How it all started. Review on If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon

Ask any non reader, how a book scares him. For him it is difficult to imagine why a person would voluntarily succumb to reading volumes. I used to be one myself till a while ago. Then my school?s librarian persuaded me to start reading. Then came the dilemma of choosing the first book. We sat down over a cup of coffee and started a brainstorming session. A list of books was suggested and I was to choose one of them.

Finally, after a long thought, I decided that I will start with the most famous name I had heard till then, Sidney Sheldon(after millions of copies sold, the books had to be interesting at least). And it was generally recommended in my school that If tomorrow comes is the best work of Sheldon till date. And it was then that I issued the book from my library and took a giant leap forward from a non-reader to reader.

That is why the book is so special to me (although I curse it once in a while as it has created a monster in me). But nonetheless it will always appreciate the book as it helped me cross the threshold.

The book is a fast paced, Sheldon style thriller. Tell Me Your Dreams story of a character called Tracy Whitney. The book starts with the early parts of her life. What had happened then and what inspired or rather forced her into becoming a full time ingenuous thief. Tracy is shown to be one of the most intelligent and cunning thieves and some of the tricks pulled off can only be termed as spectacular. She is always guilty about the fact that she is a thief. And she is always trying to leave the profession. But something always comes up. She resolves that she will stop being a thief from tomorrow but as the title says it alas ?If tomorrow comes?.

She meets her adversary, an equally clever, if not cleverer thief. Both of them then indulge in a number of battles of wits. But finally as it happens they fall in love. In the end Tracy is planning to leave the profession for good, but some mischievous thoughts stay in her mind.

The book has some spectacular pieces of con display. My favorite being the one where they steal the painting and another one where there is a chess game. There are many others but I had read this book so long ago that it is amazing I remember as much.

There are a number of movies that have been ?inspired? by this book. For starters the Hindi mega movie of its time ?Roop Ki Rani, Choron ka Raja? starring Anil Kapur and Sri Devi has more than a shade of this book. The Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta Jones starrer ?Entrapment? also reminds me of this one (although the plot has changed considerably).

Do read the book for its pure fun and thrill. The cleverness of the author in managing to think the stunts is also commendable.

My tastes have changed since I had read this book, but as I mentioned earlier this one will always remain special to me.