SOURCE: "Envoy of Mexico and the Muse," in Washington Post Book World, Vol. 27, April 20, 1997, p. 3.

[Galhraith is an author and professor of economics emeritus at Harvard University. In the following review, Galbraith reveals the thematic arrangement of In Light of India.]

Some 30-odd years ago, while serving as ambassador in India, I discovered that if I did no work my staff could do as well or better, I could finish everything in not over three hours a day, the occasional crisis excepted. The rest of the time I would be reduced to reading State Department telegrams on matters I already knew, didn't quite believe or that said nothing in particular. So with a reasonably good conscience I spent the time writing instead. Two or three books emerged, one of them, while I was still in office, under a pseudonym. I did not think it practical to clear it...