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912 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 1989
Parinamam follows an odd way of narration which was not too familiar for Malayalam in 1989. M.P. Narayana Pillai henceforth to be mentioned as Nanappan, wrote only one novel and he won the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award for it in 1992. However, he declined the honour. Despite the assumptions, one can easily identify the reasons which could've led him to declining the award declared by the state.
പരിണാമം Parinámam is essentially an original work of fiction that portrays the inherited violence and associated actions by the system of power. The novel revolves around a dog- or an exceptionally scary and brilliant odd mongrel which shifts its image on par with the progressing narration. With all those surreal characters and elements, Parinamam stands unique from the works published by other writers of his age. But, one can place it closer to the developing magical realistic style of Latin American writings of that age. Yet, Parinamam didn’t bother to share the thematic oddness of them. The context is familiar, especially while placing it in the post-emergency, post-Naxalite period Kerala.
The portrayal of ‘Mathayis’ as identical to each other was an interesting allusion to the ‘equality’ (literally) proposed by Mathayi’s ideology. Such instances of fabulist novel style are probably coming from the affinity Nanappan had with the modern trends of world literature. (FYI, despite writing in Malayalam, he was probably the most prominent English scholar Kerala had then being the Senior Editor of Many international publications including the Hong Kong based Far Eastern Economic Review.) The perks of being exposed to the ethnic Malayali bringing up and to the much wider realm of socio-cultural spectrum could be seen in this one work of him.
The humour in this novel is dark and subtle, which demands a minimum understanding of the socio-political scenario of 1970-90s Kerala to unveil itself.
I am not venturing for a detailed study here. But, one thing is sure. This one is a gem in Malayalam Literature which doesn’t fall into any easy categories of long fiction. An international piece of literature written in the humble language of Malayalam.