Amanda Stern in Lessons in Curating. Lessons in Culture:
I asked the author, Akhil Sharma to conduct a One Word Celebrity Interview with Husain Naqvi (author of Home Boy). Granted, Husain cheats a little, stretching out those one words, but we'll cut him some slack because he's nice and wrote a good book.
(1) Your book is about the adventures and misadventures of several young Pakistani men. They basically want to drink and get laid and they come into conflict with their elders and also with the US government, both of whom have pre-conceived ideas of what it means to be a young Pakistani male. Did the plot, which has the feel of a picaresque adventure, come about as a result of these young men being shoved by these forces with their preconceived ideas?A: Yes.
…(11) Did you begin writing the novel with the idea that you were writing a novel or was it a short story that got longer and longer?A: Slam (poem).
(12) You wrote this book in Cambridge, a town of tremendous affluence, while you and wife lived in a single room on very little money. How did you manage to slog through the years that it took to write the book?
A: Pasta, Ativan.
(13) You have now been living in Karachi for a little over a year and expect to be there for another year or so. Your book, in many ways, feels very American, young immigrants rejecting the ways of the “old country”. Has your conception of your book changed since you moved back to Karachi? Have certain colors in the book dimmed to your eyes and others brightened?
A: Brightened…
More here.