Well, I have argued with others about Ondaatje--also, I heard him speak in Chicago and some of the audience took him to task a bit for having moved to Canada, etc.-- but since you know the culture first hand, your opinion meant a lot. I haven't tried Running in the Family yet. I know from my own experience that the closer a writer is to my own culture, the harder it is for me to really like her or him--I see the flaws in his representation of what I see a different way.
I found the South Asian writers to be a great delight. The ones I like best--Seth and Ghosh--for the most part work within the traditional realistic novel format, but their powers of observation are so rich, their characters so complex, that I'm sorry when a book ends. The only one that I don't like much is Mistry--his view of the world is so depressing.
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I found the South Asian writers to be a great delight. The ones I like best--Seth and Ghosh--for the most part work within the traditional realistic novel format, but their powers of observation are so rich, their characters so complex, that I'm sorry when a book ends. The only one that I don't like much is Mistry--his view of the world is so depressing.