Ithaca

The editor and his monsters

Name of the Book: Ithaca

Author: David Davidar

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Price: Rs 499

David Davidar, ex-CEO of Penguin Canada, can safely be assumed to be an authority on the unique selling points of novels. As the ace publisher, he must have delivered numerous lectures on the art of becoming a successful novelist. So when he chose to become an author himself, he was armed with the magic formula that helps brew bestselling, even Booker-worthy, works. It is surprising that with all this useful knowledge, Davidar came up with Ithaca in his third attempt. It is less a novel than a series of lectures on topics that must be very close to Davidar’s heart. They are interspersed with a narrative that charts the rise and fall and the resultant progression towards inner light of the editor of an international publishing house, Litmus. The fictional cover is thin, and it is all too easy to hear Davidar speaking from within the protagonist, Zachariah Thomas. Here is scandal-scarred Davidar exonerating himself before the public by telling his tale and, at the same time, trying to make a few good bucks out of his ‘story’, which had stirred the publishing world in 2010. But the licking of wounds hardly makes for a lofty work of art. Let alone greatness, this novel does not seem destined to earn its author even a handsome return from sales.

Initially, one wonders what impelled Davidar to write an apology for the publishing industry — did anybody ever say that the industry is a big bad world, and in that way, different from other idyllic professional spheres out there? There are diligent discourses on editors’ skills — “Celebrated editors are superstars at the companies they work for…. The world is aware of one of the most important skills any editor worth her salt must have: the ability to nurture all the writers she publishes…. But another equally important skill is almost never spoken about outside the profession: the ability to sell”; on editorial meetings — “it is in this forum that the books that the company is thinking of buying are first revealed, appraised, discussed, fought over, and bought or turned down”; on CEOs, on the Frankfurt Book Fair, and so on. (For the philosophically inclined, there are also lectures on treachery in the publishing world, and for those fond of success stories, on Rushdie, as an exemplary star child of the industry.)

Halfway through the book, one realizes what has urged Davidar to take the podium. There’s a wolf at the door of publishing houses and it takes the form of Kindles and iPads. But don’t worry, Davidar reassures us. If the Frankfurt Book Fair, as old as Gutenberg, has “insouciantly negotiated every convulsion in the publishing business”, the latter will also slay the monster of digital revolution. While one inflates one’s heart with this daring hope, there are sermons on the importance of the publishing industry right from the horse’s mouth. “All its disadvantages notwithstanding, to be part of this world is a privilege and he [Zachariah, Zach for short] is proud to belong to this company of men and women, who for centuries have nurtured the mother of all creative arts, storytelling, with dedication and skill.” (EOM)

Published on December 16, 2011