Jonathan Livingston Seagull (JLS) was a masterpiece. I savoured every minute of reading it and was so impressed that strangely, for a long time i resisted reading more of Bach. I didnt want to lose "the feel good" factor. Illusions was strongly recommended but i resisted the temptation. But when i chanced upon THE BRIDGE ACROSS FOREVER while roaming the Sunday roadside market of Pondicherry with my uncle, i cudn't hold back any longer. Ok, the fact that my uncle recommended it was good enough but what clinched it was the fact that it was priced at Rs 10 :-)
300 odd pages later, i understood why this book evokes such extreme reactions and reviews - With good reason too. To cut a long story short, TBAF's about Bach's seemingly endless quest to find his soulmate. Every person who's ever been in love or who's looking for love can relate to this. Bach explores varied emotions like love,insecurity, fear, despair, success, betrayal and handles them with such aplomb - transporting the reader effortlessly into his own world so much so that soon we begin to go through his emotional rollercoaster.The book's "literally" laced with striking metaphors,liberally dosed with flowery prose and takes the reader on alluring trips up and down time. On the downside, Bach does tend to go overbo(red)ard with allegorical references.The stories of flying do not strike a chord with all and the book becomes a drag once Bach and Leslie start on their sermonising tours. Towards the end, one also gets the feeling that the book could have been a good 50 pages shorter.Still, for those people who are on the lookout for their soulmate, this book offers solace and is a real eye opener - it asks to open our hearts, look within and not to give up hope as there is someone yearning for us as hard as we're pining for them :-) How corny !!
A few lines from the book to help you make up your mind:
She reached out and touched my face..."Did you ever feel," she said. "that you were missing someone you had never met?"
"The only thing that shatters dreams is compromise."
"Look in a mirror and one thing's sure: what we see is not who we are."
"We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and LOVE!"
2 comments:
and btw have you noticed any similarities between flatland -1884 (a two dimensional world ) in which one polygon chances on a higher dimension and JLS.
"Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines,Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows--only hard with luminous edges--and you will then have a pretty correct
notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe:" but now my mind has been opened to higher views of things."
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