----- Original Message ----- From: "michael perelman" <michael.perelman3 at gmail.com>
How many more people would hear about the dams or the indignities that spark Maoist uprisings because of her?
I have never read her novels. Maybe they are self-centered trash. -------------------------
It's true that she makes it possible for some news to reach western ears, but the presentation is Dickensian.
I think she's only written one novel: "God of Small Things" -- and really what's surprising about it is how soulless it was. It was very well written, but well written in the way that one writes well having studied the literature of the west. There are enormously talented and competent Indian writers, like Vikram Seth; and truly great Indian writers like R.K. Narayan, and promising but ultimately disappointing writers like Manil Suri, and a wide scattering of what I'd call Indian Spice writers, among whom is Roy and, unfortunately, a bunch of other women writers.
Joanna