Novelist charts new path through Paris
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In Paris, Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri found himself questioning his expectations of the city while on a fellowship in the Château Rouge neighborhood.
He initially felt unsettled by the area’s departure from the romanticized Paris of literature, resisting the urge to embrace familiar clichés and delaying reading Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. However, a comment from his wife shifted his perspective, prompting him to explore the neighborhood’s everyday details and find a unique experience of the city.
Chaudhuri describes writing as a transformation of reality, not simply recording experiences. For him, writing begins when a shift occurs in how he perceives the world, allowing connections and meanings to emerge. He notes this process isn’t sequential, experiences don’t precede writing, but rather are understood through a textual lens. He recalls a moment while writing his novel Freedom Song when the political symbols around him suddenly gained new meaning, becoming part of a larger, interconnected narrative.
The author believes a writer’s role isn’t to be a citizen bearing witness to the present, but to embrace a kind of “un-citizenly” freedom in their work. He argues that this detachment allows for exploration and the challenging of established ideas, safeguarding intellectual and constitutional liberties. Chaudhuri ultimately did read Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, finding it a rewarding experience that enriched his own exploration of Paris and the act of writing itself.
