Cant get enough of Seth these days. Vikram Seth, that is. Started reading "Two Lives". It is based on Seth's maternal grand uncle - Shanti Uncle and his German wife - Auntie Henny, who lived in London. The narrative is in first person and in the introductory chapter gives an account of young Vikram's studies, back packing travels through Europe, how he got interested in the Oriental (it goes something like - he wanted to attend Japanese classes and ended up in Chinese class and then was hooked!), how his books - 'The Heaven Lake', 'The Golden Gate' and 'The Suitable Boy', came about.
Having read 'The suitable boy'(TSB), I can figure out certain resemblances to people he describes in his life to some aspects of some characters of the novel. Am actually thrilled to read first hand account of how these initial books came about. Getting it from the horse's mouth makes an interesting read.
I had found that the plot of his novel TSB, has history of the time interwoven with the plot. The same is true for 'Two lives' also. The narration is engaging and in a very conversational tone.
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