Tim Bray writes "Seth is one of only two or three authors whose new works I buy on sight, without waiting to read reviews."
ok, I was coveting this in a bookstore digression last weekend. Time to buy (or take out from the library).
"Vikram Seth’s great virtue is clarity; I’m not sure any writer of English has ever inscribed so many words with so few barriers to understanding them. The apparently-effortless flow of narrative is I’m sure the result of relentless rewriting, it’s like listening to Rostropovich, two thousand hours of practice make two hours of performance sound easy."
Yes... plenty of books read like they are written too quickly and under-edited. I read Neil Gaiman'sAmerican Gods last week -- which would have been a better book if it was written about 10x slower. It will be interesting to see if Anansi Boys -- written over a decade later, when Gaiman is presumably much wealthier -- takes advantage of the time and power to rewrite, or cedes to the arrogance of fame and edits less.
Neal Stephenson had a bad experience with editing once many years ago (there's an essay of his with the story posted online somewhere), and concluded that editing is bad for his muse; and his recent, sprawling Baroque Cycle hides a brilliant work that is a fraction of the length of the published series.
Posted by alevin at November 13, 2005 01:44 PM | TrackBackI don't know if you remember this, but you introduced me to Vikram Seth in the first year we were friends. The book was The Golden Gate. You also gave me a copy of A Suitable Boy as a birthday gift. Two pieces of evidence if ever anyone wants a rational argument to explain why I value you so very much.
I would never compare Neil Gaiman to Vikram Seth, but I must admit, sheepishly, that I quite enjoyed American Gods. I like the way he carried the conceit through the whole book. I also suspect that some of the sloppiness you found in that writing was the influence of Beat writers and people like Harlan Ellison. (He credits Ellison as an influence, specifically.)
I think you, yourself, would be wonderful editing fiction. Your help with my non-fiction writing enabled me to avoid many a gloopy morass.
Posted by: ruthie on November 15, 2005 08:43 AM