The Ghost

"I feel like an unusually dim lab rat in a maze endlessly confronted with alternatives, endlessly picking the wrong one". This is my favourite line off Harris's book, The Ghost. At first look at the book, I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. It's a very absorbing and a real page-turner. When I told James about the book and what it was about, he couldn't have said "Are you sure it's fiction, because that absolutely sounds like Blair." any quicker. I am not at all into politics for obvious reasons, I live in the Philippines, and ours is a big joke, an absurd one, some people call Philippine Politics a circus, but even a circus has a purpose, and more often than not, it delivers. This, of course, doesn't mean that I am clueless about World Politics, although I must say that I don't get out of my way to understand it completely. But my husband knows a hell of a lot more than I. He likes to watch the news, read the news, absorb the news, tell me the latest news, give me links of interesting news on BBC website, and every thing to do with the news! So I thought he might like to read The Ghost, and it sucks because I wanted to tell him about it especially how it gave me goose-pimples right after reading the very last paragraph. I've never read any book by Robert Harris so I googled him and learned that he's a reporter of BBC and was a friend to Tony Blair until The War on Terror. To be honest, I don't really care what his stand on World Politics is, or the war on terror, but I have to give it to him for having written a fantastic book. But I know that for those people who are not neutral, or anti war on terror, it is a different story. And that is another reason why I don't like politics, it makes people stubborn, angry and hateful because their minds are closed. It's a close second to Religion, if you tell someone your views on it, and if they are different from theirs, a heated argument is likely to begin. They immediately think you are trying to change their views on it when you try to voice out your opinion, but they do not see that they are also doing the same when they start laying out the facts and reasons as to why they believe what they believe. So you can imagine, I never talk about politics or religion with any one I know because it is pointless. It doesn't mean I have no opinion, because in fact I do. It's just that I'd rather be living my life than wasting it on trying to change other people's mind on something they have obviously and passionately made their minds up about already. And to be honest, there are enough people in the world to do that, I'm just thankful it is not me, or any one in my family. Living life is a lot better than telling people how to live theirs, or relying on Politicians' empty promises. They aren't there to help their country and it's people, they are there for power, let's not be hypocritical. This book made me think of the possibilities that it holds facts within it, but I'll never know the truth, because unlike Robert Harris, I don't have a heart for this. This book has a heart, and that's what makes a book great.

I like the review on The Ghost found on this website.