April 18, 2004

The Last Juror
By John Grisham
Arrow Books. Available with Liberty Books (Pvt) Ltd, 3 Rafiq Plaza, M.R. Kayani Road, Saddar, Karachi. Tel: 021-5683026
Email: libooks@cyber.net.pk
Website: www.libertybooks.com
ISBN 0-09-945715-6
506pp. Rs325

When reviewing John Grisham’s latest offering, The Last Juror, The New York Times said: “[the book] does not need to coast on its author’s megapopularity. It’s a reminder of how the Grisham juggernaut began.” And clearly what was once begun 15 years ago (when Mr Grisham released his first book) shows no signs of ending.

This is the first Grisham book I’ve read and truth be told I did so because I swore never to pay for what I believed would be utter bestseller rubbish writing along the likes of Danielle Steele. I have, since reading The Last Juror, eaten a humble pie. Grisham is nowhere near as rubbish as I had believed it would be. Let’s face it, heavy reading he ain’t, although you may learn a thing or two about the American legal system from his book.

The Last Juror is set in the fictitious town of Clanton, Mississippi, in the 70s, at a time when racial segregation was still happening (shades of a Time to Kill?). The plot centres around a brutal crime that takes place when a young woman is raped and killed by a man she identifies before she dies as Danny Padgitt. Danny belongs to the notorious and illustrious Padgitt family who live on an island (literally and figuratively speaking) and are known for not being very nice people.

The book is narrated by William Traynor or Willie, a smart Yankee educated college hippie, who borrows some money from his grandmother to buy the small town paper The Ford County Times. You know immediately that Grisham is going to wax eloquently on journalism with the same fervour he does courtroom drama. The paper is popular for its obituaries but when Willie decides to go into crime reporting, especially when he reports every aspect of rape and murder, he runs into some trouble. But true to form, those lessons too are all part of the “learning experience” that will end inevitably with truth being the saviour of the day. The paper plays an important role during the trial with its shocking headlines and photographs as it sways the town’s opinion on what is right and wrong.

But the debate on ethics of journalism isn’t the only problem Willie has to face. It comes in the form of the powerful Padgitt family for whom things don’t look good during the trial. The thriller aspect, that Grisham has come to be associated with, comes in the form of Danny vowing to avenge those who nailed him. Have I said too much?

Also at the heart of this story is a black woman named Callie Ruffin, whom Willie befriends before the trial, and from whom he learns much about the county and, of course, life itself. Callie is the stuff good wholesome people are made of: a noble, hard-working woman who braves all racial prejudice to educate her children who all grow up to be academics — although she too has secrets to keep. Callie was the first black woman to vote in the 50s in Ford County and this time round becomes the first black juror and has a strong supporting actor role to play (the only person I could think of to play this role was a deglamourized Oprah Winfrey). You know a movie will be made of this book right? Don’t fret if you’d rather wait to watch that than read the book. — Muna Khan

The Four Nations — A History of the United Kingdom
By Frank Welsh
Harper Collins. Available with Paramount Books, 152/O, Block 2, PECH Society, Karachi-75400
Tel: 021-4310030.
Email: paramount@cyber.net.pk
ISBN 0-00-653211-X
478pp. Rs695

In the continent, as the mainland Europe was until recently referred to, if you talk of France you know it is populated by the French and Spain is home to the Spaniards. Not so in the case of the UK (official name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) where live the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish.

The story becomes all the more anomalous if you look at the sports teams of the United Kingdom, as has been pointed out by Frank Welsh in the introduction to his one-volume history — The Four Nations.

In the ‘Six Nations’ Rugby Union contest the competing teams are France, Italy, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The Irish team has players from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but in football tournaments they play as two teams. But the islands’ cricket team, comprises players from all the four nations and the team is called ‘England’ mainly because the cricketers are drawn largely from the region, which comprises 53 per cent of the UK. Strangely, it is a United Kingdom squad that takes part in the Olympics.

People from each of the different parts of the UK have their own national pride and prejudices. They want to be identified. A case in point was the Caledonian Society in Karachi, when Scottish expatriates working for multinationals and the UK Deputy High Commission used to have their fetes and dinners. One wonders if the society still exists.

Before you begin to think that the 478-page paperback The Four Nations is only about the four-nation theory (read practice, if you like) let this reviewer hasten to add that the subtitle of the volume is A History of the United Kingdom.

“This book does not set out to be a history of the British isles in any comprehensive sense,” Frank Welsh clarifies at the outset. This explains why there is nothing much about the British empire and the word conquests occurs only in the context of the conquests by the Romans. The first four chapters of the 12-chapter book are from the Roman occupation of the islands to the Reformation period. The two wars are also not referred to in any detail.

The raison d’etre of the publication is to give an in-depth description of the history of each constituent part of the British isles and their interaction. Many views on the subject, propounded from time to time, are discussed and many myths examined. And if you are interested to know how united is the United Kingdom then the last chapter is what you shouldn’t miss. The 17-page bibliography is a major plus-point of this readable volume.

Gone are the days when history sounded like mere chronology. Now history books are absorbing and that includes Frank Welsh’s volume. Proof, if proof be needed, is the opening sentence of the first chapter: “Taxes and hot baths, bishops and apricots, central heating and notebooks, tiles and coinage, surgery and rabbits, all came to Britain with the Romans.” — Asif Noorani

Tony Blair: The Man Who Lost His Smile
By Leo Abse
Robson Books. Available with Royal Book Company, BG-5, Rex Centre Basement, Zaibunnisa Street, Karachi-74400. Tel: 021-565 3418, 567 0628
Email: royalbook@hotmail.com
ISBN 1-86105-698-2
337pp. Rs495

Amidst all the controversies and jokes of the Iraq war, there has emerged a great feeling of disappointment surrounding Tony Blair. Long renowned for his charisma and acumen, Blair is now widely thought of as a sycophant to American President Bush. Nicknamed (and not affectionately) “the Poodle”, Blair sacrificed his former gleaming image when he pledged allegiance to Bush against the wishes of large numbers of his people.

In 1996, parliamentarian Leo Abse released his controversial bestseller on Blair entitled The Man Behind the Smile. Abse is a well-known reformist who as Labour MP for Pontypool (1958-1987) has introduced more legislation than any other backbencher in the last hundred years. Now, in the light of Blair’s latest policies and actions, 86-year-old Abse has revised and updated the bestseller to include commentary and critique on the politician’s premiership years.

A scholar of psycho-analysis, Abse examines the forces and influences that steer Blair. He dissects the PM’s traumatic childhood with his promiscuous grandmother, illegitimate father and the early loss of many other loved ones. Abse goes on to show how the scars and problems of Blair’s childhood left him a loner, an alienated man who sought to resolve his personal woes and quandaries in rock music and religion and then, eventually, in politics.

Blair’s life story is quite a fascinating one but Abse’s analysis is at times over-reaching and his writing style too often pedantic. His thesis on Blair’s motivation regarding his contentious stance on Iraq is also far-fetched to some extent. Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile read with an interesting look at one of the world’s main leaders today. — Hamida Dawood

Water and New Technologies
Edited by Dr Ishfaq Ahmad
Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC), Informatics Gallery, III Floor, Software Technology Park, Shahrah-i-Jamhuriat, PO Box No. 3022, Islamabad
Fax: 051-9219787
Email: gcisc@comsats.net.pk
167pp. Price not listed

This book, which is basically a collection of articles or papers, has been edited by Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, an eminent nuclear scientist, who heads the Global Change Impact Studies Centre in Islamabad. Various Pakistani scientists, whose detailed introductions have been given in the end, have contributed to it.

Divided into two parts, this is an excellent resource material for agriculturists and students of agricultural sciences. The first part encompasses the issues concerning water in its global and national perspective. The second part focuses on new technologies developed for controlling the water problem and water informatics.

The first chapter talks about the global distribution of fresh water, the hydrological cycle and the total available fresh water, the demand for water at present and in the future. It depicts possible global water balance scenarios and highlights the possible influence of global climate change. The impact of water pollution has also been explained.

This is followed by the water issues that concern Pakistan — the water resources, water requirements, wastage of water in its current usage, different types of water technologies for plains, deserts and mountainous areas along with groundwater technologies. This brings us to the second part of the book, which takes into account the emerging technological tools, which can be utilized, for conserving water resources. The first of these is the satellite image sensing for water. Chapter three highlights its use and includes deliberations on its data interpretation. Nuclear technology and its uses in conserving water is explained in chapter four, which highlights isotope hydrology and explains its basic concepts and applications. This is followed by uses of biotechnology. The chapter on it discusses the environmental stress on plants along with biotechnological advances developed in transgenic stress tolerant plants.

Although technical in content, efforts have been made to make this book easier to understand. The coloured photographs, diagrams, maps, graphs and charts are very useful as is the glossary in the end. — Akhtar Naveed Syed

The Mother Tongue
By Dr Sher Zaman Taizi
Kamil Pukhto Adabi Jargah, Pabo Seema, Nowshera
33pp. Rs30

The mother tongue is considered to be the known and influential heritage of a nation. In order to safeguard its form it needs to be granted greater importance and regard by the government and more so by its own people. Otherwise a day may come when the whole language would disappear and vanish.

All praise to the literary scholars who through their books, poetry, articles, etc., strenuously strive to save this heritage of their nation. The renowned literary writer of Pushto, Dr Sher Zaman Taizi, has dedicated his booklet The Mother Tongue to the voiceless Pakhtoons. The stack of tattered and torn books on the cover of Taizi’s book signifies the carelessness of the Pakhtoons towards their mother tongue.

Taizi has a gift for conveying sensitive thoughts in simple diction. The book is bilingual — in English and in Pushto. Quoting appropriate verses from the Quran, Taizi proves the importance of one’s mother tongue in Islam. The service of the Khudai Khidmatgars in educating Pakhtoons in Pushto in the first half of the 20th century has also been pointed out, which proves that the mother tongue can be enforced officially by the government even in the present era as a medium of education.

In a nutshell, The Mother Tongue is a positive and encouraging effort by Dr Sher Zaman Taizi in advocating and unveiling the importance of the Pushto language. Such writings are known to have brought far-reaching changes in society. — Asif Raza

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)