A Village Under the Streetlight

This rich, first novel by Thomas Palayoor takes place over the course of several generations, during which the world and the village in the title change cataclysmically. These changes are, however, cumulative. They emanate from a small set of characters who make their appearance early on. Identified and characterized by custom of the day, this handful of villagers and their neighbors--who appear at first glance to occupy recognizable types--move inexorably (if not in unison) toward the complexities and contradictions of modernity. Yet, an unthinkable, stumbled upon phenomenon at the Streetlight almost immediately signals the onslaught of the new. This one event importunes a whole array of changes; many are at first gradual, involving accommodation but not really challenging the village fabric. For a time, changes are mentioned by the narrator almost in asides. Despite this, small offshoots come to portend a trend. Moreover, not infrequently as the novel moves in a forward direction, a seemingly large number of aberrant instances from the past are, likewise revealed. As readers, we find ourselves in the company of characters only vaguely aware, from their small perch, of the departure of the colonizing British, and of the forces of change and conflict larger than any one village-grand collisions of philosophies, religions, ethnicities, and ambitions. - Dr. Harte Weiner, Ph. D. (Stanford)