‘Why Don’t You Write Something I Might Read?’ by Suresh Menon is a collection of essays on writers and their craft the vast subject
‘Why Don’t You Write Something I Might Read?’ by Suresh Menon is a collection of essays on writers and their craft t
Beneath the catchy heading of Suresh Menon’s latest book, Why Don’t You Write Something I Might Read? (Westland) runs the equally interesting tagline ‘Reading, Writing & Arrhythmia’. It is just an inkling of what lies between the bright red covers.
In this collection of essays spanning a couple of decades and an amazing cross-section of a life well lived, the author, a former journalist and sportswriter, covers the whole gamut of the simple act of reading.
Suresh Menon’s book of essays
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Interspersed with Suresh Menon’s thoughts on the art of writing, the beauty of reading and the joys of honing his craft are his interactions with famous authors, sportspersons and journalists — giving one a glimpse of his life; a life most people would be a touch envious of, one that witnessed the heyday of journalism and authors celebrated for being actual wordsmiths and not just social-media savvy pundits.
Although Suresh has written a number of books relating to cricket he admits Why Don’t You Write… is pretty close to his heart. “I doubt if any of my other works give readers a glimpse into the person I really am.”
“It could be called a memoir of sorts,” says the Bengaluru-based author. “It is not a great memoir,” he admits candidly, adding, “I have recounted incidents about myself, but I also am a sum of the friends I have, the places I’ve worked and above all, the books I have read. However, it could be argued that anything anyone writes is a story of themselves and the way they see the world. That is one way of looking at the book.”
Recollections of his growing-up years, forays into reading ‘serious’ authors, career impressions and even the book’s acknowledgements, peppered with humour (and at times, self deprecatory) reveal facets of Suresh’s personality.
Author Suresh Menon
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I began very young in journalism and was lucky enough to work with like-minded people. It seemed like an extension of college and it was a good start. I enjoyed it hugely — it included a lot of travel around the world reporting cricket, a sport I’ve been obsessed with. Life happened very quickly and I became an editor when I was quite young. Soon enough, I left the grind of daily journalism so I could just write.”
Although he is already working on his next book, Suresh says, “Writing is a lonely business,” crediting Why Don’t You Write… to those who believed he could bring more to the table than just sports. His conviction that the essay form has been largely neglected was another reason why the book took this particular shape.
However, not everything about the book is biographical — in ‘The Insider’ he discusses the idea of reimagining, while ‘Love and Language’ explores the structure, setting and subtlety involved in sculpting a narrative. Suresh dredges up names lost to school day memories — Aldous Huxley, C P Snow, Proust and others, placing them alongside P G Wodehouse, Ved Mehta, Norman Mailer and Nadeem Aslam in Why Don’t You Write. His views on authors and columns, libraries and language, philosophers and fictional characters segue into Short Takes — delightful nuggets of literary information that pop up between his essays.
Despite the vast range of the book, Suresh says he could fill at least three more books with the stuff he left behind while picking and choosing content for Why Don’t You Write… “I haven’t written anything about poetry or poets or writers such as Dostoevsky. There are a whole lot of smaller connections which can lead on to bigger pieces with bigger writers; not necessarily just writers and their books alone, but other aspects of writing as well.”
When asked about those essays in the book he would suggest one reads first, he says, “My choices are subject to change; this is a smaller truth of a larger truth. Within the larger truth, the smaller ones sort of float around without contradicting anything.” That pretty aptly sums up the nature of Why Don’t You Write… and should give readers an idea of what to expect.
As delightful as the book and its contents are, one aspect will win the hearts of book lovers in Bengaluru — Suresh has chronicled (and paid homage) to some of the popular bookshops in the city and their curators. Familiar faces, forgotten names and iconic landmarks in the city will be fondly recalled whether the city is or ever was your home.
Why Don’t Write You Write Something I Might Read?