Fiction. Short. A story of two men and how they stick together through trying times. The ending was surprising despite being somewhat predictable. Nicely written but certainly not my taste.

Language: Most dialogues are written to additionally convey the accent used. I did not find that very helpful. Otherwise, of course, well written.

Impression (long): A story about two friends. It is written almost as a play with different chapters acting as individual scenes. The story itself, however, I did not quite like. The first friend (I still don’t remember his name, damn it) is the relatively smart one. The second is good at heart, big (and strong) but stupid, forgetful (stop looking at me) and inadvertently ends up causing trouble.

The book does a good job at painting this picture and making the reader get attached with the characters. It also keeps developing the story in a way that the reader stays hooked. For instance (spoiler alert) in the beginning the characters are evidently escaping something but it is only later that we learn what and why.

Returning to the story, the short fellow doesn’t seem to be sure if he wants to take care of the big fellow but this sentiment seems to only be on the surface. Their characters are developed a little through the description of the dinner scene. The main quirk of the big guy is that he likes to pet things, so much so that he would even pet a dead mouse if he is unable to find something else. This is what got them in trouble in the first place (he was petting a woman’s cloth; when she realised and tried to retract it, he panicked and held it even more tightly; the woman reported he tried to rape him.) and it is this that leads to the end of the story. We learn more about them as the story progresses. In particular, the Big guy is repeatedly told (by the smart guy) to never open his mouth and let the smart guy do the talking. Further, the smart guy explains to the big fellow, precisely what to do in case he, the big fellow, gets himself into some trouble. Comically enough, the big guy repeatedly forgets this and the smart guy has to keep reminding him. The one important thing they discuss here is their dream plan—save enough money to be able to buy this piece of land that the smart fellow knows through his connections and live their lives at their terms. There is also this theme of friendship: most people like them, who work on the fields of other men, do it solo but the big and the smart fellow take pride in being together. They don’t waste their money on prostitutes. They have a plan.

They finally reach their destination—a safe location where nobody knows why they had to flee and where they can work a few days. Here most people seem nice, but there is this son of the boss, call him E, that seems to immediately have a problem with the big guy. The smart guy tries to take control of the situation but the big guy mumbles something that partially betrays his stupidity/reason for fleeing. Nothing happens just yet but the smart guy has a bad feeling about this (TODO: there’s a word to express this sentiment). The book then develops on the other characters in the book, perhaps to keep the mystery of what follows alive or perhaps to indirectly develop further the main characters. I will skip all that and come to the wife of E, let’s call her M. M is seen by the others as a woman who tries to make advances at everyone, although their reasons for reaching this conclusion seem ridiculous to me. She’s labelled a cunt as well, at some point. M indirectly justifies her position: she is locked up all day in the house and there’s nobody for her to talk to. Humorously enough, E spends his time looking for M and M looking for E. It is portrayed as a part of a conversation very appropriately. In fact the author handles the emotional states of different people quite nicely. There is this episode with a old man and his old smelly dog but let me not digress. The big guy and E have a fight at some point because E hit the big guy for no real reason. The big guy resisted for a while until he was hurt enough to get angry and then he ended up breaking E’s hand. It is decided that the official story would be that E’s hand got caught in some machine, so as to spare him the embarrassment of having been defeated. After this episode, and various intermediate events (like the smelly dog story) to mellow down the mood, M almost obviously figures it was the big guy who broke E’s hand. There is some bonding between the two which was a break for M because most of the other guys, especially the smart guy, would steer clear from her so as to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

The crucial scene is where the guys are away and the big guy is playing with one of the pups which the smart guy had arranged for him. He inadvertently kills the pup and is busy contemplating how to proceed. Then M shows up. She confides in him about not liking E and regretting not pursuing her own dreams. Then the big explains how he likes to pet things. Taken by surprise initially, M eventually relates and says she also likes the touch of silk, soft things, even her hair. You see where I’m going with this. M invites the big guy to feel her hair. It starts out ok but then when she asks him to stop, he doesn’t realise (I don’t remember the exact details) and then when she freaks out, he freaks out as well. Unwittingly, in the panic, he ends up breaking her neck. He doesn’t even realise this initially, thinking that she stopped freaking out and fell asleep. Later he does realise and follows the emergency plan that the smart guy had him memorise. If you want all the twists and turns, I would encourage you to read the book. The smart guy learns about this shortly after. He realises that E is going to kill him. He tries convincing them to have a trial (or some such if I remember correctly). They all start looking for the big guy. The smart guy manages to get the big guy alone with himself towards the end, with a gun. And then the smart guy placates the big guy, while the others catch up, and pulls the trigger on big fellow.

There you have it. I somehow could see this coming but still actually reading the ending was shocking for me. I did not particularly like the story. It was about friendship, a topic I usually like, but there wasn’t anything particularly entertaining for me, nor was it informative. Perhaps it only goes to show my coldness.