TAMIL
A way of life
SE. GANESALINGAN
G. NAGARAJAN COMPLETE WORKS: Rajamartantan — Compiler; Kalachuvadu Pathippagam, 669, K.P. Road, Nagercoil 629001. Rs. 450.
THE BOOK comprises the complete works of G. Nagarajan (1921-81), whose writings were discussed and debated during the 1960s and 1970s. The complete works now make it easy to assess his writings in their totality.Incidentally, none of his Tamil writings was published in popular magazines. They appeared in short-lived periodicals such as Saraswathi, Shanthi, Kannadasan, Gnanaratham and so on, of limited circulation.
Most of the characters in his novels and short stories follow a pattern of attraction to the opposite sex. His characters are debased women and men who exist mostly on daily wages, earned illegally or immorally. It is their way of life, inevitable for survival, and the author himself is not making any comment against their immoral living. Kanthan, Natarajan, Paraman, Mallan, Thangam, Maragatham and Pakiam are the names of the typical characters one finds in most of his works and they are invariably ‘brokers’.
The author’s narrative language and unusual events drag the reader into the stories.
To summarise, his works and his ideology reflect a part of a quote by Thomas Wolfe, mentioned in the book: “It is not ugly, but it is not all beautiful, it is life… life.”
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