Kundera and probability

Writer Abha Dawesar, in Delhi briefly with her fourth book Family Values, faces the dilemma that most authors and avid readers do — where does the ever-increasing collection of books go? Her apartment in New York, where she lives, now seems too small for all her books. The house, in fact, has been an inspiration for Family Values, set in a tiny space where private and public worlds collide.

The author’s favourite titles, many of which have been with her for several years, are placed on wooden bookshelves that cover an entire wall. It was custom-made for the space. Another longish bookshelf runs along the area below the television set and this is where she keeps her coffeetable books, including much of her collection on art. But now, she says, she often donates books she can afford to let go, to second-hand stores affiliated to a cause.

Though she isn’t much given to re-reading books, Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness Of Being is one that she has found herself reading at different points in her life, returning to it each time with a blurred vision of its flow. Amitav Ghosh’s The Circle Of Reason, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Robert M Pirsig’s Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance also remain old favourites. “But I always seem to return to Kundera,” she says wistfully.

Dawesar finds it hard to pick out books that have been sources of inspiration for her own writing over the years. A host of titles, she says, provides her with reference points for every project. “For my fifth book, which has a lot of science in it, I have have been reading various works of non-fiction.”

For Family Values, her recently-released book, she indulged in a fair amount of J M Coetzee, Elfriede Jelinek, Thomas Bernhard and José Saramago. “My relationships with books I read with the eye of a writer continuously changes with every book I write,” she says.

Recently, she re-read 1984 by George Orwell, and for weeks after that she dreamt of scenes from the book. “Right now, I’m reading something very engaging, Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan’s Chances Are, which is about probability in math. It’s written like a history book, but suddenly bursts into equations, and even if you have forgotten your high school math, you will be able to keep pace because of the way it has been written,” says Dawesar.

The titles she’s been waiting to read are Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan, another one on probablities. In fiction, she looks forward to reading friend and fellow writer Karan Mahajan’s Family Planning. Her copies of The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde and Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille remain personal favourites and forever to be found in her library.