“All of them want to be the people in the book. They’d rather be that than themselves. You’ve turned all the monsters into nice people.’
G. Isaac reeled of some of Chacko’s lines from the book, which didn’t help to ameliorate the confusion. The moment that is immortalized in my mind is G. Isaac in my mother’s school sports ground, airily quoting Chacko airily quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald with absolutely no context, to my completely bewildered British publisher and literary agent.
‘You know Gatsby turned out all right in the end. It is what preyed on him, the foul dust that foated in the wake of his dreams . . .’
When he didn’t manage to initiate an interesting conversation with them, G.  Isaac made his plump, cheerful way into the audience and sat in one of the middle rows. Mrs Roy was already onstage, deep in conversation with Kamala Das, and had still not noticed him.”