Everyone has the voice they hear in their head. Maybe it’s a nagging mother or a stern teacher. While there are probably less conventional versions out there, one that would definitely cause ears to prick up would be the voice of English writer Graham Greene. Well, when Pico Iyer set out to write his recent book, “The Man Within My Head,” that’s exactly who he heard.
Iyer describes Greene as his adoptive father, as he has long been fascinated by the man and his work. Iyer, a travel writer, often found himself not trying to emulate Greene, but haunted by his focus on “the foreigner” as a character who goes from land to land, never quite living in reality. Iyer tracks Greene’s progress from his first novel onward, and expounds on the commonalities of and kinship between himself and Greene.
The further he goes into his own consciousness and life, however, the more he questions who the man in his head really is. Could it be Iyer’s actual father? Or even just an abstraction of his own self? What did Iyer learn while writing this book? How does his life align with Graham Greene’s? How does his prowess as a travel writer translate to a book that’s far more personal and incisive in nature?
Guest:
Pico Iyer, author of “The Man Within My Head” (Knopf), writer of nonfiction books, travel writer for the Financial Times, literature writer for The New York Review of Books and other pieces for Time, The New York Times and more
Iyer will be in conversation with Tom Curwen of the Los Angeles Times tonight at 7 p.m. The event takes place at the Los Angeles Central Library. For more information, click here.