On Reading and Writing about Fiction from India

Writing here yesterday (12/31/11) about Anita Desai’s new book reminds me of how much fiction by Indian writers, and about India, I have read over the years. This is yet another result of my childhood there. It also reminds me of how for several years -- I believe in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but I could be wrong about the years -- I wrote a column on books by Indian authors and about India; this column was published in the alumni magazine of my school in India, Kodaikanal School, widely known as Kodai. I believe the magazine, and the column, were published twice a year. I loved researching, finding, reading, and writing about the books. There were fewer India-related novels available in the United States back then than there are now, and I didn’t have the benefit of the Internet in finding them. But I kept my eyes open when reading magazines with book reviews and publishers' catalogs, and when visiting bookstores and libraries, and occasionally got recommendations from fellow Kodai alumni and other friends. Each column discussed several books, so the “review” of each book was brief. In a way, that column was an ancestor of this blog... At a certain point, I stopped the column because I was too busy to continue, but I remember being reluctant to give it up. Writing about Desai’s latest book brings me back to that time, as I remember reviewing some of her earlier books in my column: definitely “Fire on the Mountain” and “Clear Light of Day,” and also, I believe, “In Custody.”

On another note: I wish you all a very Happy New Year, and plenty of good reading, in 2012!