Tonight, the Indian writer Arundhati Roy receives the St. Louis Literary Award from St. Louis University. But before the acclaimed author takes the stage at the Sheldon Concert Hall, she wanted to see for herself the city that was awarding the prize.
So she arrived in St. Louis five days early 鈥� and has spent the time quietly exploring Missouri and Illinois.
Roy grew up in the Indian state of Kerala, which provides the setting for her 1997 bestseller 鈥淭he God of Small Things.鈥� As a child, she felt a kinship between her river, the , and the American river she knew only from stories and songs.
鈥淚 used to sit on the banks of that river, and I used to dream about the Mississippi,鈥� Roy recalled on Thursday鈥檚 St. Louis on the Air. 鈥淩eally, I used to think about it so much, about the slave ships and about the huge stories that I grew up [with].鈥�
She even remembers her mother playing Paul Robeson鈥檚 recording of 鈥淥l鈥� Man River,鈥� which remains a touchstone to this day.
鈥淢y mother is 88 years old and sometimes, her oxygen levels dip because she's very severely asthmatic,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd then you become a little hallucinatory. You forget things. And if I play 鈥極l鈥� Man River鈥� to her, she sings it back to me.鈥�
In St. Louis this week, Roy got to see the Mississippi in person for the first time, taking a trip up the Great River Road. She also went to visit Ferguson, which she had read up about and was curious to see.
鈥淥bviously, just going there doesn't show me what happened, but somehow I'm that writer who needs to touch and smell and feel a place,鈥� she explained.
鈥淭he God of Small Things鈥� made Roy a literary sensation in late 1990s, winning rave reviews and the Man Booker Prize on its way to selling more than 6 million copies.
But in the 25 years since its publication, Roy has only written one additional novel. Instead, she鈥檚 brought the righteous anger that underpins the novel to the fore, focusing on political writing and activism.
She sees her fiction and her nonfiction as complementary, saying she doesn鈥檛 see any competition between them 鈥� even for her time. 鈥淭he essays are really written with some sort of urgency,鈥� she explained. 鈥淎nd they also form the layers of understanding that then become a novel.鈥�
She continued, 鈥淭o write fiction, I need to live through things and understand things and understand also the imagination of those of us who are resisting.鈥�
Roy feels a deep obligation to speak out against injustice, particularly in India. It鈥檚 gotten her in trouble more than once (in addition to being brought up on obscenity charges for 鈥淭he God of Small Things,鈥� she was ordered to spend a day in jail for her criticism of the government 鈥� and ). That, in some ways, has been the price of her literary fame: She feels a duty to resist.
鈥淎s a writer, I keep saying that, in order to create the moral space in which you can write fiction, you have to stand up to this other stuff, because otherwise, it's a kind of pusillanimity 鈥� because keeping quiet is a kind of politics,鈥� she explained. Even silence about the policies of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be a form of tacit collusion: 鈥淚'm the kind of person then that could be claimed as the source of Indian pride 鈥� international awards and so on 鈥� and I could be used to further this project, which I so despise.鈥�
Even so, Roy acknowledged that she鈥檚 been able to keep a twinkle in her eye. She finds amusement in the endless factionalism of her fellow leftists. She also can鈥檛 help laughing at her critics, no matter what side of the political spectrum.
鈥淵ou know, you can鈥檛 let these people get to you, because that's what they want. They want to destabilize you,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd really, they only deserve to be mocked. They only deserve your contempt. They certainly do not deserve you to lose your balance, your peace of mind. You have to be cool to fight them.鈥�
Related Event
What:
When: 7-9 p.m. April 28
Where: Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108
What:
When: 1-3 p.m. April 29
Where: Chaifetz School of Business Cook Hall, 3674 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by and produced by , , and . Jane Mather-Glass is our production assistant. The audio engineer is .
