Superman and subalterns

An amusing thread running through most of the stories in this collection is of someone — it could be providence or another individual — fooling someone else, precipitating a realisation or a change in them or their circumstances.

- Priyanka Sarkar

So, a wife “fixes” her husband, a plagiarising writer brings his editor down a notch, a couple who think not eating will help them save money realise money can’t be made that way. Then, a lawyer brings about justice while also finishing off a rival’s career, a corrupt policeman is shown the error of his ways by a junior, and in the titular story, a man who wants to remarry is convinced he should be grateful to his wife.In his introduction, literary critic and curator of this volume, MM Basheer, writes that the collection maps milestones in the growth of Malayalam literature and that this evolution happened because of the “initiative of contemporary publishers and those lovers of language who could relate to Western literature.” So, you can perhaps be forgiven for reading VA Amma's A Sleight of Hand (1920) as a reversed Taming of the Shrew. The reference to “Superman” in Instinctive Mischief (Anonymous, 1891) — considered the first “true to character” short story in the language — might startle today’s readers.