Failing the litmus test

There is a question that Zachariah Thomas, the protagonist of David Davidar’s novel, Ithaca, asks in the beginning of the book. Sitting in a restaurant in Thimphu while on a holiday, which rather than being a pleasant vacation is his desperate attempt to get as far away from London as possible, Zachariah, or Zach, pulls out a manuscript sent in by a debut novelist. Ten pages are all he can take of it. His frustration is evident as he wonders, “Why on earth don’t they throw caution to the winds, give their work a great clawing distinctiveness, an irresistible force that will sweep the reader along from the very first page?”

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