Top of the world* - Shonen Knife

Last nite, I had to apologise to me wife - she had to go to sleep first as i was planning to stay up to finish a book i was reading! So after saying our prayers, i left her to go to sleep and went back to finish my book. No prizes for guessing that it was a Jeffrey Archer book!

Just like the previous Archer book i read (A Prisoner of Birth), this book really got a hold on me too!!!! Archer is such a wonderful storyteller!

I have vad this book for so long - one of the few novels that i bought as it was really cheap. So i have not gotten down to read it. I have been renting books all along and finally, i decided to take a break from the other books i've been reading and start on this. It was like driving in an expensive sports car after using a Proton Saga for so long!!!!

This book is about a man called George Mallory. He has a passion - climbing mountains. Simply because they are there! And his ultimate goal was to be the first man to reach the top of the world - Mt Everest! Yes, this book was set in the early 1920s.

The books starts of with a prologue - where we are told that Mallory's body was found on Everest. They however did not find his wife's photo that he carries with him. Someone cheered over this. It took us over 50 chapters to understand the significance of this!!!!

So even tho we are introduced to Mallory knowing that he eventually meets his untimely end on the mountain, it does not spoil it for us.

Archer is simply brilliant as he takes us to meet Mallory as a young boy and follow his story as he grew up and eventually ended up at the top of the world. But did he make it to the top? Well, this is all revealed only in the last chapter...

It was to my pleasant surprise that the book was based on a person named George Mallory! And yes, he loved climbing and was trying to be the first man to reach the top. You can read about him in Wikipedia here.

Still, Archer tells the story like a master! To some extent, i could identify and put myself into the story - just a little bit. When Mallory was in Cambridge, when he travelled to India and when he struggled up the mountain. Well, i did made up Mount Kinabalu which is around half the height of Everest!!! =)

I was hooked on it and each nite, i had to reluctantly put it down to go to bed. Last nite, i *had* to finish it - and i sat alone in my dining room, reading and crying.

Can't wait to get my hands on the latest Archer!

*Their alternative remake of the Carpenter's classic.