Like the neighbour with starry aspirations, there are some jewels of truth here: The essays on "Mining the Mahabharata", "Bharatiya Sanskriti in the Big Apple", "The Cultural Geography of Criticism", and various freewheeling essays on the unique geopolitical complexity of being an Indian English author adrift in a sea of western culture are enlightening, insightful and very rewarding.
While the critics—like this one—may wax critical about how genuinely Indian writers like Tharoor really are, or are not, the fact is that he is a practising author pursuing the most difficult of paths: that of the insider who chooses to live as an outsider, yet continues to report from within. In these essays, he strikes hardest and most passionately, raising sparks of valuable illumination into the inner mind of the literary exile.
Perhaps this is why his comments on Rushdie, the epitome of literary exile, ring so heartfelt and true. In these pieces, you see the "Tharoor of India: From Midnight to Millennium", and wish he would write more non-fiction like this, more essay-length insightful personalized self-commentary on the condition of being Indian abroad, and of being a quintessential babu-educated (a Stephanian no less) bhadralok in the international sharkpool.
In other, more general essays, Tharoor is readable at best, and completely vapid at worst. This is a slim book with only a few dozen pages really worth the price, but those pages are a glimpse into the larger, more ambitious book that Tharoor could write someday, something neither autobiography nor literary essay, a sustained literary rumination on the life and times of a career diplomat and author. Then perhaps at last, he will no longer need to spend his space rubbing shoulders with literary stars and become one himself.
ed: JH
Article comments
1 - Victor Lana
Ashok,
Quite an interesting post. What troubles me (as a writer) is the thought of only being able to write a book once every ten years. Luckily, I'm not quite so busy.
2 - Ashok K. Banker
Hey, Victor, You said it. But I guess that's why we (I'm presuming on your behalf too) are full-time writers and wouldn't give up the insecurity and freedom-to-write-at-will even for a job at the UN!
3 - Aaman
Good book-find - thanks. I loved his Great Indian Novel, with Priya Duryodhani, et al.
Shashi Tharoor used to be a quizzer too, I think, from Calcutta, with Derek O'Brien's gang, perhaps, from Dalhousie Institute - true bhadralok:)
What were his comments on Rushdie?
4 - Ashok K. Banker
Comments on Rushdie? A bit bitchy. The book's just okay, but the Mahabharata essays are good. The rest is more literary gossip than intellectualism. Then again, is there really a difference? :~) (And that's me being bitchy now!)