Richard Crasta

Publisher info

Richard Crasta is the India-born, long-time New York-resident author of "The Revised Kama Sutra: A Novel" and 12 other books, with at least 12 more conceived or in progress. "The Revised Kama Sutra," a novel about a young man growing up and making sense of the world and of sex, was described by Kurt Vonnegut as "very funny," and has been published in ten countries and in seven languages.

Richard's books include fiction, nonfiction, essays, autobiography, humor, and satire with a political edge: anti-censorship, non-pc, pro-laughter, pro-food, pro-beer, and against fanaticism of any kind. His books have been described as "going where no Indian writer has gone before," and attempt to present an unedited, uncensored voice (James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, and Philip Roth are among the novelists who have inspired him.).

Richard was born and grew up in India, joined the Indian Administrative Service, then moved to America to become a writer, and has traveled widely. Though technically still a New York resident, he spends most of his time in Asia working on his books in progress and part-time as a freelance book editor.

Smashwords Interview

When did you first start writing?
I was ten years old, or perhaps nine. But I really became serious about writing around 15 and 16, when I came across the novel "Herzog" by Saul Bellow, and had also read Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage." I felt I had a story to tell. Writing of this sort, which was different from the story books I had read as a child, excited me.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in Mangalore, a small South Indian town full of tall coconut trees, mango, cashew, and jackfruit trees, and with a church or chapel every mile or so. Churches and chapels were very important in my childhood. So were nuns and priests. My parents were away for a significant part of my childhood. Writing was a cure for my loneliness, it helped me escape into a fantasy world. Almost as soon as I could write full sentences, I started writing imaginary things. It culminated in a story about a John F. Kennedy character, a hero, on a horse, who went around conquering countries till, finally, he became the benevolent emperor of the entire world.
Read more of this interview.

Where to buy in print

About Those Monkey Brains ... My Secret Nights as an Indian Standup Comic in New York
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 5,430. Language: English. Published: December 21, 2014 by Richard Crasta. Categories: Nonfiction » Entertainment » Humor & satire » Form / jokes & riddles, Nonfiction » Entertainment » Humor & satire » Form / parodies
When this India-born author first came to America many decades back, he ran into Americans who believed that Indians spoke “Indian,” dressed in adult diapers--like Ma-HAT-ma GAN-dee, and “ate curry” (“Two portions of curry please, with curry on the side!”). So he started doing standup comedy making fun of American stereotypes of India, & also making fun of America. This book is the result.
Apocalypse Then . . . And Now: An Alternative View of 9/11
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 13,040. Language: English. Published: September 12, 2012 by Richard Crasta. Categories: Essay » Political, Nonfiction » History » Modern / 21st Century
In this unique combined eyewitness account, thought diary, and monologue on the Twin Tower collapse on Sept. 11, 2001, the author asks: On one of the most momentous days in Twenty-first Century History, what were people really thinking? Were they all thinking the same thoughts as the pundits and the politicians? Were the bottom 10% thinking the same thoughts as the top 5%?
Eaten by the Japanese: The Memoir of an Unknown Indian Prisoner of War
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 32,330. Language: English. Published: March 29, 2011 by Richard Crasta. Categories: Nonfiction » History » War, Nonfiction » Biography » Military biography
John Baptist Crasta's only mistake was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time--Singapore, when the Japanese invaded--and to be a man of "rectitude and courage". His gripping World War II memoir tells of his miraculous survival through 3.5 years as a POW of the Japanese. The memoir itself miraculously survives 51 years until it is published, by his son, with added essays, just before his death!

Books

One Little Indian
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 73,950. Language: English. Published: October 6, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » Literature » Literary, Fiction » Coming of age
In India, a land of “snakes, elephants, gurus, and coconuts,” Vijay Prabhu grows up Catholic and confused. The result is an Indian Angela's Ashes, one in which Vijay, redefining his goals, dreams of going to America, the land of milk, honey, and Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup. "Surprisingly delightful...the unstoppably copious funniness is Shandian."-The Telegraph.
The Last Catholic Colony: An Indian Catholic Childhood: Fiction and Essays
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 48,910. Language: English. Published: July 26, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Literary collections » Asian / Indic
A subjective impression of life in Mangalore, which with its churches, convents, seminaries, and Jesuit schools, loomed large in the imagination of the author, as he was growing up, and made a deep impression on his mind: fiction and essays celebrating and analyzing Mangalore's Catholic community..
The Pocket Coconut Bible (Je Suis Charlie (Brown))
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 10,510. Language: English. Published: January 14, 2015 . Categories: Nonfiction » Entertainment » Humor & satire » Form / essays, Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Personal Growth / Success
How do you conquer for fun and profit? And what are the rules for brown people hoping to be successful in the West? By following “The Fourteen Commandments of Indian and Nonwhite (Male) Success,” delivered by a White God, a patronizing god who lets you choose any seven out of fourteen commandments (in consideration of your natural weaknesses). Also, a guide on How to Win the Booker Prize.
The Memory Trap: How Society Bleeds the Forgetful
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 7,810. Language: English. Published: July 30, 2014 . Categories: Essay » Political, Essay » Sociology
Do you often forget things, and pay a heavy price for your forgetfulness? Memory failures of almost any kind often make life more inconvenient, time-consuming, and financially draining for the forgetful person. In this long essay, the author examines the many problems of people with imperfect memories, and how the exploitation and penalization of imperfect memories is inhumane and uncivilized.
Beauty Queens, Children and the Death of Sex
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 52,670. Language: English. Published: March 3, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Sex & Relationships  » Sex & culture, Essay » Literature
In this revised, expanded e-book edition of his controversial collection of personal and political essays, humor, and satire, the author of the celebrated novel "The Revised Kama Sutra" comments on a range of subjects, from India's sexual confusion to the colonization of the Indian mind. Arguing for true freedom for Indians and writers of Indian origin, he also discusses identity & nationalism.
Jesus Christ in Latter Day Hackensack
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 6,390. Language: English. Published: March 19, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Humor & comedy » General, Essay » Literature
In this Woody Allen meets the Bible fantasy-satire, Jesus Christ makes a time travel visit to 21st Century New Jersey, walks into a bar, and finds himself trying to answer the question: "What do you do?" It turns out that he's hired a Jewish lawyer to examine the fine print on his contract for the Redemption of Mankind. Next, the Buddha gets a lecture from Berkowitz the headhunter. And Gandhi . .
What We All Need
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 52,660. Language: English. Published: November 14, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » Sex & Relationships  » Sex & culture, Fiction » Literature » Literary
“Sex is the most fun you can have without laughing,” said Woody Allen. But which do we need more, sex or laughter, and what is it that we ALL need? In this explosive anthology of literary, political, and sexy fiction and nonfiction, sex, laughter, politics, and public interest are blended into an unusual cocktail, subversive as well as thought-provoking.
The Killing of an Author
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 75,120. Language: English. Published: April 29, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Literary biography
An exhaustive list of mistakes a writer should never make (for example: insisting on total freedom of expression), and an Encyclopedia of the Dark side of publishing and writing, “The Killing of an Author” is a true story set mainly in New York, and partly in London and New Delhi, with cameo appearances by literary and publishing stars, and a breathless sense of wonder and hope: a writer's journey
Lord Bush of Iraq: or, The Jolly Nuker of Baghdad
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 5,570. Language: English. Published: December 18, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Politics & Current Affairs » World politics, Nonfiction » Entertainment » Humor & satire » Topic / political
Conned Dee and Donald Ducksfeld “discover” the Al Stinkeroo, Iraq’s megafartacious SWMD, and demand that Iraq be totally disarmed—every steel knife in the country to be confiscated and replaced with plastic knives supplied by the Unholy Bottom Corporation, formerly headed by Veep Dick Shinyhead. Black Humor and Anti-War Political Satire, About 7000 words.
Father, Rebel, Dreamer
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 23,470. Language: English. Published: June 4, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Parenting » Divorce & children, Nonfiction » Biography » Personal memoir
Writers and artists who are fathers; terrorist mothers-in-law; how to face the stealing of your children (including your book-children); this eclectic book on fatherhood and Mangalore from the author of the celebrated novel "The Revised Kama Sutra" is full of surprises, passion, poignancy,
I Will Not Go the F**k to Sleep
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 26,650. Language: English. Published: June 4, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Entertainment » Humor & satire » Form / parodies, Nonfiction » Entertainment » Humor & satire » Topic / political
By the author-father of 3 children, 8 books, and one kicking and screaming Inner Child that refuses to go to sleep or to grow up, this highly varied humor collection (with two pieces about Daddies) imagines: --What if a child, asked to go the f**k to sleep by its father, offered imaginative excuses, in adult language? Yogis balancing India's budget, Satan's business card, Nuke Fire Sale, etc.etc
Impressing the Whites: The New International Slavery
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 59,330. Language: English. Published: April 9, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Social Science » Ethnic studies, Nonfiction » Politics & Current Affairs » Current affairs
In this comical, passionate, satirical, and sincere book, The White God delivers "The Fourteen Commandments of Impressing the Whites" to a brown "Moses." Inscribed on two coconuts, the Commandments sum up both the secrets of success for brown/colored writers, entrepreneurs, and artists, and the distortions caused by race politics and realities in the modern world.
A Freedom Anthology: An Indian Independence Day Special Edition
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 41,150. Language: English. Published: February 19, 2011 . Categories: Essay » Literature
With exuberant excerpts from "The Revised Kama Sutra," "The Killing of an Author", "Impressing the Whites," "Eaten by the Japanese," "What We All Need," and "I Will Not Go the F2 Sleep," the author of 12 books also presents his philosophy of writing and its emphasis on freedom, equality, authenticity, originality, and nonconformism..
The Revised Kama Sutra: A Novel
Price: $5.99 USD. Words: 126,220. Language: English. Published: October 8, 2010 . Categories: Fiction » Coming of age, Fiction » Humor & comedy » General
In this comic novel of an Indian boy trying to lose his virginity and become a man ("very funny"- Kurt Vonnegut), universal themes such as longing for one's parents, childhood insecurities and joys, manhood and ambition, loneliness and lust, culture shock, and immigration are explored, and Jackie Kennedy, a blonde editor, and pop culture also make a few appearances.

Richard Crasta's tag cloud

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