Going Postal

Source – Wikipedia

Soon as I started reading Making Money, I realized that following Moist von Lipwig’s adventures is worth every dollar. And I mean literally! The guy has nothing to lose except maybe his life and so he sets out himself to entertain the crowd while filling up the government’s coffers. Going Postal is the 1st book in Lipwig series and the 33rd in the Discworld series.

Moist von Lipwig is a professional conman if there was ever one to grace Discworld…the one of his kind I’d say. Unfortunately for him, his crimes are discovered and he is sentenced to be hanged. A short while later, Moist finds himself before Lord Vetinari, the tyrant and ruler of Ankh-Morpokh who offers him a delicate choice between taking up the job of Post Master of the city’s Post Office vs. a certain painful death. Moist of course chooses the former and so finds himself in a dilapidated relic that is the Post Office with only a Mr. Groat, the Jr. Post Master and Stanley to guide him. Their jolly little team has 2 other members – Moist’s parole officer Mr. Pump and Mr. Tiddles, the office cat with occasional help from Ms. Adora Belle Dearheart, manager of the Golem Trust. And here I must add the introduction given to Tiddles -

“A large black-and-white cat had walked into the room. It paid no attention to Moist or Groat, but progressed slowly across the floor toward a battered and unraveling basket. Moist was in the way. The cat continued until its head butted gently against Moist’s leg, and stopped.
“That’s Mr. Tiddles, sir,” said Groat.
“Tiddles?” said Moist. “You mean that really is a cat’s name? I thought it was just a joke.”
“Not so much the name, sir, more of a description,” said Groat. “You’d better move, sir, otherwise he’ll just stand there all day. Twenty years old, he is, and a bit set in his ways.”

Added to the mess are the thousands of letters and the ghost of their writers’ voices that begin to haunt Moist and of course the one and only competitor – Mr. Reacher Gilt and his company “The Grand Trunk”. Will Moist manage to restore the Post Office to its former glory while evading Gilt and his devious deadly schemes or will he fail and be hanged yet again? And with this description I’ll leave it to you readers to decide whether to pick or drop this book.

Moist von Lipwig is probably one of my most favorite characters after Hercule Poirot and Granny Weatherwax. Once he gets his rhythm going, there’s no stopping him as he sets out to woo the crowds employing some of the oldest tricks in the history of marketing. And to summarize his description – “He had an honest face. And he loved those people who looked him firmly in the eye to see his inner self, because he had a whole set of inner selves, one for every occasion. As for firm handshakes, practice had given him one to which you could moor boats. It was people skills, that was what it was. Special people skills. Before you could sell glass as diamonds you had to make people really want to see diamonds. That was THE trick, the trick of all tricks.”

As for the theme itself, there are several, first and foremost of which is the Post Office. It so reminds me of USPS…perhaps Mr. Pratchett was alluding to the British Govt Post and the possible changes that the postal system may have undergone in the last few decades. Then there is reference to the telegrams and the mobile networks…as described through the improvements to Clacks. And last but the most entertaining is the allusion to Organization and Change management, which features predominantly in the conversations between Mr. Gilt and his associates while discussing the affairs of the Clacks system. The following statement is probably also the most used by CEOs of companies worldwide -
“Gilt waved him into silence, and continued: “ – several hundred thousand dollars in a challenging, relevant, and exciting systemic overhaul of our entire organization, focusing on our core competencies while maintaining full and listening cooperation with the communities we are proud to serve. We fully realize that our energetic attempts to mobilize the flawed infrastructure we inherited have been less than totally satisfactory, and hope and trust that our valued and loyal customers will bear with us in the coming months as we interact synergistically with change management in our striving for excellence. That is our mission.””

And so with enough fodder for thought and plenty of quotes, I’ll conclude my blog post for the book – Going Postal. And to make my experience of this wonderful book complete, I even got hold of the film adaptation aired by BSkyB in Britain which was okay while not on par with the book. A hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable book through and through!

Elephants can Remember

Source: Wikipedia

Elephants can Remember is yet another noteworthy novel in Poirot series owing to its humor infused plot. The readeres are introduced to the famous crime novelist Ariadne Oliver, also a close friend of Poirot’s. At a literary luncheon, Mrs. Oliver is hounded by an obnoxious woman Mrs. Burton-Cox who is insistent on knowing the cause for the double suicide in the Ravenscroft family. Mrs. Oliver leaves the luncheon in a haste but unable to get over the strange question requests help from Poirot.

The strangeness of this case lies in the fact that General Ravenscroft and his wife committed a double suicide by a pistol and the whole affair is riddled with the question – Did the husband shoot the wife and killed himself or vice-versa?

Poirot enlists the help of his colleagues while Mrs. Oliver calls on her friends and acquaintances in the hope that “Elephants must remember something”. The facts that are unearthed though, throw a more sinister light to the sad demise of the Ravenscrofts. Will Poirot manage to bring closure to the tragedy by cracking the most seemingly impossible mystery?

Whats different about this book? – The crime or tragedy happened in a distant past meaning that the witnesses and clues may or may not exist. Poirot has a friend and a fellow investigator Mrs. Oliver helping him with this crime as opposed to having the bumbling Hastings making the most obvious observations. I felt that this is one of those few novels where Poirot’s role is limited in the sense that he doesn’t leave his office probably until the very end when he presents the solution. Mrs. Oliver then becomes the key character and, keeping in line with the nature of a crime novelist she sets out in search of clues, visiting old friends in hopes of jogging their memories. And she is indeed a detective in her own right for she asks the right questions etc.

This fast paced, humorous novel is definitely worth buying for the personal library!

Evil Under the Sun

Poirot’s on vacation again and this time its a beautiful secluded hotel in Devon. His traquility is disturbed however by the presence of the beautiful and vain Arlena Stuart Marshall whose very obvious flirtations with young Patrick Redfern is causing quite a stir amongst his fellow vacationers. One morning on his way down to the beach, Poirot witnesses Arlena leaving in a little tug-boat to the pixy cove on a rendezvous. A couple of hours later Patrick and Emily Brewster discover Arlena dead.

The obvious suspect is Arlena’s husband Colonel Marshall, who calmly rides out the storm given his infallible alibi. Then suspicion turns to Linda Marshall, Arlena’s step daughter and Poirot is then forced to re-examine the events for other possible suspects. When all seems lost, news of a similarly set murder helps Poirot nail down the murderer’s identity.

Having read quite a few of Poirot’s books by now, I’m quite exhausted in trying to bring out the qualities of Poirot in my blog. The plots pretty much follow the same pattern – the murder occurs either in a train or plane or when Poirot is vacationing. At this point, I’ve felt that the plot, the narrative, the method of examining events, the little clues everything seems to be defined by a pattern type that seems to make sense only to the author.  Either ways, this book certainly makes for an interesting read!

Making Money

Making Money is the 36th novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and the 2nd book featuring Moist von Lipwig as the protogonist. To give a brief intro - Moist von Lipwig was a crook who went by the name Albert Spangler. In the novel Going Postal, Lipwig in his job as the Post Master General, transforms the Ankh-Morpokh Post Office into one of the most successful enterprises in the city.

In Making Money, the Patrician tasks Lipwig with reforming the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpokh and increasing its customer base. Well-acquainted with the Patrician’s methods of persuasion, Lipwig reluctantly visits the bank and acquaints himself with the Chief Cashier Mr. Bent and the Chairman Topsy Lavish.  The following morning Lipwig is visited by Mr. Slant, an advocate who informs him of the death of Mrs. Lavish, and subsequently entrusts him with the duty of protecting the new Chairman, Mr. Fusspot who now owns 51% of the bank’s shares.

A reluctant Mr.Lipwig assumes the ownership of the bank much to the consternation of the rest of the Lavish family and Mr. Bent. His life is further complicated by an unexpected visitor from his shady past. Does Lipwig survive long enough to to succeed and keep the money flowing or does he fail thereby sentencing himself to death once more?

The story was a bit too long with a tendency to describe the mundane stuff but the humor was so good that it kept me going. Lipwig tries to blend it as smoothly as a wallpaper but ends up standing out due to his ability to entertain people and his love to flirt with danger. The book also brings out the humor and patience from Lord Vetinari. The unsung hero/victim of the book though is Mavolio Bent or Mr. Bent the chief cashier with a dark past which is unravelled at a gradual pace.

Setting aside the characters and the plot, this theme of this book is the banking system which thrives in almost every country owing to its rules, regulations, idiosyncrasies and what-nots. And the novel seems to take a jibe at the Bank of England perhaps what with the influence of the old money and old families on the day-to-day running of the bank.

I admire Terry Pratchett for his never-ending sense of humor…the predominant characteristic of all the Discworld books. Now combine that with the various activities/systems in the real-world and you get a brilliant piece on the denizens of the Discworld. I previously resisted reading “Going Postal” simply because it seemed boring but I’ve added it back to my TBR. Making Money is definitely worth reading!

May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss!

Quite unsure of where I came upon this book but the blurb was too good not to mention I used to follow the author’s blog before…so I’m promptly ordered in through Amazon. I wasn’t disappointed at all with the book!

Arnab Ray describes at length the idiosyncrasies that make up India and its secular citizens. The topics are varied ranging from social networking sites such as Orkut/ Facebook to his Bengali style wedding to Indian movies & their evolution. Every chapter is brimmed with humor with hinglish statements that make any Indian feel at home. I believe that the book is a compilation of Arnab’s blog titled Greatbong. Considering the stressful lives that we constantly seem to lead, this book does make you laugh or at the least put a smile on your face. This book is certainly worth the money as you can read this anytime, anywhere!