{"id":241905,"date":"2025-07-06T05:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T05:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241905\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T05:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T05:24:09","slug":"amitava-kumar-on-books-that-shaped-him-and-why-reading-should-hurt-a-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241905\/","title":{"rendered":"Amitava Kumar on Books That Shaped Him\u2014And Why Reading Should Hurt a Little"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amitava Kumar<\/a> is the author of several works of nonfiction including Husband of a Fanatic, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb, A Matter of Rats, and four novels, including Immigrant, Montana, whichwas on the best of the year lists at The New Yorker, The New York Times, and former US President Barack Obama\u2019s list of favourite books of 2018, and A Time Outside This Time. Kumar\u2019s latest, My Beloved Life (2024), was praised by James Wood as \u201cbeautiful, truthful fiction\u201d. Three volumes of his diaries and drawings<\/a> were published by HarperCollins India. His work, often exploring migration, identity, and global issues, has appeared in Granta, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper\u2019s, Guernica, and The Nation. Kumar was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016, a Cullman Center Fellowship at the New York Public Library (2023-24), and residencies from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Lannan Foundation, and the Hawthornden Foundation. He is professor of English at Vassar College, where he holds the Helen D. Lockwood Chair.<\/p>\n

Kumar has written with grace and style about the complexities of identity and migration in his novels, essays, and reportage. With keen observation and deep curiosity, his work across genres reflects a lifelong love of books that have shaped both his craft and life. In this new column for Frontline on books that have shaped different writers, public intellectuals, activists, etc., he spoke about the authors and books that left a lasting impression on him\u2014from his school days in Patna to his college years in Delhi, and later when he moved to the US for further studies. He also shares his favourite books, the ones he gifts to family and friends, and books he often revisits for inspiration.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow will you define your relationship with books and reading? How have your reading tastes evolved over the years as you got older?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI wish I had more time to read. When my students at the college where I teach ask me if they should pursue higher education, I\u2019m in two minds: on the one hand, there are fewer jobs for English PhDs, but, on the other hand, you read so much when you are a student. I only became a real reader when I was doing my PhD. I had asked my dissertation director how much should I read, and he had replied, \u201cYou should read till your eyes bleed.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTell us about your earliest reading memory from childhood that made an impression? Was it a book in English, or Hindi?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI must have been 12 or 13. I had gone early to a cinema hall in Patna to buy tickets for my sisters and others. I got the tickets and then opened the book The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham. I had recently borrowed it from the British Library in Patna, which is now gone. I was surprised that I understood what I was reading and that it gave me pleasure. This was a late start but it was a real introduction to the pleasures of reading.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAny particular book or story from your childhood years that holds a special place in your heart?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYou know, textbooks are often unimaginative, boring things. And they are anathema to any notion of delight that reading affords. And we have mastered this fatal art in India. Many bookshops, including in my hometown Patna, offer mostly textbooks for sale. It is a disease caused by commerce.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut my own experience with textbooks was different in one crucial respect. When I came to Delhi from Bihar for my higher secondary, my English textbook had the writings of Maugham whom I have mentioned before, but also Khushwant Singh, George Orwell, Dom Moraes, S. Radhakrishnan, Nissim Ezekiel, Edward Thomas. Those textbooks have a special place in my heart.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Also Read | Class differences are very important wherever or whenever you look: Abdulrazak Gurnah<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAny book or author(s) that profoundly influenced you as a young man while studying in a college in New Delhi?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI was staying in the Hindu College hostel when pursuing my MA. I didn\u2019t have a room of my own and a friend very kindly let me sleep on his floor. On his desk he had among his books to help him with his civil services exams, a copy of V.S. Naipaul\u2019s Finding the Centre. My friend wasn\u2019t literary; I have no idea how he came to acquire that book. There are two narratives in it and the first one is about Naipaul\u2019s literary beginnings and his discovery of the vocation of writing. It was an education to read that account and I have always cherished it.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBook or books that made you want to become a writer?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWell, the book I just mentioned to you is certainly a part of that self-fashioning. So much of Naipaul\u2019s work is problematic in its judgments but because he is always dramatising the process of writing, he becomes very attractive to anyone who wants to pursue writing.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAny particular books or authors you find yourself returning to often, and why?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI have always been fascinated with the ways in which J.M. Coetzee examines the workings of power and shame in his books. I\u2019m thinking of\u00a0Waiting for the Barbarians\u00a0and\u00a0Disgrace. I like the intellectual probing that he does in his other books too. In recent years, I have been drawn to Annie Ernaux\u2019s books. I like her for her intelligence and clarity. Also, her books are short!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA book that is your comfort read, on your bedside, that you often revisit for inspiration or pleasure?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI think reading is good when it disturbs you\u2014which is the opposite of comfort. I\u2019m lucky to have several friends who are writers. When I pick up their books, I feel I\u2019m once again in conversation with them. It is no different from when I\u2019m sitting with them, sharing a meal or having drinks. For that purpose, over the past few months, I have re-read Teju Cole\u2019s\u00a0Tremor\u00a0and\u00a0Open City,\u00a0and Zadie Smith\u2019s\u00a0Feel Free\u00a0and\u00a0Embassy of Cambodia.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"Amitava<\/p>\n

\n

Amitava Kumar\u2019s Immigrant, Montana was on the best of the year lists at The New Yorker, The New York Times, and former US President Barack Obama\u2019s list of favourite books of 2018.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n By Special Arrangement\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAny book or books that you often give away as a gift to family members or close friends?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI don\u2019t give the same book to people\u2014even though I was intrigued by a woman who once told me that she gave men she was intimate with Roland Barthes\u2019s\u00a0A Lover\u2019s Discourse. In recent months, I have gifted my son books by Colson Whitehead and Ta-Nehisi Coates and my daughter, who is an English major, books by Sheila Heti, Sigrid Nunez, Claire Messud and Rachel Kushner.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAre there some books or authors you discovered later in life that made a deep impression on you?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs it happens, one of my editors at Granta, Thomas Meaney, has written about a fascist writer named Curzio Malaparte. I read the piece and was fired up by Meaney\u2019s vivid prose but I was also faced by the question\u2014why had I never known about this writer?\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI really feel that so much of what I have read has come late in my life. And there is so much that I have not read. During COVID, thanks to Yiyun Li, I read War and Peace. And Moby Dick. In both these writers I loved the way in which fiction gave way to essays.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat are you currently reading? Any recent book written by an Indian author\u2014in fiction, non-fiction, or poetry\u2014that you would highly recommend?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLater this month, I have to teach a writing workshop at the New York Public Library for schoolteachers. For that, I\u2019m reading\u00a0Reality Hunger\u00a0by David Shields and the novella\u00a0So Long, See You Tomorrow\u00a0by William Maxwell. I really enjoyed Sakina\u2019s Kiss by Vivek Shanbhag. Two books by younger Indian writers I liked were Neha Dixit\u2019s\u00a0The Many Lives of Syeda X\u00a0and Saharu Kannanari\u2019s\u00a0Chronicle of an Hour and a Half.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYour go-to Indian classic? One that you would recommend everyone should read?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI have always liked Pankaj Mishra\u2019s\u00a0Butter Chicken in Ludhiana. I saw him in London recently and he was kind enough to give a copy of that book to my son. In the hotel room that night, I re-read the opening pages. So funny, so sharp.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Also Read | I was writing unwritten history: Easterine Kire <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCan you name a few lesser-known books by Indian authors in any genre you wish more people would discover and read?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHad it not been for the wretched IPL [Indian Premier League], so many talented cricketers would not get their moment in the spotlight. I think the same applies to writing. A few are chosen and the rest toil in the shadows. If you look at the numbers, so much mindless verbiage dominates the market. Literary fiction in India still awaits discovery, especially in languages other than English.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tName a few books that have changed or influenced your understanding of contemporary India and your place in it?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOver the past few years, I have liked reading Snigdha Poonam\u2019s\u00a0Dreamers, Mansi Choksi\u2019s\u00a0The Newlyweds, and Arundhati Roy\u2019s\u00a0My Seditious Heart.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAny book(s) that best captures the spirit of your home city?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe books by Siddharth Chowdhury, starting with\u00a0Patna Roughcut, have moments that are deeply authentic and they pierce my heart.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYou are hosting a literary dinner party and you can invite only three Indian writers, authors, poets, both living or dead. Who would you like to invite, and why?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext week, I\u2019m having dinner with two writer friends, Kiran Desai and Sabrina Dhawan. We are going to have fun. Who else could I invite to make it even more enjoyable? I have met Vikram Seth but not for any length of time. I think he would be smart and hilarious. Could you find out if he is free on Sunday at 7:30 pm?\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Majid Maqbool is an independent journalist and writer based in Kashmir. Bookmarks is a fortnightly column where writers reflect on the books that shaped their ideas, work, and ways of seeing the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amitava Kumar is the author of several works of nonfiction including Husband of a Fanatic, A Foreigner Carrying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[94043,94050,56148,10894,3444,94048,94053,94045,77,94046,94054,94052,94049,94044,94051,16,15,94047],"class_list":{"0":"post-241905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-amitava-kumar-interview","9":"tag-best-books-by-amitava-kumar","10":"tag-best-books-to-read","11":"tag-book-recommendations","12":"tag-books","13":"tag-books-that-inspire-writers","14":"tag-books-that-shaped-amitava-kumars-writing","15":"tag-contemporary-indian-authors","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-frontline-bookmarks","18":"tag-frontline-on-books","19":"tag-indian-authors-who-write-about-migration","20":"tag-indian-diaspora-literature","21":"tag-indian-literature","22":"tag-literary-influences-on-amitava-kumar","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-writers-on-identity-and-migration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114804625573106638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}