Date:31/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/br/2006/01/31/stories/2006013100131700.htm

TAMIL

Voyage of self-discovery

NEELA PADMANABHAN

NAKULAN NOVELKAL — Collection of Eight Novels of Nakulan: Kaavya, 4, First Cross Street, Trustpuram, Kodambakkam, Chennai-600024. Rs. 450.

THIS BOOK is a collection of eighth novels of Nakulan, an important Tamil writer of yesteryear, starting from his first novel, `Nizhalkal' to the latest one, `Antha Manchal Nira Poonaikutty'. Nakulan is known for his uncompromising serious and valuable writings.

The publisher's note indicates that the book is one novel having eight parts or a lengthy diary in total. (Naveenan Diary-1976 is one of the novels in this collection.) Consciously or not, most of the serious writers are either searching or discovering their inner soul or self in different situations, through various characters by permutation and combination, or by trail and error method. In fact, one cannot find any similarity or continuity between the first novel and the last or last but one (Vaakkumoolam, 1992) in their structure, form or content.

The hero of these novels, Naveenan is a thinker, good conversationalist, eccentric with a sense of humour and with a penchant for reading and writing.

The novels evoke anxieties arising from complexes to men and matters, to theories on how to argue wisely, how to live in the present moment. All of them have a particular atmosphere unique to the author. They sharply demonstrate his peripatetic interests.

On the whole, Nakulan has produced a sensitive but unsparing portrait of a thoroughly unconventional world around him.