Author: Amitava Kumar
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143028960
Description
People travel; books do too. Bombay - London - New York is a way of measuring the distances that people and books travel. Interweaving the personal and professional, Amitava Kumar blurs the line between literary criticism and memoir in this lucid chronicle of migration and writerly development.
The central narrative in this book concerns the movement between the cities named in its title, although its conceit is that the journey truly lies in the realm of books and memories. Cities thus become venues for recollection and recreation in the mind of the Indian writer of the diaspora, and also sites for literary construction
In this bold sequel to Passport Photos, Amitava Kumar continues his efforts to return postcolonial studies to a sense of lived dailiness. Combining thoughts on such varied figures as Arundhati Roy, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Safdar Hashmji with his own insights into literature and contemporary life, he delivers a highly engrossing and memorable text in his appreciation of the immigrant condition.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Prologue: Going Back
PART I:
Bombay
In the Light of Small Towns
Writer in the Hinterland
PART II:
London
Pure Chutney
My Hanif Kureishi Life
PART III:
New York
Digital City
Traveling Light
Conclusion
Epilogue: Indian Restaurant
Sources
Index