Arushi Chauhan shares a piece exploring how Upamanyu Chatterjee’s writing is nuanced, fervent, and shocking, while his temperament in literary meets is laid back and devoid of self-importance.
A First Encounter with the Author
I attended Upmanyu Chatterjee’s event at the end of last year at Bookshop. Inc. in Lodhi Colony, following his latest release, Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life, without having read it. He spoke like a bureaucrat- confident, crisp, and without much self-importance. When Arunava Sinha made him comment on the first lines of all his books, he commented on them only in passing, without letting us much in on his creative process.
Judging a Book by Its Title
The title of his book bore an assumption that the book, and in extension, Chatterjee’s oeuvre would be didactic and prescriptive, which wouldn’t be a far-fetched assumption about the writing of an ex-civil servant. Having learned not much about his writing, one day, I stumbled upon another one of his books, Weight Loss, and looking at the tantalising blurb, decided to give it a read. The book left me in utter shock at the literary prowess of Chatterjee. It went on to prove that literary merit does not have to exist exclusively and that all-rounders are a real thing.