05/14/2006: "Star Lawrence and David Davidar"

Hi All,

Quick post here. Strangely, both my North American editors, Starling Lawrence at WW Norton and David Davidar at Penguin Canada are, in addition to their roles as editors, fine writers. I think this is a fairly rare occurrence; it would seem that, though one job benefits the other to an extent, I wouldn't think there are enough hours in the day to be both editors and writers. In any case, they are.

David's first book, THE HOUSE OF BLUE MANGOES, came out a few years ago, and it's wonderful. A sprawling multi-generational saga set in India---David was once publisher of Penguin India---it's a great read. I read it last summer and passed it on to my Mom, who also enjoyed it. He's working on another book as I write this, to be published...? I don't know. But THE HOUSE OF BLUE MANGOES is fantastic.

Starling has written three books; his third, THE LIGHTNING KEEPER, was just released this month. I have not read it yet, but I've read his collection, LEGACIES, and his first novel, the historical drama MONTENEGRO, both of which were marvelous. Both David and Star are, as you might imagine, pretty daunting individuals---at least in my estimation, as a first-time writer they've taken a chance on. But they're great guys, great writers, and if you haven't checked out their work, I highly recommend it.

This link is to a NY Times piece on Starling that I ran across today, which was the impetus for me writing this post. American aristocracy, they call him. I don't know how he'd feel about that, but certainly the history brought up in the article would seem to bear that notion out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/books/13star.html

All best, Craig.