So in a way, this book is not about V.S. Naipaul only. Long before the book appeared, there was quite a lot of inaccurate talk about it which I saw. I can say that I was totally happy with the book, and writing it was one of the most satisfying experiences I've had in my life as a writer. I hated the reviews. Didn't read them, and then a year later, after Tiananmen Square, everyone said what a wise and prescient book it was.
Reviews matter even less than whether it's raining in Patagonia.
Probably, but if they weren't petty, mean, twisted, conceited, insufficient and dysfunctional in a wounding way, they probably wouldn't be writers. Normal nice people don't become writers. Which is, I suppose, the message of my book. And the really satisfying thing is that you, in writing, have the experience all over again. I once said in a book, fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.