The Private Life of Power

I met Karan Mahajan, the Indian-American novelist and essayist, in 2018, when we were both fellows at the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library. Karan was beginning to write The Complex, his novel that has just been released; I was finishing The Enigma of Clarence Thomas. I was drawn to Karan right away. Not only is he one of the best talkers in the world, ready to go anywhere in a conversation, but he’s also genuinely interested in right-wing politics. Since the rise of Trump, many on the left have tried to gain a better understanding of the right. Karan’s aims are both more modest and more ambitious. He wants to think and feel with the right. The Complex is one of those surprisingly rare novels that engages with the inner life of far-right leaders in the mold of India’s Modi, and of the ordinary people who vote for them. In this conversation, Karan and I talked about how the novel tells the story of the last seventy-five years of Indian politics, as well as the challenges of inhabiting the minds of right-wing characters. —Corey RobinCorey Robin: Why did you choose The Complex as the title? What does it refer to?Karan Mahajan: On the most basic level, the title refers to t...