Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent, Increasingly Strident
Review: This is a series of lectures and essays, similar in direction and topic to "The Cost of Living." As someone who deeply enjoyed "The God of Small Things," and who was intrigued and excited by "The Cost of Living," I found that I agreed with much of what the author had to say here. However, I fear that she may lose some of her audience, or at least some of her credibility with that audience, because of her increasingly strident tone and deliberate subjectivity.On the other hand, I'm sure that she doesn't care. In fact, a good portion of the essays are dedicated to her perception of the role of the writer in society, and she states in them her belief that she must say what she feels must be said. Because she is unafraid of alienating her audience-- much of which must have been surprised by the unpleasant realities of the nonfiction, after the dreamy, nearly magical-realist novel that introduced her to the world view-- and because she tries as much as possible to write and speak truth without regard for the consequences, I'll read anything that she writes.
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