Leaving
places and returning to them in memory is the theme of Alexander's
autobiography and memoir Fault Lines which was published
in 1993. Fault Lines is the term used by geologists to describe
cracks in the earth - Alexander uses it to visualise the uprooting
she has faced all her life:
"Right
from when I was very young and lived in Allahabad I remember
seeing cracks in the earth which were left there in the
aftermath of a very little earthquake, and I had to jump
over them. And I've always felt that because of all the
movement and these migrations I don't have a simple shining
geography and how can you be a writer if you just don't
have one loved place? And so I thought, well, I'm really
a writer of faults, someone whose life has been broken
up into many pieces and that's all right- that's also
a life. So I guess that's why I called it Fault Lines
- to convey the broken up pieces of my geography."
The Bird's Bright Ring (poems) (1976),Calcutta:
Writer's Workshop Fault Lines: A Memoir (1993), The Feminist Press Manhattan Music (1997), Mercury House
a woman cracked by multiple migrations
