I am home for the past couple of months and have been lately reading a lot of medicine-oriented books (simply coz I opted out of it and chose engineering for life, but still am fascinated by the profession). Well my college starts in a couple of weeks and so I thought I’d pick up a book centered in a college that everyone aspires to graduate from Harvard University. this is Erich Segal’s The Class
The story begins with the coming together of 1162 young talented men at the Memorial Hall of Harvard university in 1954 to register as the future ’Class of 58’. All being impatient, curious, terrified, blasé and numb. Freshmen, a few of them who had toiled their way into Harvard and a few others had already arrived luminaries, born directly in the limelight. But on that day in 1954 more than a hundred other potential comets were waiting to burst from dark anonymity to light up the sky. Then finally culminating in their 25th reunion. The class is about
Danny Rossi: a musical prodigy. An introvert, petite chap turns into a successful Symphony conductor, a musical sensation. A man quadraphonically surrounded by music and applause and an unending parade of women presenting themselves for his sexual signature. His real problems were too much fame, too much of piano and too many women all too soon.
Ted Lambros: spends his four years as a commuter. He was obsessed with his desire to climb to the top of the Harvard academic ladder, heedless of what it would cost him in personal terms. His life only revolved round brutally difficult seminars in linguistics, a preposterously difficult language, intuiting general meanings of passages and classical citations, comparative grammar, metrics and stylistics all in Greek and Latin (literally Greek and Latin, pun unintended)
Jason Gilbert: the golden boy handsome charismatic and a brilliant athlete learns at Harvard that he cannot ignore his Jewish background. His father had tried to suppress it so he could be treated as an American. Harvard’s priced possession when it came to tennis. He could have continued and carried on the same gait but fate had another tale to tell. He goes and fights in Israel.
George Keller: a refugee from communist Hungary. Comes to Harvard with the barest knowledge of English, but with ruthless determination, he masters not only the language but also the power structure of his country. He moves on to the White House as a political advisor to the President of the United States
Andrew Elliot: is haunted by 3 centuries of Harvard ancestors who cast giant shawdows on his confidence. He holds nothing in common with them but for fact that he too is a diarist like his ancestors. He serves the navy for a couple of years and returns to a banking profession. It is not until the sad and startling events of the reunion that he learns his value as a man. He is instrumental in bringing The Class together for the reunion and collecting funds for Harvard.
They were The Class.
Reasons to read this book
There is nothing sinister about them. Their lives are mingled and intertwined with various women, opportunities and more than anything bitter truths. At time laudatory and at times scathing. At times languid, at times magnanimous. Trying their best to be impeccable in all their undertakings. The way they juggle their work. The way they confront relationships some perfunctory, some platonic, relationships of love and friendship and of matrimony.
Facts about life are penned down so well, that you will enjoy the journey of turning its pages. It gets really interesting and enthralling. At times you are sure to feel a little heavy, as the language is too good and would require a dictionary right beside you. Human emotions, thoughts, aspirations, desires and fate are all fantastically portrayed be Erich Segal. The way someone lusts for fame, some for monetary benefits, some for women, some go for a noble cause all to their heart’s content. what it takes to reach to the top, what it takes to stay there, how much one needs to put in to make a marriage last, hoe less it takes to let it crumble down. The importance of hard work, love, friendship, and the need to follow one’s heart in everyone’s life is depicted well. Moreover it is not confined to one single scenario. It moves from Greek classical history to the Whitehouse and from Yasser Arafat in Israel to Mozart and Beethoven.
His language and style are both crisp and pleasing. It gets a little hard to fathom due to his usage and choice of words that may not be common to lay man’s language (or rather was not common to my knowledge). Nevertheless the book vitalizes your knowledge in English and leaves you enriched.
A right mix of romance, tragedy, power, history, and a gripping plot keeps the reader hooked to the book till the end. A good book that can be appreciated by one and all. One of Erich Segal’s great works.
This book has received comments like “first class entertainer”, “an absorbing page turner” and a panoramic saga”.
I call it an “ineffable vaudeville”.!
How about you?????????
PS: if anyone is wondering about my English in this article, it is because of my vocabulary enhancement. Thanks to Erich Segal!