Reading pleasure
Novelist Harold Robbins is on to his latest story -- this time, it's going to be his own biography (The Jakarta Post of July 5, 1996).
The master storyteller claims that all the characters in his novels were indeed real but the books written as fiction to protect the guilty. With tongue in cheek, the popular author quips: "The fun of writing a biography is that if I lie, who is around to contest it?" Well, one fervently hopes that his autobiography, even if it turns out to be fictitious, will be just as exciting and interesting as his other blockbusters.
We should, however, remember that an autobiography is still an incomplete life story, with its last chapter missing.
The celebrated trio of Arthur Hailey, Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace delighted us, some years ago, with their authentic and incisive writings. Their well-researched novels were mostly woven around plots from real-life situations, the backdrop being provided by industries as varied as airlines, automobiles, banking, hospitals, hotels, media and motion pictures.
Through such superb novels, one enters the world of the rich and famous and gets a ringside view of their tales of love, adventure, power, passion, competition, conflicts and eventual compromises.
The novels by these best-selling authors have a truly captivating English style. A sample quote from Arthur Hailey's Hotel: "Warren Trend was like a prisoner, condemned to death at a specific hour but with the choice of suicide beforehand." You know Arthur Hailey started his career as an office boy.
At the other end of the table, there are, for light reading, the fast-paced crime thrillers by the master of suspense, James Hadley Chase, electrifying courtroom dramas by Perry Mason, sorry, by Erle Stanley Gardner (also known as A.A. Fair) and excellent detection by Hercule Poirott, sorry again, by Agatha Christie!
Of course, for romantic fiction, Mills and Boon paperbacks are the favorite of girls. For heartrending pathos, the stories by Denise Robins are a real treat.
Reading is certainly a pleasure -- he who reads will never feel alone. Let's, therefore, develop a keen and passionate interest in reading.
D. CHANDRAMOULI
Jakarta