I'm fascinated by Indian English: Pico Iyer

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I'm fascinated by Indian English: Pico Iyer

By Prem Kishore in Los Angeles
Monday, 24 May , 2004, 12:53

On a glorious summer day last week in Los Angeles, when most Californians were heading to the beaches and surf, the auditorium of Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena was packed with people waiting to hear essayist, novelist, travel writer Pico Iyer. The book reading was sponsored by Pacific Asia Museum and the Indo American Cultural Centre. The author, essayist and raconteur delved quickly into his travel adventures in his individual, compelling, elegant magical style.

Full story at Sify.
http://sify.com/news/othernews/fulls...hp?id=13481786

Will Marks

I think Pico Iyer can justifiably claim to have largely transcended nationality and become a "Global Soul", even more so than the other great India writers who are part of the tribe of roaming NRI's such as Rushdie, Ghosh, Seth and many others.

His writing in "Cuba in the Night" had an energy that caught the spirit of the island from the universal point of view of the outsider, rather than anyone from a particular cultural context other than the generic 'west'.Although it is a novel, its setting allowed it to retain the strengths of his travelogue, and to add some contrasting and interesting characters. It was a lively and enjoyable debut.

It was almost difficult to believe that his next novel, Abandon, was written by the same author. It was excessively ponderous, not particulary unengaging and seemed flacid in comparison to "Cuba". Its subject matter is the US, Iran and Sufism.

Readers expecting anything on India in these two novels from this 'Indian' writer will be disappointed. Probably best to leave Abandon and get his travel writing - the latest is "The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home", but his now classic work, "Video Night in Kathmandu : And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East" has more on Asia. He even manages a chapter on India.