An overall review of the collection - Dangling Gandhi

The traditional ways of storytelling often miss the subtle, deep insight of humans and culture. Jayanthi Sankar’s ‘Dangling Gandhi’, a collection of short stories, truly Asian,  breaks the conventional trends of short story writing not just in the formats but also in the themes chosen. The characters and their culture and the never-ending questions of human values are woven artistically in a wonderful narration. Through interesting experiments of connecting characters and lives, the stories carry unique flavors.

Be it the backdrop of Singapore or a hill station in India, the reader traverses from the contemporary life into the histories, cultural and political divides between races. Opening new windows to the life and culture of various ethnicities of Asia, the stories reach beyond contemporary life to gently raise questions for the reader to ponder.

The author’s presence is totally absent in the stories themselves. The specialty of these stories is -they speak merging the borders and beyond borders. She excels in capturing cultural diversities of different eras and generations, finely weaving facts through them. Whenever this strength of hers that is unique compared to any contemporary writer, manifests it brings about a very wonderful reading. Not a word is wasted. Her dedicated editing while crafting that is evident brings about a meticulous depiction that is appallingly sharp. She seems to think and paint her fictions ‘beyond borders’ when she stresses so subtly in her fiction that the world and the natural landscape don’t belong to humans but the humans only belong to them. 

Full of empathy and without any shade sympathy results in a truly human understanding. The author holds up a mirror and shining the focus on different perspectives with not the slightest intent to tarnish but only just to raise all the awareness in the readers.

- P.Muralidharan, a poet, writer, literary critic and a translator, Chennai​, India

(through email during 2017)