Tata Literature Live!

Words of Inspiration: The Books That Made Me A Writer

Deepti Thomas

November 23, 2017

This article is part of our special coverage of Tata Lit Live!, a Bombay-based lit fest held between November 16, 2017, and November 19, 2017.

T his session was about the books that inspired authors to become writers. The panellists included Frédéric Beigbeder (French writer, literary critic, and TV presenter); Gary Shteyngart (novelist and winner of numerous awards); Margaret Drabble (D.B.E., novelist, and critic); and Sergio Chejfec (Argentine essayist and fiction writer). The session was chaired by Antoine Lewis (food writer and critic).

The speakers took us on an adventurous journey through the lanes of their past, exploring the books they grew up with and shared how these books influenced them. They also touched upon the new generation of writers and how certain books have affected them differently at various stages of life.

The Books That Influenced Them

Drabble shared how when she read Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King with its poetic yet militant writing about a totally fictitious Africa and a case of bad teeth, she wondered if she could ever be a writer. Her musings were unfounded, to say the least, as her contribution to contemporary English literature has been commended with various literary awards and she was awarded the Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2008. Drabble spoke of writing to Doris Lessing after she had penned her 4th novel. They went on to become friends and Lessing was a major contributor in sculpting Drabble’s thinking.

Chejfec’ s love for short stories was influenced by the works of Kisho Kurokawa and Borges. Interestingly, Chejfec never uses quotations to distinguish his tribute to his favourite authors. Merging those quotes with his own feels like a deep intimate connect- his highest act of sincerity.

Beigbeder was influenced by the popular works of Émile Zola, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, J.D. Salinger, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He also read Asterix and Tintin comics. He mentioned how he enjoyed reading Shteyngart’s works and his sense of humour. He even carried one of his books and got it signed by Shteyngart, during this discussion! He quipped how writing involves a bit of stealing from others while hoping that no one notices the stolen bits in your work.

Shteyngart was satirical when he related how his outlook of America, a place he relocated to from Russia, was shaped by The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn, apart from books by Mohsin Hamid and famous Russian authors.

Changing Relationships With Books

There are books which you are enamoured by when you read them first and then, with time, they lose their grip on you. For Chejfec, Kafka is timeless. Whereas, while initially being taken with it, On the Road later seemed racist to Shteyngart and sexist to Drabble.

At first, Jane Eyre seemed mad and interesting, though with time Drabble found her writing ridiculous. She could relate to Anna and Dolly in Anna Karenina at different stages of her life but, with time, it all faded away as there is no character in Anna Karenina of her age.

Charles Bukowski charmed Beigbeder with his flamboyant writing on the forbidden fruits of sex and drugs. The idea of going to a bar, falling in love with random women took him by storm in his college days. Salinger helped him relate to America as an adolescent because it captured the mood of the generation at that time, but later it didn’t feel so fascinating anymore.

The New Generation Of Writers

These days, one of the first requests authors get from new writers is to write a blurb for them. Shteyngart joked about how he has blurbed for so many authors that there is a YouTube video made on his blurbs! He has now declared that the only people he would blurb for are Ukrainians (as he is sympathetic towards their political situation) or those with dogs, and definitely for those who fit both criteria. He also shared how his books have become ‘accessory books’- everyone wants to be seen carrying them, but no one is reading them.

Beigbeder quipped that in France, it is cool to be a writer but nobody wants to actually write books.

Original or Translated Books?

On being asked whether they prefer the original or translated work of authors, Beigbeder confessed to liking the simple and direct English version of the work. For Drabble, English serves as a means of connecting with the works of various regions like the Indian subcontinent, to which she has no access otherwise. It also enables her to appreciate the depth of poetry of foreign writers. Chejfec, on the other hand, prefers the original work. In his words, “Some words and phrases do not find their abode in the English Language”.

At the end of it all, as a writer, you may have a different alchemy with the books you love and it may influence your writing temperament but take Beigbeder’s advice to kill your idols if you wish to write a book or you will be overwhelmed by the work done before you.

What about you? Have any books made you want to be a writer? Which books did you like when you first read them but are no longer fascinated by?  Share with us in the comments below.

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Deepti Thomas

Deepti Thomas

Deepti Thomas is a solo traveler and a storyteller at heart. She wonders if there is a Latin version of 'I write therefore I think'. She is often found lost in the passages of either a crime thriller or in the world of Tibetan Energy Medicine with the eternal hope of writing a book she would understand one day.

She works as a freelancer with The Curious Reader and also runs a home bakery for ketogenic desserts. Follow her on Instagram.