Author: Neil Strauss
Year of Publication: 2005
Introduction: I came to know about this book from one of my friends when we were having a general discussion about girls. He recommended me this book as something that deals with seduction of women and the term 'Pickup Artist' represents those people who specialize in doing this. My main motive behind reading this book was more because of my curious nature to find out the techniques that are used in seduction. How useful has this book been? Did it teach me something useful?
The plot: When the author Neil Strauss becomes frustrated by his inability to get a girlfriend for himself, he accidentally comes across a online group consisting of the pickup artists. He learns that a person by the nickname of Mystery is conducting seminars on seduction of women. He decides to enroll for his seminar and christens himself as Style to keep his his real life identity a secret. From that moment on, his life follows a roller coaster pattern with lots of twists & turns. Whether he becomes successful in his quest & the descriptions of his various conquests forms the crux of the plot.
When you care to look beyond the sexciting story, it is a story that talks on being comfortable about oneself. It can be considered as a soul-searching journey in which the author finally finds himself. Is seduction of women & the ways that are suggested in the book the right way to find out about oneself? Does the 'End' justify the 'Means'? The author provides the answers to all these questions by the time he finishes the story.
Narration Style: Making an appealing & riveting film is no different from creating an interesting book. A great film needs a beginning that piques the interest of the viewer, then it needs to build on a story & then finally reaches a crescendo and a conclusion that links any loose ends that might have been created in the process of narration of the story.
The author follows the same pattern described above during the narration of the story. The book starts with a scene describing the author taking Mystery to the mental health center for assistance. Then, the author goes back in time to describe the series of events that led to this state of affairs. Till the last 50 pages, the author concentrates on narrating the past events. In the last 50 pages, the author moves to the present and concentrates on closing the loose threads that he had created. The fact that the story describes the actual events that took place in the author's life makes the job of the author really tough. He has to concentrate on the really significant events so as to ensure that the reader is not lost in his narration of inconsequential events. The author does this with perfection, never letting the reader lose interest.
The only grouch I have regarding the style of writing is the explicit description of some of the sexual encounters. This could have been avoided but again, I should have expected that from a book of this type in the first place.
Bottom line: I would have surely recommended a personal copy of this book if not for the fact that the writing is explicit in some of the places and this book wouldn't sit well in your personal collection. Get a copy from the library/friend, read it in private & return it before your parents catch you reading it. An excellent read for the simple reason that it asks people to explore and dig deep within themselves to find solutions for their shortcomings.
When you care to look beyond the sexciting story, it is a story that talks on being comfortable about oneself. It can be considered as a soul-searching journey in which the author finally finds himself. Is seduction of women & the ways that are suggested in the book the right way to find out about oneself? Does the 'End' justify the 'Means'? The author provides the answers to all these questions by the time he finishes the story.
Narration Style: Making an appealing & riveting film is no different from creating an interesting book. A great film needs a beginning that piques the interest of the viewer, then it needs to build on a story & then finally reaches a crescendo and a conclusion that links any loose ends that might have been created in the process of narration of the story.
The author follows the same pattern described above during the narration of the story. The book starts with a scene describing the author taking Mystery to the mental health center for assistance. Then, the author goes back in time to describe the series of events that led to this state of affairs. Till the last 50 pages, the author concentrates on narrating the past events. In the last 50 pages, the author moves to the present and concentrates on closing the loose threads that he had created. The fact that the story describes the actual events that took place in the author's life makes the job of the author really tough. He has to concentrate on the really significant events so as to ensure that the reader is not lost in his narration of inconsequential events. The author does this with perfection, never letting the reader lose interest.
The only grouch I have regarding the style of writing is the explicit description of some of the sexual encounters. This could have been avoided but again, I should have expected that from a book of this type in the first place.
Bottom line: I would have surely recommended a personal copy of this book if not for the fact that the writing is explicit in some of the places and this book wouldn't sit well in your personal collection. Get a copy from the library/friend, read it in private & return it before your parents catch you reading it. An excellent read for the simple reason that it asks people to explore and dig deep within themselves to find solutions for their shortcomings.
5 comments:
An Amazingly different choice of book ! Very Interesting ! When it comes to having an open mind with respect to the contents of sex, "Kinsey" is a movie which would test most people. The movie is very tough to digest but the character of him is stunning and brilliant. Once you get to the comfortable level into it, there is lot of importance shredded out nice in the movie. I hope to write a movie review on it some day. With respect to your review, I would love to see you on a normal flow basis rather than "Headline" oriented with side titles. It would be amazing if you could come up with the exact frame of mind you went through when you were reading. That would open more doors for intense points. I know I have been saying this a lot and let me know if I am going overboard on this. I feel you have lot of content to be expressed especially in books. Let me know about it or mail me.
Nice review Nagesh! Man, I think you will make a good author. Time to write your own book! Actually I am trying to write one may be u shud become my editor :)
Back to the review...yes, 'The Game' is a very good read, not only entertaining but also enlightening in several aspects! I am normally a slow reader, but I finished this one is two days. I agree if not for the explicit language, it would make a good book for common readership, but personally I did not mind the masala.
To add to your review, basically 'The Game' is not manipulation. There are several women (especially the beautiful ones) who like to be hit on; but if they make it known, they will appear promiscous and every tom, dick and harry will approach them and disturb them. So they behave like bitches. Every man is after beautiful women, but for the fear of rejection they bury their desires behind shyness and pretended indifference. This is a social 'game' to bring these two players togather.
However the author realizes that the lonely mind is like a bucket with a hole, however much you fill it it's gonna become empty sooner or later. He comes close to realizing that filling more and more water is not the solution, but going within and fixing the hole is the solution. What I love about 'The game' is the author's honesty and humility. It reminded me of Gandhiji's 'The story of my experiments with truth' where without fear of social judgment he discussed even his personal sex life. In both cases I did not agree 100% with their conclusions, however I did learn a lot from the honest account of their adventures.
Machi.. When I read about the comment from Kannan on Manipulation and beautiful girls... I just had a flashback to 10 years from now.. U were hearing the same details from me.... remember!!!!???
Ashok,
Answers to your comments
1) First & foremost, pls keep Ur comments coming. It doesn't matter how many times U have told me about something. Putting the exact frame of mind that I went thro' when reading the book is not something that I get naturally when I sit down to blog. It is something that I have started working on. It would probably take me sometime to get that. Till that, feel free to bug me.
2) I don't think I would get out of the "Headline" oriented stuff anytime soon. If I were a reader, I would prefer reading something like this as the reader would grab the salient points very soon. Something on the lines of a "Short & Sweet" advertisement that makes an impact soon.
Kannan,
Thanks for Ur compliments. From ur comments, I feel like trying out the 'Game' on a few beautiful women!!! Btw, did U try it out there sometime? How was the results?
Murali,
Very true. As I keep saying to my friends, U r my 'Guru' in the matter of interaction with gals!!!
Also, I don't know whether it is a matter of "Sour Grapes" or of losing interest but I have not been interacting with gals that much after GCT days............. Any ideas on why it is that way?
Cheers,
Nagesh.
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