On Akhil Sharma’s Art

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My essay about Akhil Sharma’s writing, and his new novel Family Life, is now available on the Indian Quarterly website. Here’s an excerpt:

I have read what I have written above and am struck immediately by the thought that Sharma himself would never approach his subject in the same way that I have. His writing isn’t clogged with commentary. Instead of being academic, he reaches for the heart of the matter. A recent article by him begins, “I am not sure what caused me to start sleeping with married women, especially ones who were much older than I was.” Which is to say, his sentences, with their air of simplicity, and their energy, are also characterised by their directness. This is a part of the writer’s honesty. (Jonathan Franzen once said to me about Sharma: “His candor almost gets to be frightening but stops at exhilarating.”) Honesty in a writer doesn’t mean simply the desire to not hide anything; no, it refers to an ability to see through his characters and know what the story is really about.

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