A million pound advance has its disadvantages. Ask Hari Kunzru. The poor little rich literary boy blamed the large advance he got from his publishers for the bad reviews he’s been getting in London papers. Reviewers, he feels, are beginning to think this is a new con game by publishers. They suspect, according to Kunzru, the hype that’s being created around young, multi-cultural, cute authors like Zadie Smith (White Teeth) and him.
The lengths authors will go to settle scores with their critics! Almost everyone has forgotten by now Germaine Greer’s dismissive remarks about Mistry’s earlier novel, A Fine Balance, and the name-calling that ensued with Mistry calling her "asinine". But it’s still not quits, it seems. Taking the ultimate perk of the creator, Mistry uses his latest novel, Family Matters, to take one more dig at "the woman whose name he can’t recall" who had the temerity to challenge the reality of his novel. Readers, says one of the characters in Family Matters in an embarrassing aside, don’t appreciate too much reality.
