Another testament to the tribulations of novel-making: over at the New Yorker, Akhil Sharma discusses the particular technical problems he faced while writing Family Life as well as how, exactly, he went about solving them.
The book took twelve and a half years of my life and I am not sure if it was the right investment of my time. I once met a man who told me how, soon after he started dating a woman, she became sick. He found himself going to hospitals with her and helping her in a way that his affection for her would not have justified. Eventually, she died. He told me, “I am glad that someone was with her, but I don’t think I should have been that person.”
