JJ

When Joseph James, known to everyone as JJ, dies, the Malayalam literary world loses one of its most outspoken voices. No one feels the loss more keenly than Balu, a Tamil writer who decides the best tribute he can offer is a biography. He sets out to gather the story of JJ's life and work, believing the task will be a labour of devotion. The project turns out to be far harder than Balu expects. To write about JJ, he has to move through a literary scene split by politics and rivalries, one in which JJ made a good number of enemies. Each conversation and memory Balu collects pulls him further into old grudges and competing versions of the man, and he begins to suspect he has taken on more than he can handle. Sundara Ramaswamy turns this premise into a novel of ideas, quick with wit and edged with satire. Its subject is the uneasy place of the artist in a society where personal agendas and factional loyalties keep crowding out artistic integrity. Published in English as JJ: Some Jottings, it is widely regarded as a classic of modern Tamil fiction, and its humour still cuts as sharply as ever.