Universal Untruth

Nair’s readings of any writer are original and her chapters on translation are philosophically daunting and exemplary. Her account of her own students’ attitudes towards India and the US are discerning. The world of a Kafkaesque officialdom she describes, with its own impenetrable conventions that do not refer to anyone in the "real world", is a tour de force of how governments efface their citizens. The erudition, imagination, profound interest in humanity and the sheer energy of the prose on display makes this book a landmark publication.