Sunday, February 22, 2009

Quote of the Day: The Literary Life

On the much-admired new biography of V.S. Naipaul:
This book would be a great gift from a parent to a child who is interested in becoming a writer. When Junior discovers that winning the Nobel Prize in Literature at age 69 entails spending most of ones decades depressed, impoverished, ignored, and bitter, he will likely knuckle under and agree to pursue radiology.
Yes, with the added inducement of giving him the chance to explore a lifestyle of conscience-free buggery. Phillip Greenspun does seem to be willing to pursue one line of inquiry I have never been able to handle: he's read a biography of a writer whose own work (apparently) he has not read. Greenspun is right, th0ugh, that the places to start are House for Mr. Biswas and Bend in the River.

[Statement of interest: I have read only so much of the biography as I could absorb in an afternoon of conscience-free grazing at Borders. Found it admirable in its way, but VSN himself comes across as not a bit more attractive than you might have suspected.]

No comments: