And Thereby Hangs a Tale

***********************Spolier Alert************************
The following paragraph contains detailed discussion of the book 'And Thereby Hangs a Tale by Jeffrey Archer. Viewers of this post planning to read this book are hereby advised to stop reading at this point if interested in reading the book later with the element of surprise.
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Had to include a spoiler alert. It's only fair since I would expect one if it were me. :)

I read a Jeffrey Archer book after a long time. When I started reading the first short story 'Stuck on You' I was quickly surprised. I didn't expect Lord Archer to be this unoriginal! The main idea of this story exactly like the one which I had read in my English book in school! I didn't recall the name of the story or its author but after some googling I found that it was a story called 'The case of the Sharp-eyed Jeweller' by Nicolas Bentley. He had marked this short story as one he heard in real life. So may be he heard the story from someone.

I went on to read the rest. The other stories were a little predictable - typical Jeffrey Archer style. But it was still good. Then I came on to this story 'Blind Date'. To say that I could guess the rest of the story from the 1st paragraph would be an understatement! It was too predictable. After a little more of google's help I found that it was based on a Ruskin Bond story. Hmm.. guess Lord Archer's getting a little rusty.

The story based on the Indian characters made me laugh a little. Though some of the details were true I wondered if they all could be. The story looked more like some anglicized version of an Indian love story. He tried to be as close to the real story I'm sure. It's really based on the fashion designer Nisha Chowdhry and her husband whom Archer met on one of his trips to India (he used the real names). I read that that this story is going to be made into a Bollywood movie! I don't see why they have to do this - because love stories based on caste differences and related masala have been told and retold a thousand times.. Just because Archer made a mention of it makes no change to the situation.

Jeffrey Archer books are mostly feel-good books like Rajni movies. The protagonist in the story is single-minded, knows his/her dreams, is really industrious and after going through various obstacles finally manages to get what he/she is most after. Very insightful observations are also included. Very rarely some of the short stories do end in irony though. That pretty much summarizes his writing style but still I never tire (haven't yet at least) of reading his books. :)