Paths of Glory- Jeffrey Archer

Archer’s, 2009 published “Paths of Glory” is a narrative which could be referred to as an experiment by him rather than a tried and tested format. Its story and narrative which is unlike any of his previous ones along with the basic theme of narrative, could be said to be a good change from his usual social dramas with a zest of twists and turns. “Paths of Glory” narrates a fictionalised story on George Mallory which is said to be inspired by true events at the beginning of the book. George Mallory, was a mountain climber who had died while attempting to climb Mount Everest in 1920. The story is inspired by his life and events.

What’s interesting in this narrative is that in spite of the fact that Archer was narrating a new kind of story which was different from his usual stuff, still he somehow managed to bring his various forte in to the narrative. Be it a soft clash of good versus evil, though the negative characters are not as shrewd and cunning as some of his other books, but still they do the evil act in this beautiful world of Archer’s narrative, then of course, the protagonist taking part in the War or some of the twists and turn that keep us entertained through the narrative.

The book is divided into Eight parts of narrative which covers a particular period of the entire narrative, namely, “ No ordinary Child”, “ The Other Woman”, “ No man’s land”, “ Selecting the team”, “ Walking off the map”, “ Back to Earth”, “ A Woman’s Privilege”, “ Ascension Day”. Each of the portions has a very important link to the title of that portion. The narrative basically covers the period from the year 1892 to 1924 and then comes to 1999.

One thing which surely comes out is that Expert advice of mountaineers and historians in the field of mountaineering has been surely taken and incorporated beautifully which Archer has also acknowledged at the start of the book. The narratives about the climbing have been narrated in detail and it gives us imaginary vision of the events in front of our eyes.

Also, the entire narrative about the rendezvous, in between the couple, George and Ruth touches us. Looking back, perhaps it had been really since sometime that Archer actually presented a couple in such a beautiful narrative format. The entire events surrounding the two during the courtship and post marriage, makes us love the two of them and even perhaps live with them.

What also makes the reader feel good could be said to be well written support characters who have diverse personalities and ideologies, but their ultimate goal is of course the same. Another aspect of the narrative which makes us feel for the events, is that of the character of “Ruth”. Her entire narrative has been beautifully and sensitively written.

Archer has used the “Letter tool” to the maximum is this book. The reader would surely enjoy the amazing conversations in between “George Mallory and Ruth” which take place through their letters.

One of the portions of the book, which will make you feel touched, would be the last three pages of the book where in a description has been given about the life of each of the characters post 1924. It makes you wonder a lot about life reading about each of them and what happened to them.

Archer’s attempt with this book could be said to be a great read, if not a masterpiece. It has a narrative which spans a life and which covers geographically a lot of places which we would feel great to know about. The climatic impacts have been described earnestly. Some of the events will take us back into those days of schools when we had studied Geography. The Epilogue brings quite a bit of surprise.

“Paths of Glory” gives us an insight into something beautiful and interesting.