MEET ARVIND
THE MANY PARALLEL TRACKS OF A WRITER’S CRAFT
Arvind Ethan David’s first novel, The Great Game, has just come out. Image credit: VALERIE CAVANESS.
Name: Arvind Ethan David. My mother is from Sindh. My father’s from Kerala. They were casting about for a name that was both North and South, and “Arvind” is common in Kerala and “Arvinder” is common in Sindh and the Pun-jab. So Lotus boy, I was born. “Ethan” is my saint’s name, but I’m not particularly saint-y. Indeed, “David” has been my father’s family name since they abandoned Hinduism and their Brahmin status for an entrepreneurial life as Christians. For a long time, I would get pulled into secondary inspection every time I entered the US; apparently there was someone on the terrorist watch-list with my name, which seemed very unlikely to me, but there you have it.
Currently: I’m on book-tour for my first novel, The Great Game, which has just come out. It’s the tale of an Indian immigrant in 1905 London, Balvinder “Bunny” Dev Singh: a war veteran, a trainee lawyer, and a part-time cat burglar. Bunny chances upon a series of grotesque murders, which finds him pulled into the orbit of the young Winston Churchill and the ageing Sherlock Holmes.
It’s a murder mystery, a caper, a conspiracy, but also a deconstruction of colonialism. It’s silly and serious in about equal measure. I’m very proud of it but also confused to find myself suddenly becoming that grand thing: “a novelist”.
My life in 50 words (or less!): Born in Malaysia, grew up in London, read law at Oxford, I write and produce television, theatre and books. I’ve been nominated for an Olivier and a Stoker Award, and my shows have won a Grammy, a Tony, and an Asian Academy Award, but I’m still a disappointment to my Indian parents.
The writer in me took flight when: I stopped trying to please said parents.
The creative in me wishes: That I could be more self-indulgent and day-drink more often.
My favourite line in poetry: The lyf so short, the craft so long to lern. —Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls. It’s as elegant and compressed a life lesson as I have ever read. It’s about writing. It’s about stoicism. It’s about finding purpose through function. It’s about mortality and meaning. Also, “lyf” is just a much better spelling of “life”.
Favourite colours: A hyper-intelligent shade of blue and a very dim shade of grey.
Favourite designer: Like a fashion designer? It’s been a long time since I cared. When I was in my 20s, I was dating a designer, and we would go to London Fashion Week, and I’d rhapsodize lyrical about the cut of my pleated trousers. These days, I like soft, comfortable clothes that don’t make me look fat.
Favourite movie: Three-way tie between Casablanca, A Few Good Men and Toy Story 3. Thinking about it now, different though these films might seem, they have in common three things: the power and perils of male friendship, a distrust of militaristic authority, and a powerful romance suppressed for noble reasons. I didn’t realize how boringly predictable my thematic obsessions were.
Favourite books: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams. Douglas was an early mentor of mine, and this is his most perfectly constructed novel, a really satisfying supernatural mystery, crammed full of giant, complicated ideas explained via brilliantly compressed and original jokes and featuring the wholly original detective, Dirk Gently.
Leave it to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse was – without exception – the funniest writer of the 20th century and this book, bringing together two of his richest “franchises” – the agent of chaos that is Psmith and the idyll of Blandings Castle – is, I think, the pinnacle of his achievement. I’m in the middle of adapting it for the screen and it is a dizzying experience.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s a measure of the extraordinary nature of these stories that even knowing how every mystery resolves doesn’t hurt the enjoyment of re-reading them. It’s unclear if even Conan Doyle realized the extent of the genius of his creation, or perhaps we should say the creation of his genius: Sherlock Holmes, one of the immortals of literature. I re-read the stories in preparation for writing The Great Game. That’s about the most fun research I’m ever going to do.
Favourite TV show: The West Wing. For the musicality of the language, the hope that politics could be this way, and for Richard Schiff’s righteous fury as Communications Director Toby Ziegler.
Favourite ice cream flavour: Why does ice cream even need flavors? It’s all good.
Favourite cuisine: Tapas, dim sum, sushi, and roti canai. I like small food that I can eat a lot of without feeling guilty.
Favourite restaurant: Places where I can get good tapas, dim sum, sushi, and roti canai.
Favourite activities: Dadding. Writing (is that allowed?). Eating tapas, dim sum, sushi, and roti canai. (I feel like I’ve italicized roti canai too many times now, so this time I’m just leaving it as is.)
The Great Game by Arvind Ethan David is published by Thomas & Mercer, $16.99.
I hang out: No, I definitely don’t do that. That sounds like something cool people do.
I’m freaked out by: Dogs that are smaller than cats.
I need: Cats that are smaller than dogs.
My role models: First Officer Spock. Rupert Eustance Psmith. Dirk Gently.
Tips to save the planet: Remember that it’s the only one we’ve got.
In a perfect world: We’d actually remember.
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