Is Patrick McGrath's new book 'Constance' worth a read? Find out

What we see and live in our childhood makes us the adults we are It is also true that we look up to our parents and compare the people who walk into our lives to them A daughter will always looks for elements of her father in the man she falls in love with we have hear many say But it may not always be a good thing as the mind is likely to twist facts depending on how memory recalls it Constance Schuyler lives in Manhattan and bumps into Sidney Klein a professor of poetry Schuyler is convinced that the unnecessary conviction the voice of scorn and disapproval of her father Morgan will finally come to an end with her marriage to a man 20 years her senior She can start afresh with her new father figure lsquoa new daddyrsquo She settles into his home which she finds dingy and overflowing with books only to doubt her decision to marry the fat man within months The only person Schuyler approves of and is also quite fond of is Howard Kleinrsquos eightyearold son from his exwife Constance Patrick McGrath Published by Bloomsbury Circus Price Rs 499 Schuylerrsquos character is realist stripped to the naked as she voices every thought and judgment she conjures in her head In short this disturbed woman blames her father for not appreciating her enough having to mother her younger sister Iris a flamboyant girl who falls in love with a piano player after Harriet their mother succumbed to cancer For Schuyler daddy is the problem he is the wicked father figure she hates on one hand but is obsessed with on the other hand Each and every character in the story peppers the plot with their whims and fancies Klein is the sane man who loves architecture as much as he loves marriage A fact that brings forward his practical reasoning Conversations with him up end up as lectures much to Schuylerrsquos fury Every day fights and remarks such as lsquoI am already educatedrdquo describes the couplersquos age gap and growing distance at least in the wifersquos mind While the book begins with Schuylerrsquos narration it is interesting to hear Kleinrsquos voice narrating the same events in the next chapter Men are from Mars and Women are from Venue touche Letrsquos come to the father Morgan who lives in a house with a tower in Ravenswood on the Hudson River with a miss Mildred Knapp a sort of caretaker cum oldtime neighbour Interesting the author lets Klein describe him as if to do justice to the imagination of the reader Wouldnrsquot we hate the father if a hating daughter were to introduce him Tall an oldschool man in his late sixties and a stark opposite of the image in Schuylerrsquos mind All hell breaks loose when the Kliens along with Howard and Iris pack their bags and head to Ravenswood for Christmas Morganrsquos one single confession turns her world upside down She is able to piece the broken bits and also hate her father even more But the truth sets her free once she accepts it While the build up is intense that the end is flat for many reasons A drama story can only end in certain number of ways and eventually for Constance too life takes a turn for the best Well known for his gothic fiction McGrath has painted a pretty grey picture of a marital relationship which the convoluted protagonist enters on the pretense of finding redemption from her father The hatred Constance has nurtured so long is her comfort drug an excuse for her sadness and a reason for her to falter The book is gripping but falls flat compared to the expectation it builds New releases The Great Tamasha On a Bangalore night in April 2008 cricket and India changed forever it was the first night of the Indian Premier League IPL The book examines how a game and a country both regarded as synonymous with infinite patience managed to produce such an event The author explains how Indiarsquos economic surge and cricketing obsession made it the dominant power in world cricket James Astill Rs 399 Published by Bloomsbury Faster 100 Ways To Improve Your Digital Life In the book the author tries to pack in tips and tricks one could use to stretch the limits of emails computers social networks video sites and everything else digital His point our phones computers and tablets are getting more powerful but how many of us know the ways to get the most out of them Ankit Fadia Rs 199 Published by Penguin Books Akhilesh Yadav Winds of Change The book chronicles Uttar Pradeshrsquos political history and focusses on Akhilesh Yadav who become a politician overnight in 1999 Faced with an ignominious defeat in 2007 the charisma of Rahul Gandhi and a revengeful Mayawati Akhilesh in a surprise move cycled his way to a spectacular win for his party in 2012 Sunita Aron Rs 695 Published by Tranqebar