Reviews
“Much like the jazz he loves, Bruce King's life is driven by the make-shift and improvisatory. Obstacles in his way inspire turnarounds that defeat them. An Indian word for improvised solutions is jugaad, and King's life is jugaad.
It often takes the form of extended stays in challenging countries, India being one of them. Drawn into dangerous currents—the works and lives of those countries' cultural players—King manages to keep his head above water, generally to praise what he finds; when necessary, to condemn.
This is a book about a frequently displaced, heroic, continuously self-correcting life, generous in its recall, extraordinary in its scope.“—Adil Jussawalla, Poet
"After several false starts to the memoir, King pulled out all the stops and just let it flow. The result is a rambling narrative combining reminiscence, portraits – often waspish – of diverse personalities, confession, humorous anecdotes; out of all this the serious student of literature can extrapolate a fascinating history of modern literary studies and contemporary – mainly postcolonial – writing."—Kaiser Haq, CROSSINGS vol. 11, 2020