MALAYALAM
Social novel
DAIVATHINTE NIZHAL: Sulochana Nalappatt; DC Books, DCB Complex, Good Shepherd Street, Kottayam-686001. Rs. 40.
SULOCHANA NALAPPATT made her literary debut with "Kavadam" (Entrance), a novel, which she co-authored with her sister, Kamala Surayya (Das). With "Daivathinte Nizhal" (God's shadow), she emerges from the shadow of her famous sister and establishes herself as a novelist in her own right.
The central character of the novel is a doctor, who breaks away from the family to marry a north Indian college-mate only to return in an unsound state of mind after his wife's premature death. Much of the story, set against the backdrop of a traditional "Nair tharavad", centres on the way the rest of the family responds to him. As the story progresses, there are complications of a familiar kind: the teenaged companion of his younger brother's bride becomes pregnant and the family contains the scandal by finding her a suitable husband.
The distinguishing feature of the novel is the handling of the character of the doctor, whose consciousness flutters like a butterfly. Running through the story is a supernatural element that imparts it something of an ethereal quality.
The novelist, a doctor too, draws not only from her medical knowledge but also from such other sources as Carl Jung and the Kathopanishad to carry conviction with the reader.
B. R. P. BHASKAR
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