It seems to me that John Dolan's main animus against Arundhati Roy is that she is extremely pretty, rather famous, and criticizes American foreign policy. It's the combination of the three in the same package that drives him nuts. If she weren't pretty or famous, her political view, regardless of what it is, wouldn't raise as much hackles. It seems to me that he hates her for basically the same reason why right-wingers hate Jane Fonda.
I don't think Dolan writes particularly well, and, moreover, his "literary" criticism of Roy (such as it is) is basically silly. Her novel -- have you read it? -- is not like any of D. H. Lawrence's novels, nor does it resemble To Kill a Mockingbird. It's actually a savagely critical take on the Communist Party of India (Marxist), though you never learn that from Dolan. Whether her criticism is accurate is debatable (it's a little one-sided in my view), but since it's just a book by a pretty woman, a man with a big chip in his shoulder naturally thinks its actual politics is not worth considering seriously. (At least, the CPI (M) leader found it necessary to counterattack the book politically: <http:// www.rediff.com/news/nov/29roy.htm>.)
Last but not the least, former minders of the British Empire who think that America hasn't measured up to Britain in imperial management read and applaud men like Niall Ferguson, not Roy. Dolan doesn't seem to know much about politics (even the politics of literature).
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org>