M. M. Kaye

I thought I would write something about M. M. Kaye, who just died at the age of 95. (Obituaries from The Washington Post and The New York Times.) I loved The Far Pavilions, even though I knew it was mostly rubbish -- exotic romance, and never mind about accuracy. Still, I could hardly put it down, from the first page to the last. I tried some of her other books, but they just weren't the same.

The move was awful -- Amy Irving with racoon eyes. Ugh! About as bad as Alec Guinness as Prof. Godbole in Passage to India.

But then I found that Kitab-khana had already done it better, by quoting from Allan Sealy's novel Trotter-Nama,

How the Raj is done:
I wish to shew how the Raj is done. This is the play of children, good adept, rest easy. You must have the following ingredients. (It matters little if one or another be wanting, nor is the order of essence. Introduce them as you please, and as often.) Let the pot boil of its own. An elephant, a polo club, a snake, a length of rope, a rajah or a pearl of price... (more)