Goddesses and Titans . Review on Other Side Of Midnight, The - Sidney Sheldon

I have reviewed Sidney Shedon's "Stranger in the Mirror" in these columns before, and if I were to be asked what other books in his magnificent canon can be compared in terms of scope and power to S.I.T.M, the answers would be Master of the Game, Rage of Angels and The Other Side of Midnight. The first book (M.G) looks at four generations of a remarkable business family, and the mesmerizing details of their lives stretching from the hell-heavens of South Africa to the glamour of U.S.A and Europe. The second book (R. A) is a stylishly powerful Mafia saga which sears the life of a young lady lawyer.

As for the Other Side of Midnight, it best serves as a flagship example to explain why Sidney Sheldon was one of the great story-tellers of the twentieth century. There are four protagonists with diverse backgrounds, and Sheldon puts them in his crucible - what emerges is a spectacularly textured epic that lifts and plunges us through the highs and lows of life.

Sheldon said in his autobiography that of all the artforms he was involved in -plays, movies,TV serials- he loved writing novels the best as he could do anything he wanted in them. In O.S.M ,we are thrust into the center of a thrillingly constructed courtroom drama which rivets international attention, Marseille in France pitches in with the smell of fish and scheming townfolk, we become voyeurs in the life of a young woman whose fantastic beauty is matched by her mental strength, soar into the skies where WWII planes zoom in a dance of death, peer into the colossal mind of a business tycoon who will not admit defeat, breeze past the glamour and riches of the super-wealthy and into a charmingly presented tour of the cities and countryside of Greece that is beautifully woven into the storyline. Sheldon can do anything, go anywhere and we are the beneficiaries of his largesse.

Principal Players- Noelle Page is an exquisitely beautiful young woman from Marseilles who is repeatedly hurt to the point of transforming her driven character. Though not born into royalty,she is inexorable in ultimately making herself a young empress by dint of own achievement. Severe trauma in her early life darkens her soul and cripples her kindness, and she coldly uses important men to advance her acting and modelling career while ascending to the ultimate international pedestal . Her alchemical transformation in a hotel room in Vienne, the teasing but superb psychodynamics between her and another man in Amsterdam,and sledgehammer verdicts in Greece are some of her saga's highlights .Her story also hints at that crazy thing called true romantic love.

Larry Douglas- an elite American pilot whose handsomeness and charm are as great as his flaws.He romances countless women before marriage. But we realize increasingly that Larry, for all of his gifts, is a man for whom there is no guarantee of stability even if he is given the greatest love of his life. His constant joy only  lies in constant movement and the question looms -what is the price for that?

In a work of powerhouse characters, we are also introduced to Catherine - she may not have earth-shaking magnetism but is the most reasonable and most likeable of the lot. A young American lady who hails from an unstable childhood, she is about to enter into a life of guaranteed security with a good prosperous man, when the force of love assails her. The narration is excellent in revealing her winsome nature, sparkling sense of humour, and her tough trajectory in this story..

One of the book's great strengths lies in immersing us in the dizzying power that individuals like the character- Constantin Demeris- generate, and in reminding us that we are only limited by the boundaries that we draw in our own minds .Demiris is created to fit the role of a Greek business titan -amongst the richest men in the world- who rises with his supreme mind to conquer the material universe. Starting off as a stevedore in Piraeus,a stroke of coaxed luck is enough into propel him towards exponentially expanding business acquisitions. We see that he destroys pusillanimity while constantly nurturing his giant will-power. Noelle Page enters into his orbit- they both seem to make a perfect pair in terms of almost every quality that mortals could hope to have, but they lack that crucial something which can make even poor mortals noble. .

Readers would have noted that there are ample references to 'love' here. But Sheldon is also a specialist in the physical aspect of it, and it is great fun to experience the sexual adventures of Noelle. She thrills and astonishes her carefully chosen partners before meeting her shamelessly audacious equal. When it comes to romps by other characters too, the author has this knack for building excitement and cascade of sensations while surging towards explosive climaxes and spent sated states. But sex is also used in conjunction with the characters' other talents in service of bigger aims- the episode in which Noelle wins over Armand Gautier in their first sustained meeting, is a little masterpiece by itself.

As an exercise in the myriad powers of the author, Sheldon also devises cunningly constucted courtroom victories and intrigues (cf. Rage of Angels). For this he creates the remarkable character of Napolean Chotas - a top criminal lawyer whose cunning behaviour and stealthy strategies are a joy to witness.

Sheldon is well-known for making readers deeply care about his characters. I have sometimes wondered that if Noelle Page had been ushered unscarred into marriage with a boy she liked in the backwaters of Marseille, would she have subsumed her faculties into maintaining small-town family life, or would she still have found ways to break big? On another note, I am also impressed with how secondary characters are given such filling brush-strokes. Only for a few pages at the start of the novel, we are let into life of a  Greek inspector who has a matronly wife and sweet young mistress. That ephemeral track is whipped up with such skill and investment of interest that it is enough to construct a whole petite novella. Sheldon can create magic from day-to-day life and he does not need magic realism for that.

Sheldon wrote this book early in his fifties, and early in his novel-writing career after the disapppointing "Naked Face", and what he achieves here is tantamount to winning the World Cup after stumbling in the leagues.The Other Side of Midnight has a satisfying follow-up act too, in the form of Part II- Memories of Midnight, but the first book does not need something to fill it out. It stands complete as a sprawling masterwork from which I emerged spent, asking for nothing more. This is entertainment for the Gods.