The Observer, February 17, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 17
Case professor publishes novel to critical acclaim
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Though human, Professor Thrity Umrigar often seems to run on jet fuel.
The Case fiction writing, journalism, and literature instructor writes on the side and has produced several critically acclaimed novels as well as book of memoirs.
The author of the novels First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood and Bombay Time had her most recent book published by Harper Collins this past January. The novel The Space Between Us has caused her to be hailed as a "perceptive and often piercing writer" by The New York Times.
"Each book takes about six months to write…but mostly, publishers will specify a period of up to 18 months from the time they buy it," said Umrigar.
Despite her recent successes, you probably won't find Umrigar resting on her laurels in her office in Guilford this semester; she isn't teaching. Even though she just published The Space Between Us, Umrigar hasn't taken time to relax; instead she is working on her next project. Says Umrigar, "I am actually putting the finishing touches on another book right now. My goal was to finish a strong first draft before Space came out, so I began work on it immediately after Space was done."
However, as taxing as writing a novel might seem to some, Umrigar approaches the process in a methodical fashion. "One writes a book just as one does anything else that's a time commitment – one step, one word, one page at a time," she said.
Her critics have already decided on Space; The Economist, in a recent review, said that "The Space Between Us [is] far more than an analysis of fate and a portrait of the bonds of womanhood. It is also a powerful social commentary on the glorious and frustrating jigsaw puzzle that is modern India."
This talented Case professor did not start out as a novelist; she worked as a journalist at The Akron-Beacon Journal and other major papers (The Washington Post, The Plain Dealer) for 17 years before coming to Case. Working as a journalist forced Umrigar to realize the dual life one must lead to be successful, that is, "To be a writer, you have to do two things: one, you have to read a lot….The other is to live a lot…The fact that these two things contradict each other is part of the joy of being a writer."
At the Journal, she also learned "[that] journalism is very good practice for being a novelist. One, it gives you the discipline to write on a regular basis in a sustained manner. And two, it teaches you to be a good observer of human behavior and the way people talk, what they say, what they don't say, etc."
As a journalist, she wrote reviews and essays, ranging from her thoughts on what turned Jeffrey Dahmer (a cannibal serial killer) into a monster, to a step-by-step account of a premature baby's fight for life over the first four months of life.
In 1999, Umrigar won a Nieman Fellowship, an award that allows its winners to study at Harvard for a year. While there, she completed a project she had worked on previously. The result was her first novel, Bombay Time, which centered on a group of middle-class residents of poverty-stricken Bombay.
A hard-hitting writer, Umrigar looks at tough questions, whether in essays, articles, or novels. One minute, you might read her thoughts on AIDS in India, at the next, the value of "angels" in America.
No matter what she's writing, you won't even see her; she'll be hurtling past you on that high octane fuel, teaching, writing, and publishing. Hopefully one day, her students will be doing the same.
