Two of the most-loved Indian-origin writers in modern literature shared a stage for the first time on January 26.
One of the most-anticipated sessions of the Exide Kolkata Literary Meet, partnered by The Telegraph, at the Alipore Museum featured Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai. It was also perhaps the most crowded session of the festival.
Lahiri and Desai spoke about completing 25 years of writing, exploring themes of loneliness, solitude and belonging that have defined their literary careers. They discussed the varied influences that shaped their formative years. But some of the most compelling moments came when they talked about book reviews and the deep emotional distress negative ones can cause.
Lahiri shared how she cried after reading a mean review of one of her books — a revelation that should comfort young writers. Desai questioned the qualifications of some reviewers who, she said, often knew “nothing” about the literary landscape of the authors whose works they were reviewing.
“How do you react to how your books are received? Has your response to reviews, good or bad, changed over time? Do you read all of them?” asked session moderator Anindita Ghose, a writer, journalist and communications consultant.
Lahiri said that at the beginning, getting published itself felt “surreal”. She would look out for reviews to cut them out for preservation.
“Then there was a mean review. I remember going to my husband's office and just weeping on the couch, feeling so hurt that someone had said mean things about my book. Then I realised that publishing a book meant that anyone could say anything they wanted, and then I just stopped reading the reviews, certainly at the moment the books were coming out,” she said.
The review culture has changed significantly, Lahiri added.
“I don't have social media... But what happens now is people will see something about you, whether it is good, bad or medium, they will just forward it to you. I actually mourn the decline of a real review culture. I think that has been replaced by people who are very quick to point a finger and demean,” she said.
For Desai, writers often “cease to be human beings” for people, so they feel they can say anything.
“Somehow, you are not a person anymore. You should be able to take whatever they throw at you. You have to protect yourself.”
Asked how, she said: “I live alone and work alone. If I were to read something horrible, I would just be by myself, dealing with it. You are going to get it, and it is going to be awful. A pure vicious attack, disdainful, disrespectful and thoroughly nasty.”
She then questioned the competence of some reviewers. “You do have to also wonder who these people are. What are their qualifications? Quite often, there is nothing. They have just started reviewing. They don’t know anything about the landscape you are writing about. Or there is some other grudge going on. I try not to read reviews,” she said.
A young man in the audience asked Desai about the power of silence in her writing against the backdrop of all-pervasive social media. “Do you see silence as a resistance in modern literature?” he asked. Desai said themore crowded the world became, the “more alone we feel”.
“I think what is fascinating to me is that the more noisy it is and the more crowded our planet is, somehow it is strange how more alone we still feel. So, in parts, the book (her new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny) is an exploration of that feeling,” Desai said.