Notes from the memory palace
The Hindu
In Suryavamsam, a skilfully woven memoir, author Sivasankari takes an emotionally-charged walk down memory lane
At a time when the Tamil literary space rang with few voices of women, writer Sivasankari made her mark with novels and short stories on subjects that most hesitated to take on, such as alcoholism, homosexuality, adoption and surrogacy. To that repertoire, she has now added her memoir — Suryavamsam. Penned in Tamil, it has been translated into English by journalist Chitradeepa Anantharam.
For long, the writer was urged by her long-time assistant, Lalitha, that she write her biography. Sivasankari hesitated as “It would involve having to tear the masks off several people, hurt several people,” because a biography is in its nature, a brutally honest document.