India in Mind - Vintage Departures

Jacket Description/Flap: Ever since Herodotus reported that it was home to gold-digging ants, travelers have been intrigued by India in all its beguiling complexity. This superb anthology gives us some of the best fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that has been written about the world's second most populous nation over the past two centuries. From Mark Twain's puzzled fascination with Indian castes and customs, to Allen Ginsberg's awe at the country's spiritual and natural splendors, or from J. R. Ackerley's delightful recollections of his visits with an eccentric gay Maharajah, to Gore Vidal's unforgettable scene in his novel Creation," in which his character finally meets the Buddha and is bewildered-all twenty-five selections in India in Mind" reveal a place that evokes, in the traveler, reactions ranging from fear and perplexity to astonishment and wonder. Edited and with an introduction and chapter notes by the award-winning novelist Pankaj Mishra, "India in Mind is a marvel of sympathy, sensitivity, and perception, not to mention outstanding writing. Biographical Note: Pankaj Mishra was born in North India in 1969 and now lives in London and India. He is the author of The Romantics," " which won the "Los Angeles Times"'s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World." "He is a regular contributor to "The New York Review of Books, Granta, " and "The Times Literary Supplement."Table of Contents: J. R. Ackerley, from "Hindoo Holiday"Paul Bowles, "Notes Mailed at Nagercoil"Bruce Chatwin, "Shamdev: The Wolf-Boy"Robyn Davidson, from "Desert Places"E. M. Forster, from "Abinger Harvest"Allen Ginsberg, from "Indian Journals"Hermann Hesse, from "Childhood of the Magician"Pico Iyer, from "Abandon"Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, "Two More Under the Indian Sun"Rudyard Kiplin, from "Kim"Claude Levi-Strauss, from "Tristes Tropiques"Andre Malraux, from "Anti-Memoirs"Peter Matthiessen, from "The Snow Leopard"W. Somerset Maugham, from "A Writer"'"s Notebook"Ved Mehta, from "Portrait of India"Jan Morris, "Mrs. Gupta Never Rang"V. S. Naipaul, from "An Area of Darkness"George Orwell, "Shootining an Elephant"Pier Paolo Pasolini, from "The Scent of India"Octavio Paz, from "A Tale of Two Gardens"Alan Ross, from "Blindfold Games"Paul Scott, from "The Jewel in the Crown"Paul Theroux, from "The Great Railway Bazaar"Mark Twain, from "Following the Equator"Gore Vidal, from "Creation"Publisher Marketing: Ever since Herodotus reported that it was home to gold-digging ants, travelers have been intrigued by India in all its beguiling complexity. This superb anthology gives us some of the best fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that has been written about the world's second most populous nation over the past two centuries. From Mark Twain's puzzled fascination with Indian castes and customs, to Allen Ginsberg's awe at the country's spiritual and natural splendors, or from J. R. Ackerley's delightful recollections of his visits with an eccentric gay Maharajah, to Gore Vidal's unforgettable scene in his novel Creation," "in which his character finally meets the Buddha and is bewildered-all twenty-five selections in India in Mind""reveal a place that evokes, in the traveler, reactions ranging from fear and perplexity to astonishment and wonder. Edited and with an introduction and chapter notes by the award-winning novelist Pankaj Mishra, "India in Mind" is a marvel of sympathy, sensitivity, and perception, not to mention outstanding writing. Review Citations:

Booklist 12/15/2004 pg. 700 (EAN 9780375727450, Paperback)

Library Journal 01/15/2005 pg. 137 (EAN 9780375727450, Paperback)

Library Journal 01/01/2005 (EAN 9780375727450, Paperback)

Ingram Advance 02/01/2005 pg. 104 (EAN 9780375727450, Paperback)