SOURCE: "And So Tibet," in The Village Voice, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4, January 26, 1988, p. 48.

In the following review of From Heaven Lake, Grimes praises Seth's attention to human behavior and cultural difference.

It is early August, and Vikram Seth, one of three passengers wedged into the cab of a Chinese truck, is rumbling along the road to Lhasa. He is suffering from altitude sickness. The landscape—and there's lots of it—is monotonous and almost theatrically harsh: "Every few kilometers or so, a large and glossy raven sits perched on a telegraph pole, karking desolately." Gyanseng, a young Tibetan who has sat virtually silent for the entire trip, turns loquacious as the border nears; he begins singing, off-key, a number of Tibetan and Chinese favorites, including "Do Re Mi," "Jingle Bells," and "Red River Valley." This is a fairly convincing version of hell.

Seth's [From Heaven Lake] makes a...