My Literary Pursuits

I am a queer type of teenager. I am disposed to Danielle Steel's works. That is queer, right? Reading her books, I always get the feeling that her work is meant for a family's breadwinner or in general, anyone who is past the age where he or she has to tone down the wild fantasies and start toiling under the veil of 'responsibility'. I had just finished reading her 'Toxic Bachelors' and was stunned by how I was able to relate myself to it so easily. Maybe, my experiences in life of friendships, though fewer, were exactly mirrored in lines of all the protagonists. Whatever be the case, this work of Danielle ranks right at the top for me. I have read quite a few of hers, and, I will admit that none of that has disappointed me yet.

Charlie, Gray and Adam were the typical normal-day people, albeit a little too successful. You could argue that success got to their head and thus they had this wishful thought of replacing companionship with materialistic pleasure. But that isn't the case. As any well-compiled narrative, the book takes us through the group's journey from being emotionally insecure and hopeless (pertaining to relationships)  to feeling connected and adjusting with another human, for the joy that sharing always gives. We do not see any connection between their girlfriends, but even they end up liking each other. This is pretty surprising. Published in 2005, it is almost a decade since. It is as if Danielle has future-thought that novels of this age mostly would have a horrible rape scene or a murder scene or any such related scene vividly or at the least , described in a fashion that leaves the readers shuddering at its recounting. She does none of these. Her work contains very minimal such scenes, and she almost often ensures (there are exceptions, as always) that the readers feel good after any particular story, thus lending to the overall fascination that her books give me.

Even though I love her books, one fact that I find disturbing is her tendency to explain her characters threadbare. A short physical, mental and relation summary would suffice instead of the long paragraphs that she employs. Her seamless transition into the story is once again on view in this book. All in all, this is quite an emotional read and I would advise anyone reading this novel to be alone in a room, solely to imbibe its true worth.