Salman Rushdie on Sunday mourned the death of VS Naipaul, saying he lost a beloved older brother while fellow authors said he was one of the greatest writers who was very engaging when he turned on the charm.
Naipaul’s family on Sunday announced he died in london at the age of 85.
British Indian novelist Rushdie in a tweet said, “We disagreed all our lives, about politics, about literature, and I feel as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother. RIP Vidia.”
Author-poet Jeet Thayil described Naipaul as an awful man and a brilliant writer and said his death was like “losing a cantankerous, contrarian father”.
He also put out several other tweets tagging his quotes and photographs. Sanjoy K Roy, one of the organisers of Jaipur literature Festival, tweeted, “He could be cranky and disagreeable but when he turned on the charm he was engaging and more often then not educative and informative! He will be missed.”