Authors I read for the first time in 2021
What stopped me from trying new authors?
There have been times when I dreaded reading a new author because I used to feel difficult to get accustomed to either the subjects they write about or their narration style. Every time I read something, there is an imaginary voice, pace and intonation that narrates the story for me and those differ from author to author.
For example, there is a book that won Pulitzer prize named ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker. It contains a series of letters from an oppressed and uneducated black girl named Celie. Loved the attempt of the author to write a book with wrong spellings and terrible grammar. It was a great thought because the person who writes those letters (narrator of the story) is an illiterate and can’t speak/write good English. At a later part of the story, we read reply letters from Celie’s sister Nettie who is an educated girl, so it is in proper English. By the time we read Nettie’s letters, we would have already gotten used to Celie’s English and normalized that narration. So Nettie’s proper English starts sounding uncomfortable to us. Do you get what I’m trying to say? That’s the level of seriousness with which I hear the voice of a narrator when I read books. And that’s exactly why I used to not try new authors. For that very reason, I have been sticking to ‘Sujatha’ for a lot of time because I can hear Sujatha’s voice even now if I want to.
2021 was surprisingly different. I happened read books that I did not plan to read at the beginning of the year. And I’m not disappointed by that. Here are few Tamil authors that I read for the first time in 2021. Each of them deserve to be placed in my 2021 best finds.
Imayam
Again on Kindle Unlimited, I read ‘Eng Kathe’ (My story written colloquially). It’s the musings of an unmarried man who gets into a non-legal relationship with a widowed woman named Kamala. I mentioned non-legal and not illegal because, they were in a mutual relationship without getting married. At one point in time, the narrator starts thinking he ‘owns’ her and starts demanding Do’s and Don’ts from Kamala, leading the relationship to toxicity.
The novel has a fast paced narration which gives us a sense of completion without spending much time or efforts. The narration is in a regional dialect but you easily get accustomed to it. More than the narration, the writing is in colloquial Tamil which gives us an unusual reading experience.
Writer Imayam won Sahitya Academy award for his novel ‘Selladha Panam’ in 2020 and he is known for other novels like ‘Koveru Kazhuthaigal’, which happens to be his first novel. For what I know about him, he is someone closely associated with Dravidian movement in Tamilnadu.
Mari Selvaraj
Mari Selvaraj is the director of 2 great movies named ‘Pariyerum Perumal’ and ‘Karnan’. I must tell a backstory of how I came to know Mari Selvaraj is a writer in first place.
Back in 2017–18, I happened to bump into a literary movement named ‘Vasagasaalai’ when I visited Anna Centenary Library on a Sunday evening in 2017. They added me to their WhatsApp group that night. My first encounter with Vasagasaalai that day was the starting point of my political awareness, especially with respect to caste politics. There were 3 people who seemed to be the ‘face’ of the movement when I first attended their meeting that evening — Karthikeyan Venkatraman, Arun and Mari Selvam. Of these people, Arun is an Assistant Director to Director Pa. Ranjith, and was working on Kabali back then.
Being in their WhatsApp and Facebook groups, I saw them promoting Pariyerum Perumal in 2018. The name of the director in those posters were ‘Mari Selvaraj’ and I was wondering if it was the same ‘Mari Selvam’ who I met in the first meeting of theirs I attended. Turned out, they are 2 different people.
But when I looked up for Director Mari Selvaraj’s profile on Facebook, I was surprised to see one of my Toastmasters friends named Gayathri being friends with Mari Selvaraj. Because, I knew Gayathri is not someone who talks much about Dalit politics. I did not understand the connection.
When I asked her how she knows Mari Selvaraj, she said Mari Selvaraj used to write weekly essays on Ananda Vikatan titled ‘Marakkave Ninaikkiren’ and she used to enjoy reading them. I’m humbled at this moment to say, it is my friends who inspired me to read. So, this is how I knew Mari Selvaraj was a writer before he became a director.
Now, after watching Pariyerum Perumal and Karnan, if anyone at all had any hatred about the stories that Mari Selvaraj screens, those hatred will disappear if they read ‘Marakkave Ninaikkiren’. There are a lot of subtext to Mari Selvaraj’s screen language. Though both Pa. Ranjith and Mari Selvaraj both talks Dalit politics in their movies, the context and the things they go through are hugely different. We’ll understand Mari Selvaraj as a person and his politics only if we read ‘Marakkave Ninaikkiren’. Be it the name of the characters in his movies like ‘Jo’, ‘Manjanathi’ and ‘Pariyerum Perumal’, be it the tragic scenes we get to see in his movies, all would make more sense when we read this book. Please do not think, this book is a ‘plead for mercy’ against all the oppressions he has faced. The book contains essays also of all his wrong doings to the society around him. If anything, he has honestly confessed his heart out in this book. He says he thinks about all those incidents in his life just in an attempt to forget — which is what ‘Marakkave Ninaikkiren’ mean.
Couple of weeks back, my sister has gifted me his short stories collection ‘Thamirabaraniyil Kollapadathavargal’, I’ll hope write about it too some day.
G. Nagarajan
I’ve told this multiple times. In 2019 when my reading habit was very poor, there were few people and celebrities who rekindled it. One of those people are Director Mysskin when I happened to watch his ‘Masterclass in Film Appreciation’, a conversation with Baradwaj Rangan. Below is an excerpt from it where he talks about how the books he read made him a filmmaker. This is where he mentions ‘G. Nagarajan’ used to be his most favorite Tamil author. Also in Vedikkai Paarppavan, Na. Muthukumar mentions ‘Naalai Matrumoru Naale’ of G. Nagarajan in a particular moment. These 2 things inspired me to try reading G. Nagarajan sometime.
While I haven’t read Naalai Matrumoru Naale yet, I did happened to read a short novel of him named ‘Kurathi Mudukku’, written way back in 1960s. It is a daredevil effort for those times to write so raw things about a prostitute’s life and the lifestyle in a read light area. It is very interesting how some people writes soooooo well but they aren’t popularly known in the Tamil literary world.
A.K. Chettiyar
Documentary Filmmaker and Travelogue writer of British India. Again, I was introduced to this name and his works in Vedikkai Paarppavan of Na. Muthukumar.
During this pandemic where we weren’t able to travel much, I was at first hesitant to read his travelogue ‘Prayaana Ninaivugal’ because I was afraid it would kindle our feeling about inability to travel this year. But instead, it turned out to be a refreshing read.
In general, my observation towards people and families from Tamilnadu is that, they are not much of travel maniacs. That statement holds true at least about people who lived half or one century ago. From such a time, it was amazing to know how far this man has travelled. The book is not just about the imageries he creates about the places he has travelled to. But he also brings in social dialogue about the status that prevailed back then. For instance, he talks about how Indian Railways doesn’t care about having a pantry car for the 3rd class passengers and in what way is it fair for them to decide those people wouldn’t have the necessity to eat on board. In another instance he talks about what he say in the Railway canteen in Chengalpattu, which was the place where he got bestest of Idlies. He was amazed to NOT see separate dine-out areas for ‘Brahmins’ and ‘Non-Brahmins’. Which means, that separation used to exist before and he gives that credit to ‘Periyar’ Ramasamy Nayakkar (he mentions the name this way) for the caste abolition reforms he fought for and brought in.
There are other travelogues written by A.K. Chettiyar that I’m sure would kindle our interest to travel instead of making us worried about our inability to travel in these 2 years of pandemic.
Shan Karuppusamy
I haven’t read much of his works but only one short story. Shan Karuppusamy is a technologist by profession who also writes. His recent venture was into writing screenplay for ‘Thangam’, one of the short films in the anthology ‘Paava Kathaigal’ released by Netflix.
Thangam happens to be an adaptation from Shan’s short story named ‘Thangam’. It was a wonderful feeling to see how beautifully he translated his work to screen language. Plus, the protagonist of this story is a transgender, so this story becomes essential topic of discussion at these times. Indian Cinema always portrayed transgenders in low light, showing them as perverts and criminals, and objectified them all the time. We Indians, continuously get misguided by our cinema about the society most often happen to approach people in the sense that these cinemas convey to us. But in the recent times, there are people who try to change that narrative about transgenders.
Next to Super Deluxe, Thangam broke that stereotype and showed what is the life a transgender get to live, how difficult it is to be a person outside against the person what they really are inside, do transgenders have romantic feelings, what happens to them when they don’t have societal acceptance, etc. Thought most of the sequences are same between Thangam short film and the story, reading the story gives us a different feel.
Charu Niveditha
I used to hear this name from a batchmate named Kamalesh during college days itself. But I wasn’t used to be a reader in first place back then. When I started reading in 2014, Zero Degree and Exile used to be his titles that couple of my friends talked about. And the way they introduced him to me was ‘he writes about sex’ — I think most people introduce him that way. It is not to be denied he writes very raw and deep about sex, but I found his writings to be much more beyond just sex, in an incomprehensible manner.
I happened to read ‘Existentialismum Fancy Baniyanum’ of him on Kindle Unlimited. I had to read the 4 chapters in prologue a couple of times. Even after that, we do not get idea of what the novel is about. The first 2 chapters of the story talks about the family tree of 2 different people in such a way that we start to wonder, why should we even know such unrelated facts about so many number of people in those families.
But in a place in Chapter 2, you’ll get a cognitive spark at one particular moment where you realize why that discussion about family tree of 2 different people was important, in relation to the chapters you read in prologue. That’s the moment when that narration gets into your head. Though there is no story as such which can be comprehended in a line or a page, the novel gave me an experience similar to what I got when I read ‘J.J: Sila Kurippugal’ last year. It was an awe for me when I came to know ‘Existentialismum Fancy Baniyanum’ was the first novel he wrote way back in 1986. And I came to know about this title from Na. Muthukumar’s Vedikkai Paarppavan.
Charu is known for his transgressive writing in Tamil, and his works (Zero Degree primarily)being translated to English and Malayalam. He often feels bad that his works aren’t being appreciated enough in his homeland while his works are being appreciated even in the US by keeping it in the curriculum.
When Clubhouse was launched for Android mid this year, I had participated in a discussion with Charu organized by Zero Degree Publishing. I asked him if he writes things in linear fashion and then jumbles them out or if he thinks things in a non-linear fashion. At 22:44 is when my turn begins and Charu’s answer goes on for about 7 minutes. Listen to it for yourself that you’ll also find him to be a hugely different person in reality when compared to his narratives in his writings.
I also happened to read ‘Degam’ written by him in a day. Director Mysskin got into a controversy when he mentioned this novel as ‘Sarojadevi Novel’ which is an expression to mean it is a cheap erotic novel. One thing I know for sure is, the novel is not definitely an erotic novel. But what I am trying to understand is, in what way would his writings normalize discussions about sex when someone like me who is up for the idea of normalizing discussions about sex, feels some of the things he writes could still be marked as ‘vulgar’. For example, in ‘Degam’, there is a scene where a person steals the panties of a girl living in a different house in the same building and masturbates looking at it. I happened to read it only after the clubhouse discussion. Had I read it before, I would have definitely asked him in what positive way would this writing impact the world to normalize discussions about sex.
However, I feel I would get answers to such questions about his writings if I read more of his works — Zero Degree being a must read in my list. Because, I see many learned women like Gayathri of Zero Degree Publishing appreciates his writing. So there must be some rationale behind it.
Ashokamitran
Read ‘Karaindha Nizhalgal’ of Ashokamitran. This was again a mention in Vedikkai Paarppavan of Na. Muthukumar. When Na. Muthukumar wanted to go to Chennai and pursue filmmaking, his dad who is an avid reader advised him to read ‘Karaindha Nizhalgal’ of Ashokamitran and ‘Idhu Raaja Paattai Alla’ by actor Sivakumar before deciding it. He had mentioned he wouldn’t be in his way if he decides to still go pursue cinema after reading these 2 books. When Na. Muthukumar decided to read these 2 and still decided to go, his dad kept up his word. Did you know? Na. Muthukumar came to Chennai and joined as Asst. Director to the legendary Director Balumahendra, in an aspiration to become a Director himself. But life pulled him towards lyrics writing. So, this is the back story.
Karaindha Nizhalgal talks about the changing dynamics and volatility of the Tamil film industry. Not all people who aspire to become filmmaker doesn’t end up being one. Even great producers who earned a lot might lose it all someday. There is no hero-heroine in this novel, every single character narrates how hard it is to survive in the film industry.
Prapanchan
No specific reason why I read his work this year. When I visited a friend’s home, she asked me to take some book from her bookshelf. I took 3 books, out of which ‘Ippadiyaga Oru Snehidhi’ — a short story collection of Prapanchan. There are 6 short stories in this collection where ‘Ippadiyaga Oru Snehidhi’ is the longest of them.
- ‘Naanal Marangal’ is a story again about a youth aspiring to be a Director in the Tamil film industry.
- ‘Vargam’ talks about how an upper caste person who works in an industry easily gets to survive even during worst crisis while a lower caste person who works in the same industry in the same grade as the former struggles to survive during crisis.
- ‘Kumarasamiyin Pagal Pozhudhu’ talks about the mundane day to day life of a person who works in an industry. There is a beautiful line in the story ‘People who were born get to die, that is nature. But how fair is it for people who never lived, to die?’.
- All the other 3 stories ‘Ippadiyaga Oru Snegithi’, ‘Iruttil Irundhavan’, and ‘Kodai Mazhai’ talks about men who are writers. In the former two, those men has a family, a wife from whom they grew apart because either their wives grew out of shape or they do not have any inclination towards literature, and these men get involved in adultery with a young woman at their workplace. In Kodai Mazhai also, the writer develops interest towards a girl at his workplace who appreciates this guy’s writing. None of the girls in these 3 stories lead their relationship with the men to marriage.
Many a times writers draw inspirations from their own lives. I do not know the personal life of Prapanchan, but him talking about adultery in these 3 stories honestly made me wonder if it had anything to do with his own life. Leaving that aside, all these 6 short stories were narrated in a high pace, we lose track of the number of pages we read in a spell.
Vaikom Muhammad Basheer
Technically, he is a Malayali author. But I got to read his story ‘Premalekhanam’, in the Tamil version titled ‘Kadhal Kaditham’ translated by writer Sukumaran. This was another book that I got from my friend’s bookshelf.
Notice I did not say ‘Short Story’ or ‘Short Novel’ or ‘Novel’ above. There is an introductory note by Sukumaran telling why Basheer’s books are all less than 100 pages in nature. It is because Basheer used to publish books at his own expenses in the early days of his writing and sell it in Railway stations by himself. To be cost effective, he kept the printing length of his stories very short.
While Basheer is an ocean to explore, ‘Kadhal Kaditham’ was a refreshing read to begin with. A Nair guy falls in love with Saramma, a Christian and they elope. Saramma sounds to be a progressive woman — she has a serious discussion with Kesavan Nair on how to raise the child that is born to them before agreeing to Kesavan’s love. The story is so Mallu for several reasons. because when they discuss and agree that they should name the kid based on neither Hindu nor Christian faith, they think of ‘Russian’ and ‘Chinese’ names. They agree that the kid when grows up can join the Communist Party if it decides to. They talk about coaching him on football. The story was written in 1943 when a Hindu-Christian love would have been way beyond the norms.
Tamizhprabha
I think I have tweeted (search for @krishdcse #Pettai on twitter) and wrote enough about Tamizhprabha and his first novel (and only novel till date) ‘Pettai’. Read my blog about Pettai here.
Pettai is one of the 4 books that I bought in 2021 Chennai book fair. Other 3 are Marakkave Ninaikkiren, Karaindha Nizhalgal and Na. Muthukumar Kavithaigal.
I knew Tamizhprabha as a reporter at Ananda Vikatan in 2018. Back then I knew he wrote a book called Pettai but as I said in the beginning, I didn’t used to try new authors for my inhibition towards getting accustomed to new narrations.
Once I watched Sarpatta Parambarai and came to know Tamizhprabha is the screenwriter of the movie, I wasn’t able to wait to read Pettai. The book did not discuss anything intense but it did leave a huge impact on me that I am not able to find a better read than it till date since September 2021. Tamizhprabha will go places.
Last words
I don’t really know what brought about this change in me to read so many new authors this year. But I would like to tell you, if you still have that inhibition to stick on to your favorite author, don’t think anything else and just jump into this ocean of literature, try new authors. It feels like you meet new people.
