Getting 2 Know Brian Brett

What is your favourite thing about writing?

The writing itself. Being there. For me it’s a form of meditation, especially when I’ve got my first draft and the general shape of the story. Then I feel like a particle rolling through space, going nowhere, joyously aflight on the cosmic winds of narrative. I don’t have plans, or let me say, lots of times, I do have plans for the stories, but they all change, mutating and glorious as I discover the real story that is writing me. This is what I live for. I never had much interest in being a writer, I only want to write.

What is the best book you’ve read lately, and why?

The book I most enjoyed reading in the last few years is J.G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur. It starts slowly, and I began wondering why I had to learn so much about these boring, arrogant British bureaucrats, their upper-class spouses, and soldiers in India. But as the siege and the carnage and the often comic mishaps grew more intense I began to realize what Farrell was doing. It’s an unrelenting exploration of human nature, imperialism, and racism, only from the point of view of the racists.

Some readers originally thought this book was racist itself, but that was because they misread the fierceness of the vision and the honesty of Farrell, and his brilliance in actually making the reader feel some sympathy for, or at least understand, these stupid, vacuous people. The Siege of Krishnapur is one of a trilogy of books he wrote on British imperialism in India, Ireland, and Singapore. It won the Booker prize, and should have won the Booker of Bookers.

The final battle – room by room in the wrecked Government outpost, as the last survivors, starved, insect-eating, pompous fools fight heroically and absurdly to the death with forks and violins – is justifiably legendary.

Read about Brian’s book Trauma Farm.

Visit Brian’s webpage.