Shame and glory of success in the old imperial power: Rishi Sunak…Mohamed Sarr

Everything is a bit out of kilter...expectations and criticisms. Photo by Dex Ezekiel on Unsplash

As the Conservative Party leadership contest crystallised to a two-horse race — Rishi Sunak vs Liz Truss — my thoughts went a recent New York Times piece (paywall) on Senegal-born writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.

A friend had very kindly sent me the link and it was interesting to see the mirror image — albeit with respect to France — of India’s preoccupation with Britain.

Let me explain.

Mr Sarr, who is Senegal born-and-bred, is currently the darling of French literature. Last year, he became, as the NYT says, the first writer “from Africa south of the Sahara” to win the Goncourt, France’s top literary prize. But the puzzle was the French literary establishment’s apparent insouciance about lauding a novel that critiques and ridicules it!

According to the NYT, Mr Sarr’s novel, ‘ The Most Secret Memory of Men ‘ describes France’s literary Pooh-Bahs “with a mix of harshness, ridicule and affection”. …