here" She finds this place when she herself gets lost while jogging. Although quite an intriguing story, I didnot find it very interesting. However again I loved the concept.
Fourth book: If you could see me now. Another of my favourites. Unputdownable book. Children with imaginary friends. These "friends" are actually not imaginary and not even invisible. Its just that grown ups stop believing and hence are not able to see them any more. Cecilia spins a beautiful adult love story in this basically children oriented theme and does so amazingly well. The best part of this book was that the story reveals itself so slowly and smoothly and as a reader I could just go ...."ooohhh!! Its that way!!"
The fifth one was "The book of tomorrow" where the protagonist Tamara finds a diary which tells her the future. Tamara chooses to change and not to change some of it and hence finds out a lot about her life which were previously kept under wraps by her family.
It is said that fairy tales come to those who believe in them. I completely believe in them and give them a relief from my logical explanations. Actually what went wrong with "Thanks for the memories" is this: The explanations for the weird happenings in the story is not enough. I mean just transfusion of blood does not make that connection. Actually, with all the other books the events were totally fairy tale. It was kind of binary. 0 or 1. All or none. But this one took a perfectly normal happening of blood transfusion and converted it into a fairy tale touch story. Little disappointing. But I guess ...the last page ...oh the absolutely romantic last page of the book kind of covered up for the glitches and I closed the book with a smile.

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