Wheels By Arthur Hailey (published in 1978) - A detailed novel about the automobile industry

Arthur Hailey is a British/ Canadian novelist who is said to have guaranteed his publishers a best seller. His novels were a product of considerable research and therefore very realistic and gripping. Critics say that his style was of a typical potboiler in which he took many crisis and connected them to encompass all the characters.
In each book Hailey took on a public institution and wove his tales around the characters who are the faces of this organization. The story of the institution is the story of these people involved, their attitudes, emotions, behavior is captured vividly that the reader finds a ultimate page turner. Wheels is the story of a motor company in Detroit. Some say it is loosely based on Ford motors, some say General Motors and some point to Chrysler. But it is really the story of the struggles of Detroit, the motor place.
The tale involves the intrigues involved in designing a motor car and it ultimate launch. Interspersed in this tale is a the theory of economics of car building, the assembly line politics, the competition involved, the back breaking work, family relations of the workers, race relations prevalent in the town etc. It is so real that the echoes of it vibrate even today.



The central character is Adam Trenton, a talented ambitious advanced vehicles planning manager of the fictitious national motors who is consumed by the passion of launching his own car, the Hawk which is targeted to the youth market. He puts his life and energy in to this vehicle and is involved passionately in the designing and marketing stage. He knows that the competitors are fast snipping st his heels and wants be the front trunner in the market. In this over whelming rush, he fails to see his wife and their sons at home. Erica, his wife long ignored is on the verge of a break down and starts having an affair. When even that doesn't work, she becomes a shop lifter. Adam in the mean time blissfully ignorant, has taken up a mistress who ultimately falls in love with his tender hearted son. Soon Erica is arrested for shop lifting and this makes Adam to pause and look at what his passion has made him pay.
There are other characters, none minor. Some like Matt Zaleski who ends up in a wheel chair after decades of faith full service to the company. His daughter, Barbara, an ad executive has no time to spare and is consumed with her boy friend, a talented designer, Brett DeLosanto, who shows amazing leadership skills. At last when Matt Zaleski dies he shows the way for others as a man who could not have a personal life apart from the work he did. Brett and Barbara start a new life by helping others.
The book also is a mirror about the race relations prevailing in the country. To keep pace with the affirmative action outlined by the government, the companies try to hire blacks who previously were shunned. This book tells the story of such disadvantaged men who have no social support system and are sucked back in to the vicious cycle. People like Rollie Knight are not able to survive in-spite of getting a steady job. They are not psychologically supported and the societal sanctions suck him deep in to the mafiosi, and claims his life. Other successful African Americans, like Leonard Wingate, a personnel officer, try to give back to the community and are not supported. Hailey shows the world that such token help does not lead to uplifting the poor, but creates resentment and destruction.
Wheels, I feel is the most powerful of Hailey's books. It deals with relations and relationships in a wonderful manner against the backdrop of an industry which is unforgiving of failure.

Overload by Arthur Hailey (published in 1978), challenges of power generation, politics, and tradeoff between needs and environment

Arthur Hailey, a best selling author was born in Lutton, Bedfordshire, England. He emigrated to Canada after actively serving in the Royalk Airforce as a pilot in the World War II. He started his literary career with Flight Into Danger and later came up with amazing titles like Hotel, Wheels, Final Diagnosis tec. He moved to the Bahamas with his writer wife Sheila, and continued to churn out best sellers. He died in November, 2004.
Overload is about the dynamics of power generation. It tells the readers about the difficulty in serving a state like California and how a simple outage can cripple the lives and economy of a nation. Nimrod or Nim Goldman is the Vice President of Golden State Power and Light, who predicts that there is a great possibility a blackout in the future. He feels the need of developing 2 or 3 electricity generating units to combat the electric famine looming alarmingly near. His company has identified sites for developing two power projects and Nim is supporting it through various channels. But critics consider these as ravings of a power hungry, greedy capitalist. Green activists and NGS's are up in arms agtainst his company and accuse them of pillaging the environment and natural resources. Apart from this the upcoming power projects are opposed by rivals and regulatory bodies.



This book has great significance even today because the hunger for power has not diminished. With lot of other Asian countries developing at a faster rate the need for power has reached its pinnacle. Hailey also takes up the case of power theft by the people. In Overload there is a special drive by the company to catch the culprits which also involves detective agencies. Hailey also refers to the problems various life saving agencies like hospitals face when there is an outage because majority of their equipmentrs like ventilators, X rays etc rely on power. Handicapped people and small businesses thrive on power. These messages are totally put across to the reader along with enviromental concerns.
Ultimately a series of controlled explosions shuts the power and California is plunged into darkness. How the citizens and the company cope with the crisis forms the bulwark of the story. Nim Goldman's personal life is woven into the story and I feel is an unnecessary distraction. Nim, a modern Don Juan, beds many women or falls in and out of love. He even has an affair with a quadriplegic woman who is totally dependent on the electric power his company generates. His womanizing attitude continues throughout the book in spite of his wife being diagnosed with cancer.
But Hailey ultimately lifts this book with good research about electric theft, shortage, environmental concerns and the effects of a power outage. Even though it was written in the late 70's the technology and concerns sound even true to this day. Overload gives us a pointer to the future as we are completely dependent on electricity for our needs. Hailey is a visionary indeed !!!

"The Men who killed Gandhi" by Manohar Malgaonkar

“Men Who Killed Gandhi” was first published in 1978. It is like a research work by the author where he tries to unearth the facts about Gandhi’s assassination. Recently, the book has been released with new documents, and rare pictures that leave the readers amused. Interesting archival records include copies of the Air-India tickets used by Godse and Apte to make the trip from Bombay to Delhi and back for the assassination and even their bills at Hotel Marina in Connaught Place where they stayed while carrying out their mission.

It is an informative book about historical facts but it reads like a thriller about a well-laid murder plan. It traces the whole events (partition of India, riots, Gandhi’s fast) leading to the assassination and the trial at Red Fort afterwards. The book tries not to take a side at all – which is a good thing provided the fact that neither of them (Gandhi or Godse) was justified. If Gandhi was not justified to go on hunger strike for releasing 55 crores to Pakistan while India was at war with them, Godse was equally not justified to kill somebody (and that somebody in this case was Mahatma Gandhi). The book states that both Godse and Apte were pledged to the cause of an independent and undivided India. And they held Gandhi liable for India’s division.



The book also points out the leniency with which police handled the events leading to Gandhi’s murder (including a failed bomb attack only two weeks ago). As per the author, if the police would have been fast enough (and would have cut through their internal egos/red-tapism) they would have surely caught all these persons earlier enough to avoid the assassination. On the other hand, book also points out the childish ways of the murders and their co-accused, how on each step they left some witnesses behind to identify them and bring them to justice. It also points out that how Gandhi was all together alienated from the realities of divided India and public sentiments during last days of his life – and paid with his life for that.