Lunch With a Bigot

The Writer in the World

Amitava Kumar

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English

Duke University Press
15 May 2015

To be a writer, Amitava Kumar says, is to be an observer. The twenty-six essays in Lunch with a Bigot are Kumar's observations of the world put into words. A mix of memoir, reportage, and criticism, the essays include encounters with writers Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, discussions on the craft of writing, and a portrait of the struggles of a Bollywood actor. The title essay is Kumar's account of his visit to a member of an ultra-right Hindu organization who put him on a hit-list. In these and other essays, Kumar tells a broader story of immigration, change, and a shift to a more globalized existence, all the while demonstrating how he practices being a writer in the world.

By: Amitava Kumar
Imprint: Duke University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 331g
ISBN: 9780822359302
ISBN 10: 0822359308
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 15 May 2015
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Author's Note xi Part I. Reading 1. Paper 3 2. My Hanif Kureishi Life 14 3. The Map of My Village 29 4. The Poetry of Gujarat Riots 32 5. Conversation with Arundhati Roy 37 6. Salman Rushdie and Me 51 7. Bad News 58 Part II. Writing 8. How to Write a Novel 79 9. Reading Like a Writer 84 10. Writing My Own Satya 97 11. Dead Bastards 106 12. The Writer as a Father 110 13. Ten Rules of Writing 119 Part III. Places 14. Mofussil Junction 127 15. A Collaboration in Kashmir 132 16. At the Jaipur Literature Festival 141 17. Hotel Leeward 146 18. The Mines of Jadugoda 151 19. Upon Arrival in the Past 155 20. Bookstores of New York 162 Part IV. People 21. Lunch with a Bigot 169 22. The Boxer on the Flight 183 23. Amartya's Birth 187 24. The Taxi Drivers of New York 192 25. On Being Brown in America 196 26. Missing Person 201 Index 213

Amitava Kumar is Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College. He is the author of A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb, and Nobody Does the Right Thing, all also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews for Lunch With a Bigot: The Writer in the World

The interconnected world may be a cliche, but we don't often see its real connections. Amitava Kumar illuminates many of them here with his signature mix of unappeasable curiosity, cool skepticism, and shrewd intelligence. --Pankaj Mishra, author of From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia