From: vaidhyan@ecn.purdue.edu (Ramesh Vaidhyanathan)
Subject: Sundara Ramasamy, Thi. Ja. and Ki. Rajanarayanan
Keywords: authors, novels, short stories
Reply-To: vaidhyan@cn.ecn.purdue.edu
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 19:07:05 GMT


I recently read the novel "Je.Je. Cila Kurippukal" by
Sundara Ramasamy, the novel "Marappacu" and the short
story collection "erumaip pongal" by Thi. Jankiraman
and the novel "gopallapuraththu makkal" and the short 
story/essay collection "vEtti" by Ki.Rajanarayanan. 
Following are some of my thoughts/comments on these:


"Je.Je. Cila Kurippukal" - by Sundara Ramasamy
----------------------------------------------

According to me it is more of a critique on modern (tamil?) 
literature than a novel. It is full of the author's views/
discussions on how a good literary writer should be (Je. Je. 
is given as an example of this) and how difficult it is for 
such a writter to survive in the modern literary world which 
is full of politics and the likes of politicians. The novel 
has lot of 'sarcasmic' remarks about many writers (including 
"kalki").

I found it wery hard to read this book (because it is full of 
the author's views and really 'nothing' is happening in the
novel, even when compared to some other literary novels I've  
read). I've read the author's other novel "oru puLiyamaraththin 
kathai" four years back and I loved that. 


"Marappacu" and "erumaip pongal" by Thi. Jankiraman:
---------------------------------------------------

"Marappacu" is a novel about a woman who does not believe in
marriage. She lives as a paramour of an old `vidhvan' who lets
her live as she wish. The `heroine' of this novel claims that 
she had   `slept' with more than a hundred guys from different 
countries (she is a dance performer who goes to different 
countries). She is always looking forward to move with diiferent
kinds of men. For this she even goes to the extreme of acting 
like a prostitute at London's 'piccadilly circus' and gets picked
up! At the end of the novel she thinks that it would be better if 
she were a wooden cow (marppacu), so that she won't be affected 
by old age and she can live alone without expecting anybody's help. 
But since she is not, she decides to live with her ex lover/friend 
(without a marriage) and writes a letter to him requesting him to 
come and stay with her. 

After reading the entire novel, I could not get the `message' 
of the novel. I did not like this novel when compared to the 
author's other novel "ammA vanthAL". But the thing that amazed 
me in this novel is the delicacy with which the author handles 
some of the complex relationships. I can imagine some of our 
`popular' authors filling up the novel with erotic 'bedroom sceenes' 
with this kind of story. But with the author's unique style of 
`leaving materials to the readers by just hinting on them', he skips 
them with one or two lines! 

"erumaip pongal" is a collection of good short stories. Again the
author's style of writing is amazing. The author has dispalyed his
style of ending most of the short stories with a `punch line' (no
wonder sujatha is influenced by Thi.Ja.). Another style which
he uses often is, starting the story with a conversation and letting 
the reader to `discover' who the charectors are as the story develops!


"gopallapuraththu makkal" and "vEtti" by Ki. Rajanarayanan
----------------------------------------------------------

I love Rajanarayanan's `karical maNam kamazhum" writing style.
His major plus point is ("manasukkuL padikkumpOthE kathukku 
inimaiyaka iRukkinRa") his pleasing language. If anyone want's 
to know about the life in villages of TN, (particularly in the
Thirunelveli district) the best way is to read his books. You
will be amazed to find how many interesting stories are there
in the villages. I did not like his short stories as much I
liked his novel and his essays. May be because of his space 
limitations he could not elaborate on the "kiramaththuch chUzhal"
(for which I read him) much in his short stories. His short stories 
and essays are written in such a way that we can put them togather 
and `create' a novel of his (like "gopallapuraththu makkal") or
his novel is written in such a way! And after reading these two 
books itself I found lot of things which are repeated among them. 
I've read one more short story collection of him (named "kathavu"?)
long time back and do not remember what was in that.


PS: What do you think about neela. padhmanapan's writings?
    esp. his novels? I did not see his name in this net, yet. 
    I've read his novels "Thalaimuraigal" and "paLLikondapuram" 
    (which came as a drama in AIR later). I concider "Thalaimuraigal" 
    as one of the best novels I've read till now (along with
    Thi.Ja's "ammA vanthAL" and sundara ramacami's "oru puLiya
    maraththin kathai").
    

-Ramesh Vaidhyanathan.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.tamil:2479 soc.culture.indian:32255 alt.sex:30888