Poles Apart on the Same Bed

Book excerpt: Here's a fine selection of Alexander Raju's stories written over thirty years-ranging between the stories of a tyro giving expression to his idealistic perspective of the world and the society he lives in and intensely feels about, and those of a cynical angry man in quarrel with the world and its ways. They are poles apart also in the sense that the stories do not belong to any particular school: they range from humorous musings on the stupidity of men and women of his social milieu to harsh diatribes against the many evils rampant in his society. The most emotionally appealing are the author's renditions of the plight of the helpless female, sexually exploited by the male-dominated society. They are particularly poignant since they fictionalize not any feminist idea, but everyday reality we witness in our quotidian existence. Despite the universality of their themes, these stories falling under different heads have one binding chord: they relate to the social realities of Kerala, the south Indian state. About the Author: Alexander Raju, an Indian English poet, novelist, short story writer and columnist, has many books to his credit. "Ripples and Pebbles" (1989), "Sprouts of Indignation" (2003) and "Magic Chasm" (2007) are collections of his poems. His first novel "The Haunted Man" came out in 1997 and its second edition in 2009. "Upon This Bank and Shoal," a philosophical novel, came out in 2008. "The Psycho-Social Interface in British Fiction" (2000) is a critical work. "The Voice of Ethiopia and Other Pieces of Literature," an edited work came out in 2008.