As a student and a poet, I was first introduced to Meena Alexander when I was reading an example of what to expect on an Ap test (in English). I started to actually pay attention and read throught the diction and syntax to see what lay beneath, and what I say was magnificent. This book is a collectors piece for psychologists and th ecommon person. After all, who has not asked "Who am I?" This book answers that question for Meena, and if you read it yourself, it may provide a simple answer as well. But don't count on it, for Fault Lines shows us the confliction through conflicting images an example of Humanity itself.

This critical anthology collects various approaches that register the changes in contemporary theory pertinent to the thinking of the nation. There are no less than nine different critical responses exploring the equivocal significance of narratives of identity, origin and progress in the cultural formation of the nation. As Prem Poddar puts it in the Introduction, "such a redescription of the nation works to acknowledge the complexities of cultural difference by raising the question of translation" (8). And in the same way, according to Homi Bhabha, translation involves both persistence and change such that the discourses around the nation are both "lost and returned, superseded and restored" (9).

Because the volume encompasses a wide range of theoretical approaches that move back and forth from the western topographies of Denmark and Canada to the cultural specificities of South Africa, Sri-Lanka and India, Meena Alexander's refreshing cross-breeding of critical and creative writing over the issue of cultural translation is appropriately the opening essay of this collection. In Alexander's paper the fluid diasporic world within which she must carve a space to live goes hand in hand with her woman's body that she cannot escape.

In his fascinating essay entitled "Europe's Violence: Some Contemporary Reflections on W. Benjamin's Theories of Fascism", Graham MacPhee discusses Benjamin's engagement with the aesthetic as a part of his examination of the consequences of technological modernity for the social and political forms bequeathed by the Enlightenment. By relating Benjamin's essay on German fascism to Kant's "Perpetual Peace", MacPhee attempts to show how Benjamin's oeuvre offers resources in reformulating the parameters of the nation "through its exploration of the recognition and negotiation of violence both within and beyond the borders of nation-state" (25). If MacPhee's reading of Benjamin's work is taken to mark the emergence of a new global topography in the aftermath of the first War World, Neluka Silva's essay on literary representations of contemporary Sri Lankan politics seeks to explore individual, collective and gendered identities in relation to nationhood. Through an acute examination of different genres and various Sri Lankan literary texts written in English, Silva wishes to show the construction of ethnic identities as inextricably linked to the nationalist rhetoric of the Sinhalese state on one hand and to the separatist discourse of the Tamil Tiger guerilla force on the other.

Two interesting essays deal with issues connected to nationalist identity and post-colonial experience. Lars Jensen focuses on the position of contemporary Canadian and Australian writer in relation to the idea of space as a shaping force in constructions of national identity. After examining numerous literary texts as examples of post-colonial literature, Jensen concludes that Canadian and Australian writing's relation to the center -be it national or geographical - can only be fluid and process-oriented, constantly changing to the interpretations of history. This argument is taken further by David Johnson in his analysis of a particular ethnic minority, the Griqua in South Africa, and their claims to the South African government for recognition. By providing three versions of colonial history that deal with questions of origin and the possible deprivations the Griqua might have suffered because of colonialism and apartheid, Johnson argues that while the post-colonial critic will focus on "the historically defined discursive systems" constituting Griqua national identity the South African member of the parliament has until recently refused to include Griqua ethnicity in the South African rainbow nationhood.

Where Johnson offers a close reading of key colonial Griqua texts in order to disclose the violence included in the category of the nation, Hans Hauge undertakes an original comparison of South African and Danish literary history. He concludes by claiming to have found neo-Kantian echoes in post-colonial discourse and by identifying Edward Said's Orientalism as an Arab postmodern text.

A more telling take on Danish history is presented Prem Poddar and Cheralyn Mealor. Through a meticulous postcolonial reading of Peter Høeg's novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, the critics provide a seminal, much-needed, and fascinating account of Danish nationalism. Poddar and Mealor view Smilla as a critique of Danish imperialism and Danish colonization of Greenland while at the same time they reveal the text's ambivalence in its treatment of Danish national identity. Read in this light, Høeg's novel becomes a paradigmatic text exploring the interrelated issues of colonialism, nation and migrancy.

Mahesh Daga's reading of vernacular archives seeks to demonstrate the ambiguities and confusions surrounding the use of the Indian term jati as nation during the closing decades of 19th century. More than questioning the uncritical translatability of such terms, Daga aims to demonstrate that the changes occurring in vocabulary of public discourse are "symptomatic of crucial changes in the conception of nation itself" (205).

Echoing the volume's opening essay, Caroline Bergvall's final paper seeks to explore questions of translation and translatability. Through an examination of texts written across several national languages, Bergvall argues that while translation from one language to another encourages notions of linguistic transparence and humanist universalism, plurilingual writing (writing that takes place across and between languages) operates "against the grains of conventional notions of translatability and intelligibility" (248). Moreover, by problematising the contemporaneity of hyphenated identities cross-lingual textuality foregrounds issues of personal and cultural memory and locatedness.

While the theoretical and methodological sophistication of Translating Nations may be lost on a reader who is not conversant with the related discourse, anybody interested in contemporary critical approaches to the nation should become acquainted with the volume.

It was refreshing to read the stories again. I had read them in pieces earlier. Lalithambika Antherjanam shows a rare sensitivity in her stories while portraying the recess of the hindu household, the kitchen and the soul of many antharjanam's(ever inside).

The stories are a rare insight into the trauma and agony which results in the silence of the characters which only the Author is able to explain. Many of them bring back memories of an exotic land rich and deep in its spirituality but at the same time perplexed by the complexity of it all... Gender relations are at a balance when the women is repressed! Men walk around chanting 'vedas' while the womenfolk long to see the light of the day... The stories are extemely readable and the collection is a gem.

Her memoirs mark the courage and the conviction of an Antherjanam to speak out and to think the way she does. Lalithambika's life story( or stories from her life) is a rare one. One that speaks volumes about the graceful men(women) fighting systems and social structures for the freedom of mankind. She writes for women but never does she fall into the trap of steriotyping. Great works come from great lifes and here a great live can be read from a great work.

The translation maintains the clarity of the theme and the beauty of the language as in the original.

The _Truth Tales_, originally published by Kali for Women, is an inaugural anthology of Indian women's writings, and serves a fitting prelude to the two-volume collection _Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the Present_ also published by the Feminist Press, in 1991. The seven short stories in the ensemble--six in English translation from regional languages Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu, and the seventh an English original--provide a miniature sample of contemporary fiction by distinguished writers.

Cutting across lines of class, religion and generation, the plots revolve around women negotiating their survival in a difficult world. The deep feminist engagement of the writings derives from the authors' inquiries into diverse topical issues of social injustice, sexuality, mandates of culture, and the material struggle for many living on the frayed edges of society to stay alive. Mahasweta Devi's story "The Wet Nurse" maps the intersection of sexuality and survival in a context outside of prostitution; Jashoda's entire body advances her career as a wet nurse, but eventually ruptures under protracted abuse. Whether victims or survivors, the women labor to expand their life-chances. In Suniti Aphale's "The Dolls," Shakun's financial resources and solitude draw her into a vortex of parasitic relations; while her usefulness sustains her sense of self-worth and compensates her want of social contact, it also authorizes her control over those dependent lives.

The Truth Tales offers a series of memorable footages on women's lives narrated with simplicity, sometimes with humor, and with sympathy and sadness but always with restraint. There are no morals attached to the ends and despite the palpable anger suffusing some of them, the socio-political critique seldom interferes with the pleasure of reading a good story. However, most but not all the stories are of a uniformly superior caliber. But whether it is due to the untranslatability of systems of meaning and regional particularities into another language it is difficult to assess. Meena Alexander's introduction provides a crisp but somewhat simplistic contour of the social and cultural contexts germane to the stories for unfamiliar readers. Together with its sequel _The Slate of Life_, the _Truth Tales_ is a valuable addition to the archives of women's writings.