Humble writer's dilemma

The first feedback I received on my new book, Black Hole, is that I put off the lay reader with too many allusions and references which are not made clear enough. "All your readers are not going to be people of English Literature," the message went, "nor are they going to be all Christians." My mention of Kipling's 'white man's burden' and Henry VIII's murderous lust were cited as examples.

The feedback came from a very good friend who was with me through thick and thin for over a decade. But she is a person with a double Masters in English language and literature. While I agree with her that my novel is not an easy read at all (I didn't mean it to be either) and concede also that quite a few of my allusions are likely to put off some Indian readers who are not acquainted with Christianity, the fact that a person of her knowledge and literary background made the remark continues to amuse me even now.

The feedback made me sit and think for a while.

Okay, Black Hole demands quite a bit of patience and literary skills from the reader. Literary skills would mean familiarity with standard literature as well as related subjects like history. But the demands made by Black Hole are far less in comparison with those made by, say, Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness or Salman Rushdie's Quichotte. In fact, my novel doesn't extract a fraction of the patience required to understand any of the good writers of today whom I admire like Kazuo Ishiguro or Javier Marias or Julian Barnes. And these are writers whose books sell in millions. Why can't at least a hundred people endure my much easier writing?

I think the answer lies in the simple fact that I am not as famous as them or anywhere near that fame. A writer who hangs on an illusory hook in the ominous vacuum between the readers and the galactic limelight has no right to write difficult books!

Anyway, I didn't intend to write a difficult book. The allusions and references came along as I went on. It is possible that a writer who relies so heavily on so many allusions and references is an inferior one. It is possible that I don't know the art of novel writing. I am not a trained novelist at all. Black Hole is my first novel, completed as I turned a senior citizen. All the while, as I was editing it, I was under the impression that anyone who can appreciate Roy and Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan will find my book just a breeze.

I am grateful to the friend for disabusing me of my self-assessment. The feedback will definitely help in my future writing.

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