A quiver full of arrows- but none on target

Writing has been, for eternity, the most powerful vantage point of pronouncing one's thoughts. And as with all things with sapiens, it has a myriad of genres to it - fiction/nonfiction, religious, physcological, philosophical, detective, suspense, thriller and so on. A whole lot of asscoiated jargon. Different peeple have left their mark on different genres and some have just faded into oblivion trying to transition between two.

Being an avid fiction/suspense/detective novel reader I have grown with the likes of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot and Robert Langdon. And then I was suggested Jeffery Archer, whose A Matter of  Honour, was impressive, catapulting him to thriller writer of substance.

On the eventful day, strolling along the North Sea coastline, I was caught by a Quiver Full of Arrows by Jeffery which complimented my relaxing evening....atleast I though so.

To my surprise (and a bit of disappointment) it turned out to be a collection of short stories, something which marathon novel readers, who like to crave  for endless hours of imagination, do not fancy.

Nevertheless, I took the plunge. The stories had a moral reflection, which failed to capture the imagination. Clever stories, but inadequately presented and stories truncated, if I may say so, prematurely without indulgence. A chinese statue whose actual value hid in it's base, a coup that reunites business rivals, a child who witnesses the miracle of Chirst birth, an octagenarian's revenge on a snobbish youth in a train, a backgammon player who deliberately loses to save the opponent from bankruptcy, a cricketer who upholds the sportsmanship of Cricket make for really interesting stories. The presentation, however, is what leaves one yearning for more.

Jeffery does make one very interesting outline in this compilation, one that would certainly please the fairer sex. He very aptly portays the female protagnist in The Luncheon (where the hero is coaxed to throw a lavish lunch to the lady for a favor from her husband whom she has divorced) and One Night Stand in which the lady gets two men to drool over her and gets one of them to sleep with her!!!!!!

The USP of the book, however, lies in the pyschology of Jeffery when he wrote it.This compilation was done whilst he was in prison in 1980s. To keep the creative instinct alive in adverstiy commands respect.

All read and said, the book makes an average reading, showing sporadic brilliance, not doing much favor to Jeffery's reputation. Maybe he should have not tried to shuttle between genres and consolidated the fort of which he is the master.

Or maybe, he should have just read Panchtantra!!!