Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Combining Indian myths, epic history, and the story of three college kids in search of America, a narrative includes the monkey's story of an Indian poet and warrior and an American road novel of college students driving cross-country.
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What Hacker News says
- The author blurb at the end of this brilliant piece simply says "Vikram Chandra: Writer, programmer, teacher." It wasn't until I clicked through to the linked website[0] that I realized that this was THE Vikram Chandra. His novels Sacred Games and Red Earth And Pouring Rain are very highly recommended. He also has a non-fiction book, Geek Sublime that seems somewhat related to this article.
- >I learned from reading a blog he wrote that he doesn't outline his long, complex novels. He writes with purposeful ambiguity.
> As you begin, you know very little about what the book is. But the thoughts and visions persist, which means that this character and her world have some kind of special energy for you, and you want to know more about this character, what her situation is. - Vikram Chandra
>This means that he may spend years writing his way into a story, leaving big plot holes, learning about the characters as he goes, until the novel comes into focus.
>This seems like a scary way to write, but it has successful practitioners. His first novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book.
Ironically, this book made me give up on reading fiction for about a decade. It's probably the only book I left midway, as an adult.
