Nerve Endings Firing Away

If popularity and readership are any measure, Sidney Sheldon would be considered one of the ‘better’ writers by Indians along with Harold Robbins, Arthur Hailey, or that author who wrote both The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Ask any average teenager if he or she has moved up beyond reading comics and they will proudly claim to be reading novels now and if you ask them whom are they reading, you will hear Sidney Sheldon more often than not. I’ll freely admit to having my Sheldon moments too and may have read all his books. When you start out, you think he writes thrilling and suspenseful stories but until after you have read his third novel, you can easily tell who is the bad guy after you are done with the first chapter. And it is quite simple really. I guess, he was the original Dan Brown and a flag bearer for pulp fiction.

So it is with great grief to millions of those readers I have to say that they no longer have to predict his next culprit. “Sidney Sheldon died Tuesday afternoon of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage [MSNBC]. The protagonist of his stories were always women caught in dire circumstances and succeed beyond all expectations in the sexist world of men in their lives. When asked about the recurrent theme of women power against all odds, he said: “I like to write about women who are talented and capable, but most important, retain their femininity. Women have tremendous power — their femininity, because men can’t do without it.” Critically acclaimed or not, he certainly enjoyed tremendous popularity and was bestowed with many awards. He was also the creator of the Emmy-winning “I Dream of Jeannie” TV series.

So dare I ask, which was your favorite Sheldon novel?