The Humour & the Pity: Essays on V. S. Naipaul

by Amitava Kumar (Editor)

Introduction / Amitava Kumar
The house for Mr. Naipaul / Pankaj Mishra
Learning how to write / Amit Chaudhuri
'The gutter inspector's report'? / Farrukh Dhondy
A notebook for Mr. Biswas / Amitava Kumar
A million neuroses / Akash Kapur
Naipaul's mussalman / Shahid Amin
A terrifying honesty / Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Postcolonial studies / Michael Gorra
The razor's edge / J.M. Coetzee
Reluctant hero / Caryl Philips
The nobel savage? : India and Naipaul / Harish Trivedi
In Sir Vidia's shadow / Tarun J. Tejpal

174 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Amitava Kumar is a novelist, poet, journalist, and Professor of English at Vassar College. He was born in Bihar, India; he grew up in the town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty, and delicious mangoes.

He is the author of Nobody Does the Right Thing; A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb; Husband of a Fanatic: A Personal Journey through India, Pakistan, Love, and Hate, a New York Times “Editors’ Choice” selection; Bombay—London—New York, a New Statesman (UK) “Book of the Year” selection; and Passport Photos. He is the editor of several books, including Away: The Indian Writer as an Expatriate, The Humour and the Pity: Essays on V. S. Naipaul, and World Bank Literature. He is also an editor of the online journal Politics and Culture and the screenwriter and narrator of the prize-winning documentary film Pure Chutney.

Kumar’s writing has appeared in The Nation, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, The American Prospect, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Hindu, and other publications in North America and India.