The Cat Under the Stairs: Poems

"Ask Sarat Kumar Mukhopadhyay about the distinctively Indian dimensions of his work," writes poet Robert McNamara in the preface of this collection, "and he will be quick to tell you that he lacks the 'ethnic touch,' that his work offers nothing to the reader who comes for local color. The voice is modern, critical, cosmopolitan. Nevertheless, it is a poetry very much of its time and place, of Bengal and Calcutta." A familiar figure in Bengali literary circles, although little known in the West, Mukhopadhyay writes with a disarmingly plainspoken voice. Shadings of wry humor, the capacity of the observer for cool-headed reflection, and a remarkable verbal directness combine with a deeply personal response to the world, creating poems that linger in the mind like words spoken by a close an unusually forthright friend.… (more)