The Jaipur Literature Festival started Friday, and it has a pretty impressive program -- including The Global Novel-panel, which included Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Franzen, and Jim Crace.
It's Lahiri's comments that much of the Indian media have pounced on, as they report, for example:
Meanwhile, Raymond Zhong offers a fairly detailed report at the Wall Street Journal's India Realtime weblog, Day Two at Jaipur Literature Festival: Fiction, Nonfiction and the Space in Between -- paying more attention to the "panel's liveliest presence", Guo Xiaolu:
It's Lahiri's comments that much of the Indian media have pounced on, as they report, for example:
"Our reading habits are transformed by the mainstream and to be frank, I find American literature massively overrated," the 46-year-old author said at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival here today.She also expressed disappointment about the lack of translations into English available in the US -- comparing the situation to much more translation-welcoming Italy.
Meanwhile, Raymond Zhong offers a fairly detailed report at the Wall Street Journal's India Realtime weblog, Day Two at Jaipur Literature Festival: Fiction, Nonfiction and the Space in Between -- paying more attention to the "panel's liveliest presence", Guo Xiaolu:
But writing in English is also the "easiest and laziest" to do, she lamented, because you don't have to wait months or years for the book to be translated and thereby reach a world audience. "This is a battle," she said.Of course, it's entirely plausible that they all think American literature is overrated ..... (Indeed, this IANS report suggests both Lahiri and Guo denounced it as 'massively overrated'.)
Ms. Guo turned to Mr. Franzen to express her frustration with the Anglocentrism of today's publishing industry: "I love your work, Jonathan, but ... American literature is massively overrated."