The R Document

The R document by Irving Wallace

Posted by VindhyaLakshmi on 10 Apr 2008
I read 'The R Document' over this week-end. The first Irving Wallace book that I have read ( I tried to read one in long back at school - i did not like the content too much). This book was recommended by a friend as being 'different' from the rest of the stuff that Wallace writes.

What's interesting about the book? It's an American perspective of the Emergency that was declared in India. Wallace creates a scenario where a self serving,ambitious and power hungry FBI tries to pass an Amendment to the American constitution that would enable them to declare an emergency and suspend the Bill of Rights ( The American version of the Fundamental Rights).

The build up is good. But the stuff is a little dated ( pre-9/11 book) The concern is about violence on the streets, blacks killing whites, drug abuse and stuff - hey! what were these people worried about back then? 

For those of us who did not live through the emergency - the paranoia potrayed in the book seems a little over the top - after all India survived the emergency and is chugging along reasonably well. 

Maybe I would have appreciated the book better had I read it 10 to 12 years back , before starting on the Grishams and the James Pattersons.