Ashokamitran is probably the right person from the Tamil literature world to review Vikram Seth’s Two Lives. Vikram Seth like Ashokamitran writes down-to-earth novels, which could be related by an reader, instantly.
In his review, featured in Outlook, he appreciates Vikram Seth for the disciplined effort, he slaps the book for dumping too much information thats makes it too long.
From Outlook -
He writes about people who do not dazzle. And he does not dazzle the reader with his narration. In fact, it is with some effort one realises that there is a kind of disciplined literary style which Seth has succeeded in making almost unobservable.
Vikram Seth is not likely to have come across the name of Ka Naa Subramaniam and any of his writings in English or English translation. Ka Naa Subramaniam was a 20th century writer who, writing in Tamil, wrote for the whole world. He once observed that if a writer couldn’t tell his story in 200 pages, he wouldn’t be able to do it in 2,000.