Shashi Tharoor
2005
Penguin
pp. 236
Bookless in Baghdad is a work of non fiction by Shashi Tharoor. This is the only writing by Tharoor that I have read so far and I picked it up for its interesting title more than anything else. I was unaware of his writing style or what the book might hold in store.
It has almost forty essays on reading and writing, the first of which I truly enjoyed. But the thrill slowly and surely slipped away as I realised that the tone of the book is constant across the various essays. There is no moving away from his personal experience and opinion something that he is overly sure of. The touch of humility gradually vanished and the writing became increasingly elite. Merely acknowledging an elite upbringing did not seem an apology enough for the self centered overtone.
Some of the essays are quite enjoyable, like the title essay. But even in this, as in the others, there is an unmistakable childlike vanity. At times, it is quite endearing, and at others, intolerably annoying. In the ending copyright acknowledgements, Tharoor mentions the various places where earlier versions of these essays have appeared. Maybe, if I had read or heard them when they had originally appeared, they would have been more tolerable as there would be gaps in exposure to his work. Maybe, the essays should have been read intermittently so that there was no overdose. Alas, the mistake has been made!