I have become addicted to Jeffrey Archer’s novels recently. This craze began when a friend lent me A Prisoner of Birth. Though hesitant at first, I was entranced by it and ran through it in 2 days, in the middle of my exams. This was 3 months ago. Since then, I have read 7 more novels by the British wordsmith, the latest being Paths of Glory, which I am reviewing here.

I toured Nepal in the summer, and was fascinated by the majestic Himalayas. There, I also came to know about George Mallory for the first time. Which is why I was extremely eager to read Jeffrey Archer’s take on Mallory’s life as soon as I got back to India. And finally, I managed to get my hands on the book, set aside a few hours in daily schedule for going through it and finished it yesterday. And did I like it? Yes!

For those of you who don’t know who George Mallory is or why he is so special, I will provide a few details here. These aren’t spoilers, since they form just the skeleton of the storyline. Mallory is, arguably, the most renowned mountaineer in the world. He tried to become the first man to conquer Mount Everest, making numerous attempts, the last one in 1924. Mallory never returned from that expedition, and his body was found in 1999, somewhere near the top of the mountain. Whether he actually reached the peak of Mount Everest is one of the greatest mysteries in mountaineering, and this book paints a part-factual, part-fictional account of George Mallory’s life, whilst trying to solve the mystery.

The first thing I noticed about the novel is that it is unmistakeably a Jeffrey Archer work. All his idiosyncrasies are present here, which, depending on your outlook, may be a good thing or a bad thing. The protagonist, Mallory, is similar to many of his other heroes in that he’s handsome, charming, magnetic… so much so that he resembles a pulp fiction character at times. The character of Ruth, George’s wife, is also the stereotypical Archer heroine. Archer usually splits his books into volumes, with each part representing a shift in tone & theme. Paths of Glory is no different, with different volumes focusing on different stages of George’s life: his education, family, mountaineering, romance etc.

Meet the *actual* Mallories.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the novel makes numerous changes to reality. Issues like this are always delicate, with many people feeling that the truth shouldn’t be distorted and that changes disrespect the actual event/individual while some argue that alterations are a part of creative license. A few properties go overboard with this “creative license” (Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor), but Paths of Glory falls squarely into middle ground.

Some changes made do help the story, and enhance its drama quotient. For example, the 2nd act of the story involves the courtship of George and Ruth. Although this love story is charming and delightful to read, one has to remember that a significant part of it deviates from the truth. Personally, I thought the novel benefited from the romance and evened the tone nicely. Also, its whimsy made me smile many times.

On the other hand, a few changes reveal such bias that you wonder if you are reading a propaganda piece. There’s no doubt on whose side Archer is as he conveniently ignores a few incidents and sidesteps many details so as to glorify Mallory. One such case is how Archer portrays Mallory as a champion of feminism. However, its telling that in real life, George was extremely indifferent when his wife birthed a daughter, grumbling that he wanted a son. Also, the end of the novel is pure emotional manipulation, as Archer implies Ruth loved only George to her death, reminiscing about him forever. But in reality, Ruth married again and according to her oldest daughter, Clare, she was “glowingly happy”.

All these criticisms apart, the book is very entertaining, dramatic, thrilling and at some points really moving (courtesy “creative license”). When I finished the novel, I was devastated… and emotional manipulation or not, Archer had got me hook, line and sinker. In such aspects, this book will remind you of Titanic or Saving Private Ryan.

I surely recommend you read this book and see how Jeffrey Archer paints a biography of an iconic personality, while at the same entertaining you with the skills he is such a master of.

(3/4)

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