The Essential Ved Mehta
by
Ved Mehta
4.40 · Rating details · 5 ratings · 1 review
The Essential Ved Mehta is the definitive collection of the author’s work,
containing excerpts from nearly all his writings, many of which first
appeared in William Shawn’s New Yorker. It begins with his first book,
the classic autobiography highlighting his blindness, Face to Face, and
goes on to feature, among others, his iconic books about India and his
great family saga Continents of Exile. Each entry comes with a reflection
by Mehta. Authoritative and illuminating, The Essential Ved Mehta is not
just an introduction to this seminal writer but also a passionate record of a
writer looking back upon his own work. (less)
GET A COPY
Kobo
Online Stores ▾
Book Links ▾
Kindle Edition, 307 pages
Published December 15th 2013 by Hamish Hamilton
ASIN
B00GZQDH7G
Edition Language
English
Other Editions (2)
All Editions | Add a New Edition | Combine...Less DetailEdit Details
EditMY ACTIVITY
Review of The Essential Ved Mehta (Kindle Edition)
Rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Shelves to-read
edit
( 720th )
Format Kindle Edition edit
Status
January 11, 2021 – Shelved as: to-read
January 11, 2021 – Shelved
Review Write a review
comment
FRIEND REVIEWS
Recommend This Book None of your friends have reviewed this book yet.
READER Q&A
Ask the Goodreads community a question about The Essential Ved Mehta
Be the first to ask a question about The Essential Ved Mehta
LISTS WITH THIS BOOK
This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
Showing 1-31
Average rating4.40 ·
Rating details
· 5 ratings · 1 review
More filters
|
Sort order
Sejin, start your review of The Essential Ved Mehta
Write a review
May 30, 2017Sairam Krishnan rated it really liked it · review of another edition
I have been reading excerpts from Ved Mehta’s writing for a long time in different places, and found this book as a means of having a clearer, more coherent idea of his writing, as opposed to knowing it in bits and pieces.
A sort-of compilation of extracts chosen and introduced by the writer himself, the book is meant to, as he says, give a sense of my writing life.
To that end, it works well, and introduces the reader to what really is a rich, rewarding life of letters. I enjoyed it very much; after all, it is largely focussed on the Indian experience, and it is in its particularities that Mehta’s writing seems amazingly illuminating. He is constructing a world through minutiae, and does so masterfully.
A word here on the style: Anyone familiar with The New Yorker will be absolutely at ease reading Mehta. The free-flowing, let-me-tell-you-a-story prose is still the old magazine’s forte, and you can see from Mehta’s writing its continuity. A few weeks ago, I was reading a Daniel Mendelsohn essay in the magazine, and as I read Mehta, I found myself marvelling at how similar the reading experience of both these pieces, written several decades apart, was.
The best essays in the book are the ones on RK Narayan and Dom Moraes, the former being an especially lovely portrait of an extraordinary writer. Mehta describes him, his persona, and his character in spare, simple, delightful prose. It is in describing people, you feel, that this remarkable writer who spent most of his life painting a picture of India for Americans, is well and truly at home. (less)
