The previous issue of "India Today' (dated September 10) carried a story on VS Naipaul, the Nobel Prize winning author. Apart from putting him on the cover, the issue carried exclusive excerpts from the forthcoming book- 'A Writer's People' by VS Naipaul.
Controversial that he is in his views, Sir Naipaul stirs up his readers who fall into two categories- those who love him and those who hate him as well as his books. His lacerating insights and observations of people and the countries he travelled brought him both laurels as well as brickbats, and also the Nobel Prize in 2001, the ultimate recognition one can aspire for.
S.Prassanarajan does a write up on Sir Naipaul ( I can't get myself to call him Naipaul- he's 74 and I'm 44 and haven't written a book yet) that is reverent in tone. He does inspire reverence what with nearly 25 books in a career spanning 50 years during which he has done nothing except write- exactly what another favorite author of mine, Maugham, did.
The excerpts from his book- A Writer's People- might stir up a lot of controversy in the country with his remarks about Mahatma Gandhi, VInoba Bhave and others. I was more interested in what he had to say about Indian English writers. He writes ' India has no mens of judging. India is hard and materialist. What it knows best about Indian writers and books are their advances and their prizes. There is little discussion about the substance of a book or its literary quality or the point of view of the writer... the most important judgements of an Indian book continue to be imported."
'A Writer's People' is one book I am going to buy the moment it is available here.
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