I have started translating The wheel spins by Ethel Lina White in Marathi. It is a project for myself and it is turning out to be enjoyable.
The novel was first published in 1939 as a crime club publication. It was adapted for the big screen 3 times and for radio several times. Alfred Hitchcock's The lady vanishes came out in 1938, a year before the book was published. Later screen adaptations were in 1979 and in 2013!
The plot revolves around Iris Carr who finds that a lady she spoke to on the train, a Miss Froy has just vanished. The novel spans over the train journey and ends in London. Just a little before that, Ms. Froy is found as a sedated, totally bandaged patient who is meant to languish in a mental hospital.
A single, young woman who battles all sorts of difficulties during this brief period of time is a subject which seems to lure movie makers in nearly a century.
What strikes me however, as my translation begins, is that the novel is a work of literature. It has a literary style and it draws out its characters with deft literary touches. Sometimes the effort goes overboard but it is an absorbing read.
What a contrast with the contemporary thrillers - not crime books but thrillers! A derogatory category name actually. What is aimed at is titillation and not covering any depth.
Arguably, thrillers came to the fore with Fredrick Forsyth's books. Others that followed in this genre are fast-paced, have continuous action and they employ a very basic style of writing. Character building makes way for a whole lot of information about geography, secret service agencies and the police force, the weaponry, government plans, coups etc. Their narrative always stays on the surface as no effort is made to explore any depth. It is a money-making business and the front running authors employ a research staff to ensure that they get their details right.
Millions of copies are sold and the authors are rich people.
What they churn out is action which keeps you hooked as long as you are reading. Once done, you shake yourself and promptly forget most of what you read.
Not so with literature. Tiny details in it remain buried in your mind and come to the fore unexpectedly. Its characters are truly your companions.
We had an old Penguin copy of The wheel spins. The cover had a green border and my father always kept it with him for Bombay- Poona train travel of 4 hours, a fraction of the Trieste - London journey in the novel. The well-thumbed book was in tatters and its pages came loose. It had to be discarded, much to my dismay.
I mentioned this to my brother some years ago. He remembered it well and gave me the site of some Australian publisher. I actually downloaded and printed the book free from this website, courtesy my college room printer!!
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