Paths of Glory - Jeffrey Archer

On May 29, 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary became the first to touch the summit of Mt. Everest - that is something most of us would remember from our school days.  Paths of Glory traces the story of another climber, George Mallory, who was the first person to have climbed Mt. Everest but no records exist as to whether or not he did touch the summit.

Paths of Glory is Jeffrey Archer's version of what happened, a novel that derives it's authenticity from George Mallory's letters to his wife, Ruth.

The son of a clergyman, George Mallory, had a talent for mountain climbing that was very obvious from a very young age.  He met Mr. Irving, who organized groups for mountain climbing on the Alps, while studying at Winchester College and that started off his moutain climbing experience in earnest.  While his heart lay in the mountains, he had to take up a teaching job to help with the finances.  He got married in 1914 to Ruth Turner and joined the war in 1915.  From 1910, Mallory participated in a lot of mountain climbing expeditions, but his final try at climbing the Mt. Everest was in 1924 from which he never returned.

When I picked up this book, I did not know that this was inspired by a true story, and neither did I know about George Mallory.  Generally, as a rule, I do not like to read detailed accounts of real-life happenings - I find them just too boring.  This book though was quite an exception.  Whether George Mallory really did touch the summit of Mt. Everest or not is a matter of speculation, but this book is more than just that.  It traces his life story, his struggles with financial difficulties while trying to carry on with his passion and his principles.  It shares the fears and the anguish of Ruth Turner and George Mallory in the letters they wrote to each other.  If he did touch the summit, there is no record to prove it, and the title stays with Sir Edmund Hillary.  The feeling I got after reading the book was that, though, he never did climb the mountains for the glory, and he never would care about his name being there in any book or record.

A well-written book, I would absolutely recommend giving this a try the next time you are wondering what to pick up at a library or a bookstore.

Wikipedia info on George Mallory here.

Other books by Jeffrey Archer:
Only Time Will Tell
False Impression

False Impression - Jeffrey Archer

The perfect Jeffrey Archer novel, First Impression is the kind of book that keeps you turning pages even if there isn't much of a suspense in it. It starts with the murder of Lady Victoria Wentworth, and the person who gets it done is an unscrupulous banker who has his eye on the Van Gogh masterpiece in the family's collection. With Lady Wentworth's murder, it is left to a couple of people to pick up the clues, nail the murderer, and save the family home and paintings from being auctioned off by the banker.

The key characters:

Dr. Anna Petrescu - An arts expert, she was hired by Mr. Fenston to work for his banking firm. Her work would be to evaluate the worth of the paintings that the clients pledge as security to get loans from his bank. She turns out too honest for the bank.

Agent Delaney - FBI agent who started with investigating Anna for the murders but increasingly gets protective of her as he finds out she is not only innocent but perhaps also next on the list of the murderer.

Krantz - An ex-gymnast from the Soviet Union, now a paid assasin whose weapon of choice is kitchen knives - easiest to slit throats with.

Bryce Fenston - The chairman of Fenston Finance. His company gave loans to people in need, provided they had enough art collection on the walls to keep him interested. The moment they tried to sell something and settle his debt, they would be found murdered, their throat slit, and their property would be auctioned off by the finance company to settle their loan and a few pieces of their art unaccounted for.

Lady Arabella Wentworth - The younger sister of Lady Victoria Wentworth, she inherits the family home and the debts after the murder of her sister, and she is more than willing to take the law in her own hands when it comes to setting things right.

Set in the backdrop of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, the story goes from New York to Bucharest to Tokyo, following a self-potrait by Van Gogh, leaving quite a few people dead, and many more lives in danger. This is the ideal Archer book, pick it up whenever you are bored :)

Only Time Will Tell

The story deals with the life of Harry Clifton from when he was a small boy to a much older teenager preparing to join the war against Hitler.  There is nothing much different about this book, especially if you have read most of the earlier Jeffrey Archer books.  The poor guy gets to go to school and college thanks to a hardworking mother and a lot of well-wishers who give up time and money to help him out without him ever knowing about it.  He has loyal friends and meets a pretty girl he wants to get married to.  Only hitch, her dad hates him for more reasons than one - because he was responsible for Harry's dad's death or perhaps because he knows he might be Harry's dad.  No more spoilers, but almost from the beginning you know where the story is going. The end is supposed to be a twist in the tale, but it seemed very unfinished to me.  This book is the first of a 3-part series, so that would probably account for the story being left unfinished.

Also posted here.