TRAGIC IDIOM: O.V. VIJAYAN'S CARTOONS & NOTES ON INDIA

The O.V. Vijayan collection, Tragic Idiom, is a fascinating set of observations on India, told through various literary and cartoon prisms. This collection is much more than a retrospective of clever observation. Vijayan seems to represent a rare restless witty intelligence, moving from literature to political cartoon, intertwining the two, searching for a way to affect opinion in the most complex and challenging of nations and at the same time reflecting on the process itself. He has left a trail not only of a special history of his times but a set of perspectives from which to observe a village, a nation, and a world. One of the subject headings in the collection is Rite of Rhetoric. Another is the Domestics, the State of the States. This breadth of concern and ingenuity, satirists of the West could well give attention to. The written comments on each chapter in the book show the difficult task Vijayan took upon himself - the understanding of the two converging worlds in which he was enmeshed. Paradoxes, frustration, irony, and misgiving are his concern. There is love and passion here.