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| "Shashi Tharoor began reading books—Enid Blyton’s Noddy series—when he was three. By the time he was ten, he had published his first work of fiction, Operation Bellows, a credulity-stretching saga of an Anglo-Indian fighter pilot. In between were years when he read a book a day. And in the years since, he has published eight books and written for many Indian and foreign publications. Bookless in Baghdad brings together pieces written over the past decade by this compulsive reader and prolific writer on the subject closest to his heart: reading.
In these essays on books, authors, reviews, critics, literary festivals, literary aspirants, Empire, and India, Tharoor takes us on a delightful journey of discovery. He wanders the ‘book souk’ in a Baghdad under sanctions where the middle-class are selling their volumes so that they can afford to live; analyses the Indianness of Salman Rushdie; discusses P.G. Wodehouse’s enduring popularity in India; and drives around Huesca looking to pay an idiosyncratic tribute to George Orwell. There are excursions into the pitfalls of reviewing, explorations of the ‘anxiety of audience’ of Indian English writers, and a wicked account of how Norman Mailer dealt with a negative review.
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| - From the Penguin India Description
Published in India (February 2005) by Penguin India,, New Delhi,
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| Supremely personal, yet always probing and analytical, this brilliant collection of essays is part memoir, part literary criticism.
“A fluid and powerful writer, one of the best in a generation of Indian authors” (New York Times Book Review), Shashi Tharoor, the acclaimed author of six books, all published by Arcade, is once again at his provocative best.
In the title piece, we learn what Iraqis go through in their beleaguered land merely to get hold of a book, and how selling books from their own libraries on the street helps some put bread on the table. Tharoor reminisces about growing up with books in India and discusses the importance of the Mahabharata in Indian life and history. There is also a poignant homage to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, whose home was raided by the oppressive military regime while he lay on his deathbed, and who famously said: “There is only one thing of danger for you here—my poetry!” Pondering world affairs, Tharoor declares that “the defining features of today’s world are the relentless forces of globalization—the same forces used by the terrorists in their macabre dance of death and destruction.” Tharoor’s astute views on Salman Rushdie, India’s love for P. G.Wodehouse, Rudyard Kipling, Aleksandr Pushkin, John le Carré, V. S. Naipaul, and Winston Churchill make for fascinating reading. His insightful takes on Hollywood and Bollywood will intrigue even the most demanding cinephile. Together, these 39 pieces reveal the inner workings of one of today’s most eclectic writers.
From the Arcade Publishing Book Description
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