Why reading fiction is indispensable

Its ability to dissect and transcend reality is invaluable for researchers like me

Of the 24 books I have read in 2023, it is telling that 22 are fiction, and the only two non-fiction books I read cover to cover are about travel and cities. The list of academic book chapters and journal articles I consumed for work is long and tedious, but as I reflect on the year gone by, I see an underlying set of common themes that capture my interest. I see how fiction and non-fiction intertwine to inform and enrich my worldview.

For me, books have always been a means of travelling the world. I love that by reading, I learn about places and how they look and feel. Books also add value by locating places and spaces in time by offering specific historical context. They help me understand the world as complex and multi-layered.

This year, Pallavi Aiyar’s endearing feline characters Tofu and Soyabean helped me leap over rooftops and lurk in the courtyards of Beijing’s hutongs. Their travails in the wake of Beijing’s Olympic Games and amid fears of a deadly virus reminded me of countless professional discussions about whether hosting prestigious global events offers countries tangible benefits beyond prestige and soft power. Here is Aiyar writing about her beloved cats and this book.

Lahore’s gullies came alive in Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s trilogy about batwara, the deeply painful partition which continues to scar people and national identities in India and Pakistan (read an interview here). This novel was emotionally intense but also very spatial. How neighbourhoods were protected through community surveillance and barricades in Lahore was evocative of academic debates in urban studies about how spatial segregation and neighbourhood dynamics shape cities over time. The breakdown of trust between communities that have lived side by side is always a tragic reminder of how political events can destroy multicultural societies by evoking communal insecurities and fears. A different kind of rupturing occurred for me while reading Jerry Pinto’s novel The Education of Yuri. Through Yuri’s wanderings, Pinto brought alive a Bombay that I was familiar with as a child but that now feels alien as redevelopment and infrastructure projects transform once-familiar roads and neighbourhoods (this review drives home the point I am making).

New infrastructure reshapes cities, and novels can help us relive a more familiar past

Fictional works are also priceless in how they can comment on the most trying political events of their time. In Victory City, Rushdie offers a brilliant political commentary on our times. His inimitable lyrical prose conjures seductive imagery of the empire of Bisnaga that, far from being distracting, sharpens the underlying message: that time teaches us all lessons we must heed about how lust and greed will be our downfall one day, no matter how great we become. This essay places this book and the vicious attack on Rushdie in 2022 in the broader context of his life-long struggle against extremists.

Milan Kundera’s passing urged me to re-read The Joke, a story about a joke gone horribly wrong. It reminds us how political regimes that thrive on control leave no room for human failings, extracting terrible costs from many innocent people. The underlying messages could not be more relevant for those of us living in societies where rampant intolerance and growing self-censorship are clear signs of something worse to come.

I was once an avid maker of New Year resolutions, but I’ve learned to avoid that kind of pressure over the years. But I do make some general promises to myself. For the last few years, I have only listed what I read. In 2024, I hope to reflect more so that in a year from now, my analysis is deeper and can possibly connect with more readers.

I hope you enjoyed these musings and found the links that go alongside them useful. I plan to write more reflective posts in this last month of the year, but starting January, I will usher in the New Year with content developed from conversations with friends and colleagues who are doing transformative work in cities worldwide. As a teaser, I will tell you that the first of these accounts is about a highly politicised conundrum that New York is facing now!