The Collected Works of S. Mukerji
Edited by Eric J. Guignard
Dark Moon Books (November 26, 2024)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
The Collected Works of S. Mukerji is an interesting book on more than one level. There are two sections to this slim volume, and they comprise the entire published output of S. Mukerji, who only wrote from 1913-1919. So why only three years? Nobody knows. S. Mukerji seems to be even more mysterious than the stories he wrote.
Ah, the stories. Let’s begin with the first section, entitled Indian Ghost Stories. These are a fascinating look at cultural differences in literature. Whereas Western writers build tension in their ghost stories and construct pacing in order to, hopefully, frighten their readers; in Indian ghost stories, if these are representative, such concerns are absent. The Western reader will not be frightened by these tales. They read like newspaper articles, before newspapers went all PC and OP-ED. They are mostly a rundown of facts without much of a conclusion. However, they are all worth reading from a comparative literature standpoint. They are different, it is true. But different is not bad; it is, simply, different.
The second section, The Mysterious Traders, reads as if it were written by a different person—someone very British, in fact. In each of the three parts—“The Diamonds,” “The Pictures,” and “The Doctor”—we have five “mysterious traders” having fled America to England and working together to form a business. The tongue-in-cheek style of writing here is nothing short of delightful, as these five are nothing more than a set of extremely clever, classy thieves who prey upon the rich, befuddled, and shallow population. I adored this section and wished for more of their criminal exploits, as they were over far too soon. If Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmuder and his gang were smarter, they would have been these Mysterious Traders.
In conclusion, this is a most worthwhile book—for literary/cultural history and for just plain fun.
