As a great fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I take great interest in reading anything written by him or about him. He is almost like a Godfather to me though there is no way that I could meet him. I have read Sherlock Holmes series, the Brigadier Gerrard stories and other few of his works. I do not take any particular interest in reading biographies but it was only because of the impression of Sir Doyle that I was forced, by my curiosity to learn about his life, into reading a few of his biographies. Through these I learnt a lot about the life of the great author.
I was particularly intrigued as to how did he conjured the idea of creating Sherlock Holmes with so cunning a logic that defies human powers. I searched for my answers in this book but never got any answers. They hinted at some incidents which indicated that the author himself acted as a detective at times, but never really went in depth to describe some of his real life adventures. Then one day in my newspaper, the old faithful Deccan Chronicle, I learnt about this book by Julian Barnes.
The book is indeed a promising one there can be no doubt about it as it was short-listed for Man Booker Prize in 2005. The story, as it is clear on one look at the cover, deals with the lives of two persons, one our own Sir Arthur and the other George Edalji, a victim of Great Wryley outrage. The novel beins at the beginning i.e. from the first.
The life of two moves side by side slowly and swiftly with all the events described in a feasible manner, this is where Julian Barnes scores over others and exhibits his finery of weaving tales.
The book begins with the protoganist, yes our own Arthur. He watches his mother cooking food in the kitchen and narrating the stories of the gallant knights who killed their opponents with ruthless passion and brought home their prize, the girls they loved, who in themselves exemplified the beauty. While poor old george grows up in th