My background when I started reading this: Tamil was my second language at school, but I had never liked it that much. I was never any good with reading tamil and religiously avoided all tamil novels and magazines.
When I came to the US for grad studies, I missed my home and the culture a lot. I felt one of the ways to offset that feeling was to read my first big tamil novel.
I picked PS because in addition to being very highly recommended by my family and several of my friends, its also historical. You get to know many interesting tidbits about the ancient tamil culture as you read the novel.
I found Ponniyin Selvan easy to read, inspite of my limited tamil reading skills. Kalki doesnt use heavy/complicated words in most places. The entire series was originally written for a magazine, and the language had to be necessarily light.
I've read a lot of books in English, and PS ranks among the best of them. It is similar to the D'Artagnan adventures. But somehow I liked Ponniyin Selvan much more. The characters are full of life, and Kalki's description of natural beauty and scenery brings them all in front of your eyes. It is not for nothing that this novel is called Kalki's masterpiece.
I'll leave you with two blog posts: both were written after finishing Ponniyin Selvan. My friend Venkat's at http://ift.tt/2ezv4ns
Read other answers by Vijay Chidambaram on Quora:
- What books do you have on your wishlist/ 'to-read list'?
- What is the best profession?
- Who are the greatest female characters and why?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2ekxISf
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