The human cost of H1-B dream | Review of Tanul Thakur’s Wild Wild East
This review of Tanul Thakur’s 'Wild Wild East' critiques the tendency of non-fiction authors to prioritize grand, sweeping theses over the emotional and human realities of their subjects. The author argues that such 'big picture' narratives often rely on unverified data and overlook critical nuances.
Why it matters
It offers a critical perspective on modern non-fiction writing styles and the intellectual responsibility of authors covering complex social issues like migration.
A good big picture, an indecipherable small picture: this has always been a pet peeve of mine as a reader. Writers of sprawling, ambitious non-fiction books tend to commit this error often — of being so obsessed with the big picture that they end up making a series of egregious over-simplifications and losing track of the narrative’s emotional core. Jared Diamond, Yuval Noah Harari, and Malcolm Gladwell are frequently guilty of this folly. They are by no means terrible writers, but the kinetic energy of their own theses overwhelms the part of their brain that is supposed to ask critical questions such as, “Did I just consider unverified datasets to be peer-reviewed facts in order to boost my argument?”
The piece is a literary critique expressing a subjective opinion on writing styles, which is standard for book reviews.
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