2 Novels by Raja Rao
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Overview: Raja Rao (8 November 1908 – 8 July 2006) was an Indian writer of English language novels and short stories, whose works are deeply rooted in Hinduism. The Serpent and the Rope (1960), a semi-autobiographical novel recounting a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India, established him as one of the finest Indian prose stylists and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964.
For the entire body of his work, Rao was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988. Rao’s wide ranging body of work, spanning a number of genres, is seen as a varied and significant contribution to Indian English literature, as well as World literature.
Genre: Fiction > Classic, Indian English Literature, Metaphysical
The Serpent and the Rope
Every incident or conversation that Rama describes in this semi-autobiographical story is presented as it furthers or hampers his search for “Truth” and self-knowledge—a quest which is the very heart of the book. “I was born a Brahmin,” says Rama, “that is, devoted to Truth and all that.” Rama is a gentle young student, somewhat frail because of tubercular lungs, who has been living in France for some years. Married to a Frenchwoman, Madeleine, Rama plans, after finishing his thesis on the Albigensian heresy, to accept a teaching post in India and then move there with Madeleine. Yet from Rama’s first reference to his wife, there is a sense that something is not right with the marriage.
Their first child, a son, has died when only seven months old. It is after this tragedy that Rama must return to India, for his father is dying. After presiding over his father’s cremation at Benares, Rama accompanies his stepmother—“Little Mother”—on a pilgrimage to the city’s holy places before returning home. For Rama, this is a trip which intensifies his sense of searching and incompleteness. It is also during this visit home that Rama meets Savithri, a Cambridge student who is betrothed to a friend of his, though she is not in love with the young man she is to marry. At first Rama does not care for Savithri—she is too “modern” for him. Nevertheless, something about her has struck a responsive chord deep within Rama, and he returns to France feeling even more estranged from Madeleine….
The Cat and Shakespeare
The Cat and Shakespeare is a gentle, almost teasing fable of two friends. Govindan Nair is an astute, down-to-earth philosopher and clerk, who tackles the problems of routine living with extraordinary common sense and gusto, and whose refreshing and unorthodox conclusions continually panic Ramakrishna Pai, Nair’s friend, neighbour and narrator of the story. This evocative novel brings alive the raw texture of life in Trivandrum, and delights in its humour.
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