Flesh - avid Szalay

 Read the 2025 Booker short listed novel, 'Flesh' by David Szalay.

 It was... okay.    

    
 Well, it was much more than okay. You'll get the joke on 'okay' when you read the book.

The main character in 'Flesh' is, István, a taciturn youth whom we first meet at the age of fifteen. Initially he finds that he's unable to attract the opposite sex due to his taciturn nature. But  we the readers soon find out that a sort of "primitive form of masculinity" that he has, attracts women, especially experienced ones, several of whom he has intimate relations with for the rest of his life. Upon completion of the book, I skimmed through several reviews and The Guardian's review says that István is a "Camus’ Meursault meets Forrest Gump" kind of character with an existential wayfarer about him.

The novel, by nature is sketchy with fewer dialogues where the  parties explain their emotions in details. A fine portrayal of this is when István  cannot help himself from crying upon seeing Labrador pups ( he intended to buy one for his son, Jacob, at one point) , and we the readers are left to figure it our selves, through the action of the crowds all looking at him. István  himself doesn't realise that he's crying till sometime. The mere fact of crowds looking at him suggest that István just didn't have a few tears falling from his eyes, but rather, outright loud crying or howling which makes people turn around to look. István is however never cruel. He is given a chance to salvage himself from a precarious situation in life, but he opts to save someone at subsequent high personal damage to him. This, even after his mother suggests that the death of the person whom he saves, is the one fact that can give him a chance in life.

The skill of the author, is maintaining the minimalist narration, which synchronizes perfectly with the lead character István's journey in life. His travails, his successes, and then his subsequent losses are accepted with a placidity which the modern world finds difficult to align to a man of sensitivity. True, there are  certain personal losses he cannot come to terms with - but then those are of the most painful type, and is certain to make an impact unless one has an issue with his or her mental faculties.

It is the subsequent mulling over of the nature of the novel, and the skills that the author has put to good use,  upon its completion (in contrast to midway of reading, comparatively), which makes one realise that the books has ingredients of a subtle masterpiece as the novel ages.

Rating: ****

Reading of Booker 2025 Short-listed novels - 2

The Rest of Our Lives - Ben Markovits

 

Read, 2025 Booker short listed novel, 'The Rest of Our Lives' by Ben Markovits. It was a thought provoking read as a fifty five year old man battles internally on the questions related to his life, at that juncture - whether he should save  his marriage, his new redundancy as a professional in a fast changing world - where, leave alone his views, even the mere association with parties with now unpopular, or even unacceptable views, is sufficient to make him so, and the "engine alert" on his health he ignores - until he cannot any more. In summary a series of simultaneous worries, that nags at his heart, while he remains undecided. As the narration happens in the first person, we realise that our narrator Tom, is actually only guilty of one case of inaction - his attempt to continue in life from his youth, non-committed, and as a drifter. We find that his profession as a legal academic was not his first choice, but what he settled for. That he was lucky to land a beautiful spouse, but that too more out of chance, more than either party falling 'head over heels' in love, as could be expected of a youth. As we listen to our narrator, the reader questions, if Amy, Tom's wife too felt restless upon realising that she had settled for less than she could - whether she missed the prize catches that passed her by in life, with whom she had relationships before settling for Tom. 'Settling' is the key word here. Can settling for one thing,  at one stage in life in an attempt for temporary piece of mind, come back to haunt you as you see things in a different perspective later in life ?

    "When he broke up with Amy, it was her first experience of being dumped by a guy who realized she wasn't ambitious enough for him. Or at least, who decided she wasn't part of his ambitions. This is something she was in the process of internalizing when we started going out. Who wants to do that ? But it's also part of what attracted me to her, or made me sympathetic; at that time, I was in drop-out mode myself. First I wanted to be a professor, then I wanted to be a writer, but I ended up going to law school because ... I thought, just live a nice life, where you pay for nice things, which I wanted to do partly because of Amy. She gave me a sense for the first time of how nice a life you can buy, if you have the right tastes and know the right people.
    This is more or less the life we lived.
    At the same time, though, I wondered what she saw in me. I wasn't Jewish, I wasn't at Harvard. I was just some guy... working on a dead end PhD, who spent his long weekends making money as a check-in agent at Logan. In other words, basically adrift, at the one period of her life where she was drifting, too."

The word regret is not mentioned much in this book - only four times ( I checked -  the advantage of an electronic read as it were), and the most apt use of it, in terms of the point in discussion unfolds in the following dialogue:

"I used to tell my kids, you don't have to do anything you'll regret. most of the time you know beforehand, so you don't have to do it. So this ... just seems like an example of that."

"Okay," she said.

"It's just something I used to tell them. I have a feeling like, I want to get through unscathed. Does that make sense?"

"Get through what?"

"I don't know. The next twenty years, the next two months, whatever it is."

"That sounds like a dumb way to live," she said.

This dialogue is between Tom, and one of his early girl friends whom he visits, during his road trip, after dropping his daughter at the University - his daughter leaving,  which brings upon a stage in life where he tries to come to terms with his new life, with both his kids away from home. Maybe its what he didn't do that he regrets most, and maybe now in a stage of life where all those regrets stack up in front of him, the man finds it is beyond his immediate assessment - but maybe he doesn't have time to do so either ?

The Rest of Our Lives, doesn't necessarily mean the remaining days of Tom and Amy, in their 50s. It also means the rest of their lives, as they made a decision of a union, at a time when they were adrift, and was looking for something, and someone to settle with, maybe due to whatever disappointments, and indecision,  they found themselves to be. I found it a thought provoking, somewhat pertinent read as I too start on my middle age, with less things to look forward to, and often in a mode of critical assessment of my decisions - mostly unfairly so - but natural at this stage of life. Earlier this year, I read "Remains of the Day", and I found that as a necessary ingredient in looking at one's remaining time in this life. This book may compliment it, although the lesson to carry in mind is from Ishiguro.  In essence, the existential nature holistically of the book, the only mentioned in passing act of 'forgiving' - forgiving yourself mostly, your loved ones if necessary - that is implicit, in a book that lacks any specific plot, makes a fantastic novel. One of the best read of the year for me, clearly.

Rating: ****1/2

(photo credits: Faber Books)

කැමෙලියා - විරාජිනී තෙන්නකෝන්

 2023 වසරේ, රාජ්‍ය සාහිත්‍ය, විද්‍යෝදය, සහ ස්වර්ණ පුස්තක යන සම්මාන තුන ම ජයග්‍රහණය කරලීමට සමත් වූ, විරාජිණි තෙන්නකෝන් ගේ 'කැමෙලියා' නවකතාව කියවීමි. විරාජිනි මෑතක ම ප්‍රකාශ කල කෙටි කතා සංග්‍රහය, 'අන්ධයා සහ සුරුට්ටුව' කෙටි කතා එකතුවයි. ඇය එහි දී ඇගේ මීට පෙර සාහිත්‍ය නිර්මාණ වලට වඩා වෙනස් නිර්මාණ පසුබිමක් භාවිත කලා. හැකි තරම් කාලය-දීපය-දේශයෙන් විනිර්මුක්ත, තරමක අඳුරු, වැස්සක පෙර නිමිති රගැත් සවසක් පාඨකයාට සිහි ගන්වන පරිසරයක් එහි පසුබිම වූවා. කතුවරිය 'කැමෙලියා' හි දි, එම නිර්මාණ පසුබිම නවකතාවක ට වඩාත් සුදුසු අයුරින් සකසා ඇති සෙයකි. තව ද මෙම කෘතියට යම් අයුරක මායා යථාර්තවාදී රීතියක් පමණක් නොව, ඉසබෙල් ඉයන්ඩෙ - ගා

බ්‍රියෙල් ගාසියා මාකේස් වැනි ලේඛකයන්ගේ ඍජු ආභාෂයත්, එය ලිවිමේ ශෛලියට බල පෑ ඇති අයුරුත් පැහැදිලිය. නවකතාවේ ප්‍රධානත ම තේමාවක් වන්නේ ඉන්දීය සම්භවයක් ඇති ජනයා කම්කරුවන් වශයෙන් තේ වගාව ට තම ජීවිත වලින් ගෙවූ මිලයි. තවමත් ගෙවමින් ඉන්නා මිලයි. මේ මුඛ්‍ය කාරණාවත්, ජෙෆ්‍රි වැනි අකාරුණික වතු හිමි හාම්පුතුන් ද සිංහල සාහිත්‍ය ට එතරම් ඇස නොගැටුණු දිශානතින් ය.  

මීට අමතරව, මෙම නවකතාවේ කිහිප තැනක, නවකතාවට ඍජු සම්බන්ධයක් නැති සිද්ධීන් මගින් සමාජයේ සමහර ප්‍රවනතා සඳහන් වේ. පුංචි මම්මා ගේ එක් සැමියෙකු, අයෙකු මියගිය විට වැන්දඹුවගේ ඉල්ලීම මත කෙරුනු  රෝමාන්තික ඡායාරූප ගැනීම එවන් පරිධියේ කතවකි. 

විරාජිනී මහත් පරීශ්‍රමයක් දරා, ඓතිහාසික කාරණා, යටත් විජිත සමයේ දේශපාලනය සුදුසු මට්ටමින් ගලපා, අත්භූත කමක් ද මුසු කර සිය නිර්මාණ ජීවිතයේ මෙතෙක් බිහි කර ඇති වඩාත් අභියෝගාත්මක කලා නිර්මාණය බිහි කිරීමට උත්සාහ දරා ඇති බව පැහැදිලි අතර, ඊට හිස නම ගෞරව කරමි.   නවකතාවෙන් විරාජිනි බලාපොරොත්තු වූයේ කිනම් කාරණා මතුකරලීමට ද යන්න පැහැදිලි ය.  ඒ පිළිබඳ සිංහල පාඨකයා නොදැන නොසිටි නමුත්, සාහිත්‍ය කෘතියක් ඔස්සේ එම සංවේදී කාරණා මතුකරලීම අනාගතයේ හෝ අප රට විදේශ විනිමය ගෙන ඒමට විශේෂ දායකත්වාක් එම ජන කොටස කෙරෙහි වඩා සංවේදී වීමට හේතු වනු ඇත.  මෙම නවකතාව මා  දුටුවේ කතුවරියගේ සමාජ දේශපාලන පණිවුඩයට යාත්‍රාවක් බිහිකරනු වස් ඉදිකෙරුනු රචනාවක් බවයි. බොහෝ රචනා සියුම් ලෙස යම් සමාජ දේශපාලන කාරණාවක් මතු කරලීමට ලියූ ඒවා මුත්, නිර්මාණ සාහිත්‍යයේ සාර්ථකත්වය මනිනු හැක්කේ, එම නිර්මාණය සමෝධානයේ සාර්ථකත්වය මතය. මෙම සමෝධානය සාර්ථක කරනු වස් ය, කතුවරිය ගුප්ත සිදුවීම, කෲර සිදුවීම්, එම කම්කරු ජනතාව ට නින්ද නොයෑම, සිනා සීමේ නොදත්කම ආදිය මතු කර ඇත්තේ.   එම සියළු තැත් පාඨක අවදානයට ලක් වුව ද, අවසන් විග්‍රහයෙදී, නවකතාවක් ලෙස සමස්තය සැලකීමේදි මට නම් හැඟුණේ මෙය තරමක් ආයාසකාරී, පරීශ්‍රමයක් දරා ලියවුන්නක් ලෙසටය. නවකතාව පුරාවටම මෙය 'පිටු පෙරළවන සුළු' (page-turner) තත්වයකට පත් නොවේ. සමහර දීර්ඝ කොටස් නවකතාවට වෙසෙසින් යමක් එක්කාසු නොකරයි. පිටු 222 ක් වන් කෙටි නවකතාවක් වුව, මට මෙය කියවීමේ උනන්දුවක් අවසන තෙක්ම වගා කරහත නොහැකි විය.  අවසන සාපේක්ෂ වශයෙන් තිබුනාට යම් සතුටුදායක තැනක් එම කම්කරු ප්‍රජාව ට ලැබීමත්, ඊට ඇනීටා ගේ සම්මාදමත් නවකතාවට අවසන් පිටු කිහිපයේදී එතෙක් නොතිබූ රසවත් බවක් ගෙන ආ බවය, අපගේ හැඟිම.  මෙය බහුතර පාඨක ප්‍රජාවගේ ආස්ථානය නොවූ නිසා, එය පුද්ගලානුබද්ධ රසය පිළිබඳ ගැටළුවක් ද විය හැක. 

2023 වර්ශයේ නවකතා මෙතෙක් මා කියවා ඇත්තේ හතරක් පමණි ( තිවංක කතාව, ද්‍රෝහි, සිල්වර් ටිප්ස් අනෙක්වා ය). මේ සිව් නවකතාවන් කෙරෙහි මගේ එතරම් කැමැත්තක් නැති මුත්, සාපේක්ෂව කැමෙලියා ඉදිරියෙන් සිටී ( තව නවකතා 8ක් පමණ කියවීම ඉතිරිව ඇත).  එහෙත් මා බලාපොරොත්තු වූයේ සම්මාන තුනක් දිනූ නවකතාවක් කෙරෙහි මීට වඩා ප්‍රසාදයක් මා කෙරෙහි උපදිනු ඇති බවටය.

ශ්‍රේණිය: ***1/2

Seascraper - Benjamin Wood

I selected Seascraper as the first of the nominees from this year's list of nominees to read, as I liked the marine sound of the title. Later I found out it was more inclined towards novella length, and in fact double checked to see if the audio book version I listened to ended half way. No, no trouble there, but it was the ending which was rather open ended.

This was a quiet read, with solitude mainly that of our protagonist, Thomas Flett, a "shanker" who makes ends meet for his rather young mother, and himself, being the main companion of the reader. At just 20, Thomas, has already given up on finding a more meaningful life for him, and clearly lacks the courage to confront his rather selfish and complaining mum about dreams of his life. Then as chance should have it, a film producer visits the desolated beach side, and finds the scene ideal for a movie he has in mind to produce, where he meets Thomas. The novella then moves on to elaborate on the difficulty one finds in materialising one's dreams - be that of Flett's dream of being a folk singer, or Edgar Acheson's dreams of producing a movie out of a book he has read. We find the demons that Edgar has fought all his life, and how in possibly his last attempt at success he may have inspired a boy just sufficiently to chase his dreams, irrespective of the odds.

The novella is thin in plot, but oozes of the environment that it is fixed in. The cold sea breeze, the stench that Tom so wants to rid, the sand - but is his fate, the bleakness that the whole setting brings, makes the reader feel that she is isolated in a rather barren place, where life hardly moves, and when it moves, only through the cyclic pattern which offers no hope for a change. The success of this novel is in how Benjamin has managed to encapsulate this bleakness, cocooned in a short trip that will stay in the readers mind for quite some time. 

Rating: ****
Long Listed for the Booker - 2025 ( with the short list yet to be announced)

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - R.F. Kuang

The name of R.F. Kuang has been floating  in whatever small literature circles that I happen to find myself in. So much so, I found that I have purchased a copy of 'Yellow Face', more out of influence, and as buying books that 'you may find yourself wanting to read one day' is one of the pitfalls a reader is expected to thrive in. Next thing I know, I get a chance to indulge in an audio book of Babel, and I go 'why not?', as the new music coming through in 2025, so far has been quite boring, and I like to not waste my driving time. OK, enough beating about...


In no time I found myself loving "Babel". But the first symptom of there being more than obvious to one's eye (other than the death of Robin's mother, of course - which one may concede to  many reasons), is the way the beating that Robin receives from Prof. Lovell is described.

"He seemed simply, with every hard and deliberate blow, to be attempting to inflict maximum pain with the minimum risk of permanent injury. ... he only dealt bruises that could be easily hidden and that, in time, would heal completely."

 And before long, with the advent of the Hermes society, and their visit to Canton later, it became evident  to me, that the book was both interesting to read - and at the same time, troubling. Why troubling ? Initially I needed time to quietly interpret what was troubling me. In fact I shared my mind frame with the reader who read this book at the same time. Then it came to me. It portrayed the racist side of colonialism in a way that would have the readership of this book, divided. I am in no way claiming that there was no inherent racism in the act of colonialism. Hell - just 20-30 years back there was more racism than now in communities within the same country, and the country that I live in is no exception. But this book portrays racism in such a manner, I found myself feeling uncomfortable, and in a manner that divides the world, east vs. west, colonizer vs. conquered - it is this troubling feeling that kept me from writing a review of this book for almost a month. Today, having some time on my hands, I wanted to see what the rest of the world said about this book. And I found that that the division that I felt would be apparent - is, well, apparent! No need to look far. Just read the reviews of good reads, among the native speakers of English, and those who aren't. Although the book has a rating of 4.2 on average, majority of the native English speakers find the book troubling, and at least one has used the term 'trauma porn' to identify the trauma that is caused to those who share the identity. I tend to share the same sentiments. Letty or Leticia is a case point. The gap in understanding between Letty and the other three main characters is portrayed in such a manner that no bridge can ever join them. Yet, Letty was supposedly in love with Rami.

I have no explanation or solution to the troubling stance that this book left me in. I don't even claim that the author has exaggerated the nature of the divide, especially given the times in consideration. But I do think that there is at least an iota of contempt for from where this major work of fiction originated. So while granting, that this is indeed a very good work fantasized fiction, with much home truths, it leaves me troubled. The optimist in me  who everyday dreams of things becoming better for all in this world felt rather uncomfortable as the book delivers a wedge, if one dwells upon can only fester.

Rating: ****

Sign o' the Times - Prince (the concert movie)

Watched the IMAX revival of Prince's concert movie "Sign o' the Times", thanks to a book worm friend ( who is also a movie aficionado) tipping me off.
Absolutely Amazing ! Amazing, high energy live performances by Prince and a host of truly talented musicians who make us appreciate the wonder of their craft.




But then Prince was always amazing. After watching Purple Rain several decades ago, this was most welcome, as some of us still have a hard time accepting that he is no more.

The live performances of the title track - Sign o' the Times, It's gonna be a beautiful night, Hot thing, I could never take the place of your man, If I was your girlfriend, and The Cross, I felt did justice by giving more variety to the studio versions, and possibly bettering the studio versions. Yes, the concert was mostly - almost totally songs from the Sign o' the times album (except a brief piano driven version of 'little red corvette, and a stellar performance of Charlie Parker's 'Now's the Time" in which Sheila E. shows her amazing and almost super human efforts with the drum kit.)  Later on, Prince and Sheila E. switch roles in "It's gonna be a beautiful night", in which Sheila E. does the rap vocals while Prince takes over the drums. To me, this version of  is better to the CD version - which too is a live recording. The version captured of  "U got the look" is simply the music video for the song mainly.

It is said that on studio, Prince performed most of the instruments himself for this double album ( the album back cover says "Produced, Arranged, Composed, and Performed by Prince.) However, on the concert he has a wonderful set of artistes playing live, almost deputed by Sheila E. Dr. Fink is at the key boards, Eric Leeds on saxophone, Atlanta Bliss on Trumpet - the two musicians on the horns add so much color to this show.

It was 1987, and a musical concert could possibly still be played this way. For example, in 'Hot Thing', Prince rips off Cat Glover's  (who sings, gyrates, and acts throughout the show) in a lecherous way, that may not have  gone well with the current woke era. Girl/Woman as a sex symbol in dominant in the show. But then again, we're talking about a man who showed his vulnerable side when he sang "If I was your girlfriend", so that he could pick her clothes, watch her undress, and a lot more, which he details in the studio recording (which is edited out in the radio edit), and is not sung about in this live version, instead of settling for a choreography of making out.

So who is this show for (if you get the chance to watch it again on cinema) ? No Brainer - All Prince fans. All connoisseurs of good live music performances, for the sheer energy and brilliance of these performances. Ideally, one should be familiar with the album, 'Sign o' the Times', (anyway Prince = the album Purple Rain, is such an ignorant place to be, if you call yourself a fan of great pop music), to appreciate this show, as one can pick up the variations off the studio versions.   

වාලම්පූරි (අධ්‍යක්ෂණය - ලක්මාල් ධර්මරත්න )

 ඊයේ හවස, මා බිරිඳ උපේක්ෂා සමඟ ගොස් 'වාලම්පූරි' නැරඹුවෙමි. ඔවු, එය නැරඹීම මට මෙතෙක් මගැරිනි.



මේ වන චිත්‍රපටිය ගැන බොහෝ දේ කිය වී ඇති නිසා, සහ චිත්‍රපටි විචාරයට තරම් ඒ පිළිබඳ දැනුමක් මා සතු නොවෙන නිසාත්, එක් කාරණයක් ගැන පමණක් යමක් කියා නවතිමි. ඒ මහත්තයලා සහ 'ගම් කබරයන්' ( පොලිසි නිලධාරී, සමන් ගේ හැඳින්වීම) අතර පරතරයයි. චිත්‍රපටියේ සැම පාත්‍රවර්ගයාම තමනට අයිති නැති දෙයකින් සල්ලි සොයාගැනීමට වෙහෙසෙන මුත්, ඒ අතර ද චරිත දෙකක් සුවිශේෂි ය. අයෙක් ප්‍රියංකරය - ඒ ඔහු තම නාට්‍ය කණ්ඩායමට මහත්තයෙකු වුවද, ඔහු හා එම කණ්ඩායම අතර වෙනස අවප්‍රමාණ කරලීමට ඔහු දරණ උත්සාහයයි. දෙවැන්නා සිඩ්නී ය. සැබැවින් ම අන් අය රවටා, අන්දවා මුදල් හම්බකරන ගමේ මිනිසෙකු වුව ඔහු හා නිමලසිරි, චින්තක, සහ ඇන්ජෙලෝ අතර වෙනසක් තිබීමයි. ඒ තම වටපිටාව කියවීම,  තමනට හුරු පරිසරයෙන් ඈත් කෙරුණු විට ද තම නැණ පමණින් උපරිමය කරලීම යන ගුණාංග අතිනි.  කිමද, සමන් නම් වූ පොලිස් නිලධාරියා සමාජෙට මහත්තයෙකු වුව ද, පෙර කී කපටිකමින් මුදල් සෙවීමට දඟලන ගැමියන් ට වඩා දරුණු මිනිසෙකි. ඒ ඔහු ට මුදලේ රස සිඩ්නිලා ට වඩා දැනී ඇති බැවිනි. ඔහුගේ බලය ද අහිමි වීමට ආසන්න නිසාය.  සිඩ්නි නිමලේ මාමා සහ අන් අය වාගේ බීගෙන පිහිණුම් තටාකයේ නටන්නේ නැත. සමන්, සිඩ්නිගේ පැලැන්තියට ගම් කබරයන් යැයි කීවද සිඩ්නි එතන සියයට සියයක් නැත. ප්‍රියංකර සමන් ට මහත්මයෙකු වුවද, ඇත්තෙන්ම වැඩිම මූල්‍යමය අලාභය අත්කරගත්ත ද, ඔහු සමන්ගේ පැලැන්තියේ ආත්මීයව නැත. සියල්ල අහිමි වූ විට ඔහුට අන් අය සමඟ ජහුටා නැටීමට ද පුළුවන. මෙම චරිත දෙක ඔස්සේ චිත්‍රපටියේ යටිපෙළක් කියවෙන බවකි අපගේ අදහස.

ශ්‍රේණිය: *****