IN CONVERSATION
`I am ashamed of my first book'
GAGANDEEP GHUMAN
|
Kiran Desai on the Booker, her mother, and her feelings about her first book.
|
PHOTO: AP
Going home: `I could not have written this book without going back to India'.
SIX big studio-lights throw circles of pink, red and blue light on the globe sitting in the centre of a small table surrounded by five chairs. In this Lake Terrace room at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, Kiran Desai has come for a roundtable discussion on writing with other young writers like Gautam Malkani and Chimamanda Ngozi.
After the discussion, eager fans mob Desai. Some carry The Inheritance of Loss, with blank pages open, waiting to be autographed; others just hover around her, smiling to no one in particular. Some have messages to give. One man comes forward, pushes his spectacles to his nose and says in a soft voice to Desai "Congrats for the Booker. We are so proud." A man behind him nods in approval and comes forward to say the same thing.
Later in the evening, at a noisy café of a Downtown hotel, Kiran Desai talked about the Booker, her mother's influence on her work, and her shame in her first book. Excerpts from the interview:
Everyone is excited about the Booker prize. How do you feel?
You know, my mother was telling me; everyone is so excited there in India ... It's a honour... It's wonderful in so many ways. I don't have to worry so much about so many things now. Financially, and also it gives you a certain sense of security.
Your mother must be very happy. She was short-listed thrice. With you having won it, it sort of completes the circle. What kind of influence has she been?
I think she has been a great influence on my life and on my writing... I think I write in the same rhythm. Much of my early reading came from her books. I grew up with her taste, her readings, and I think what I inherited from her is there in my work.
But it has taken you seven years to write this book. That's a lot of time.
You know what... my publisher keeps saying that to me. You should come up with books after every two years and if you don't do that people will not remember you. And well, I think people do forget you (laughs loudly). But that's the thing with me... It takes me that much time; I am 4-5 years late on my deadline on this book.
There is a lot of emphasis on being a `young writer'.
I think it is just part of a media package. When I started talking to the media about my first book, my agent said think of something interesting about you, what we have for the media. And I was wondering what is interesting about me (Laughs)... I mean there is nothing that I do except writing and so what is interesting. So, I think it's sad that, rather than discussing the book you have written, the emphasis is on how young you are. May be that is a good way to sell a book, just be young, and may be call it a post 9-11 book (laughs)...
I was wondering what kind of anxiety it is for a writer to be an immigrant. How does one really articulate that in a book — the sense of loss, and not being able to re-claim it ever.
Well, we are not in charge of our own destiny. I mean now I have been moving to India, spending time there and I realised that I could not have written this book without going back to India.
Though my family is scattered — in Pune, Karnal, and Delhi — so this idea of `home' was not that compelling but what I think was more interesting was to go back to India and go in more depth. But, yes, I have less of a home as ever.
Let me ask you one thing. There has been much talk about Indian writing in English and the idea that most writers exoticise India for the West.
This is a problem with the Indian media. It's like if you have come from St. Stephen's and Cambridge, then you are not authentic. They make it sound like you are selling India for your own gain and the other Indian writers have no option. Look, we have arranged marriages, we have spice, we have monkeys, don't we?
You are aware of your location but what many people probably think is that you are from an upper middle class background; you live in New York and the idea of writing about monkeys in India...
After I wrote my first book, I thought about it and read what the critics in India had to say. I must say I was not being completely honest in that book. In fact, I am ashamed of my first book. And now this book is certainly the product of a deeper introspection on a lot of issues.
As you mentioned earlier, many people feel that if you write from a certain viewpoint about India, it sells in the West.
Well, yes, I mean I am sure they will love it if they write about weddings and spices but yes, we need more `voices'. We should have more voices, from the village, the city, the town and it's encouraging if there are. But I don't understand why I have to be attacked just because I have a perspective. It doesn't mean my voice is not authentic.
A lot of books are being written in India by young Indian writers. What do you think about this?
I don't think so. There is still a lot to be done. On a global level, it's still the preserve of the white man, upper class elite. We need more books, on different subjects from different people.
But certainly, it seems there is more energy in Indian writing in English.
Of course, after Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things, it's really triggered a sort of movement and it's a good thing.
After Jhumpa Lahiri's book, the immigrant novel is easy to sell and there are more readers now for Indian writing everywhere.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
