2011/16

Octavio Paz: In light of India (205p.)

Only halfway through Octavio Paz’s In Light of India did it dawn on me that in 2009 I had read quite a similar book, V.S. Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness. Both books are essays/travelogues on India, Paz’s more essayistic, Naipaul’s more a travelogue. Paz of course was Mexico’s ambassador to India, as he has been to many countries.

Both men are Nobel Prize winners, but whereas I’m not too much of a fan of Naipaul (even though I have read three of his books in total – I find it all a bit too easy and cloy at times), Paz bowled me over completely with his The Labyrinth of Solitude, the last pages of which I read in a stupor, before putting the book aside, and bowing my head meekly.

In Light of India simply is a series of essays on India, and I can’t imagine there is a better introduction out there to this multi-faceted country, its people, beliefs, politics, and culture.

A boutique 1997 first American edition.