Dissolving differences has always been an important motive for my writing, right from 'The Mistress of Spices.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I wrote 'Mistress of Spices' at an unusual time when I had a near-death experience after the birth of my second son.
If I examine the circumstances which inspired me to write - and this is not mere self-indulgence, but a desire for accuracy - I see clearly that the starting point of it all for me was war.
I have a slightly contrarian streak as a writer, and one of the things I was interested in was how distilled could I make a life, and how I could cross what is kind of trivialized as a domestic novel with a novel of ideas, a philosophical novel.
I remember when I was trying to do 'Metropolitan,' in breaks I would read a page of two of Jane Austen as a palate-cleanser.
In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.
Earnestness can ferment into sentimentality.
I think striking the right tone for your story is, if you like, the alchemical work of writing.
For me, novels coalesce into being, rather than arrive fully formed.
I guess there is also an element of deliberate change involved. Each of my books has been, at least from my point of view, radically different from the last.
Anyone who undertakes the literary grind had better like playing around with words.