Saturday, August 26, 2006

What I don't want to do is be like a billon bloggers out there and discuss cooking and take a photo of the food I'm cooking. But I might do that once in a while if that's ok with you.

What I do want to do is talk about the books I've been reading but I've been really reluctant. Why? Fear of criticism? Fear of not being an expert? Of not being trained in literary criticism?

I read fiction for pleasure. For the last year I have been reading almost exclusively contemporary Indian literature. I'm not sure why but I know what books started it: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and Brick Lane by Monica Ali.

At first I was very selective and was really only interested in very urban and contemporary stories. What I loved about The Namesake and Brick Lane is that the were about emigrants to the US and England. I am interested in old and modern culture clash and generational culture clash.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're not a literary critic. They are soooo boring. It's more interesting to hear about why you're reading these books and what you think about them. Maybe it will inspire me to read some of them and then we can talk about them. The urban immigrant as a character gives a writer a good chance to talk about contrasts, internal arguments, things that tend to split people both generationally and inside themselves. I'd like to know what you've read about this theme or are you interested in something else...