Skip to main content

The Scapegoat - Daphne du Maurier

Imagine a situation wherein your identity is taken away from you. That you have to, from one sudden day, become another person. That is exactly what happens in 'The Scapegoat'. An evening in Paris, a chance meeting with a frenchman who looks exactly like him, and John’s life turns topsy turvy. From an Englishman, he becomes a Frenchman ; from a bored professor who taught French history, he becomes a French landlord; from a loner he becomes a family man, from a life without worries and troubles he gets into one which is full of it.
The story is about how John manages to get into the skin of Jean deComte, how he discovers past one by one, constructing it bit by bit, as in a jig saw puzzle, from the daily conversations, observations and many things by chance. How he slowly , sometimes suddenly discovers that Paul is the brother, Renee brother’s wife , Marie Noel , his daughter , Bella his mistress, __ his wife , the servants ….
The book is a real page turner. Breathtakingly pacy. You read page after page, with this what-will-happen-next feeling and before you know, the story is over.
Highly recommended.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Spinning Melody and the Gateway

Reading "The Proof of Heaven" by Dr. Eben Alexander is almost like experiencing the NDE that he went through, to really be at the hospital with him where his loved ones were holding his hand 24/7 while he was in a coma, to be with him while he went through the underground, the gateway and the core back and forth experiencing the bright light and the melodious songs and the angelic being, to be able to hear with the whole being without anyone talking, to be able to see without physical eyes, to not have a concept of time, to feel a divine presence and be overjoyed to the fullest.  I wasn't feeling well over this long weekend. Couldn't go out because I didn't want to spread the flu around. Couldn't watch TV or browse the net since eyes were hurting. Couldn't sleep because, I'd start coughing the moment I was in bed. So though of reading a book that I'd wanted to read for a couple of months. A had finished reading and told me the gist, but I wanted...
5 comments
Read more

The Other World

"Ankle deep, he waded through the bluebells. His spirit rose and exalted... as he breathed in the sun-drenched air. The glorious day was in its last decline. Long shadows lay on the sward... and from above the leaves dripped their shimmering drops of gold-green light. Moths and butterflies swarmed in merry hosts... flittering here, glimmering there. But, hush. Could that be a deer?" When we were searching for "Tess of d'Urbervilles" in the library memories rushed in, almost overwhelming me.  Memories of school days when I would look at a bookshelf and see different worlds, when Hercule Poirot and Dirk Pitt and Sherlock Holmes loomed larger than life, when the reality of life was less real than those in books,  when my sadness and happiness and mood changes did not depend on what happened in the life I was living but in the lives of characters that I was closely following,  when even though the only place I had been to, other than Bangalore, that too occasionally...
4 comments
Read more

I feel the need, the need for speed

Maverick: I feel the need... Maverick, Goose: ...the need for speed! (movie - Top Gun) There was a time when I used to do things real fast – talk fast , walk fast , write fast , read fast – do everything fast. Something used to itch if I was ever action-less for a second. After continuous scolding by parents and other well-wishers I mellowed down. I consciously began to ‘think’ before I acted. But now, am feeling really bored . am wondering if I have become a slow, lazy individual ! The need for speed I feel. For speed I feel the need. The need I feel for speed, To meet only speed can succeed The feel of speed I need To do many a great deed
3 comments
Read more