MALAYALAM
Study on novels
NEELA PADMANABHAN
MARUTHIRA KATHU NINNAPPOL: V. Rajakrishnan; Studies on novels; D.C. Books, DC Kizhekemuri Edam, Good Shepherd Street, Kottayam-686012. Rs 120.
THOUGH PLENTY of novels are being published in all the Indian languages nowadays, comprehensive studies on these works are very rare. The book under review is one in such uncommon genre.
V. Rajakrishnan’s studies are purely neither academic nor scholarly. Instead, he approaches the novels with an aesthetic as well as an artistic mind, which is exceptional and unusual one seen in critics. Not only Malayalam novels but also Indian and western novels are taken up for study, analysis and assessment.
This book that critically and interestingly analyses the various minute factors and aspects of the literary genre of novel is divided into three parts.
Keats’s poem in his last days when he was suffering from tuberculosis inspires the author of the book to discuss seriously in two chapters the diseases and drinking habits reflected in writings.
In this regard, Joseph Roth’s “The Legend of a Holy Drinker”, Albert camus’s “The Plague”, Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, Nikolay Gogal’s “The Nose”, Philip Roth’s “Breast”, and many other western novels are skilfully compared with the recent Malayalam novels “Asura Vithu” by M.T.Vasudevan Nair, “Pathummaayude Aadu”, by Vaikkam Muhammad Bashir and “Arimpaara” by O.V.Vijayan.
Also, many other Malayalam, Indian and western novels are meaningfully discussed under different chapters with penetrating aesthetic studies on various images, fantasy as well as different manifestations of nature. Sethu’s “Paandavapuram”, Punathil Kunjablulla’s “Marunnu’, Kaakkanadan’s “Ushnamekhala”,V.K.N.’s “Aarohanam” M.Mukundan’s “Kesavande Vilaapankal”, Tharasankar Banarjee’s “Arogyaniketan”, Boris Pasternak’s “Doctor Zhivago”, Richard Wright’s “Native Son”, Albert Camus’s “The Fall’, and Orhan Pamuk’s “Snow”, are a few among them.
On the whole, the book is indeed a welcome addition to the field of study on novels.
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