යකඩ සිල්පර - විමල් උදය හපුගොඩාඅරච්චි

2018 වසරේ බොහෝ සම්මානයනට නිර්දේශ වූත්, මට මතක පමණින්, රාජ්‍ය සාහිත්‍ය සම්මානය ජයග්‍රහණයට සමත් වූ ද, විමල් උදය හපුගොඩාඅරච්චි ගේ "යකඩ සිල්පර" නවකථාව කියවීමි. සමහර නවකතා, වත්මනයේ නවකතා යන නිර්මාණයේ තිබිය යුතු යැයි සාමාන්‍යයෙන් හඟින, සංකේත භාවිතාව, ආකෘතික වික්‍රමයන්, චරිතයන් හි පිරිපුන් බව, ආදිය ගැන අවදානයට වඩා වැඩි අවදානයක් කථා රසයට යොමු කරයි. මේ කෘතිය හෝ, ඊටත් වැඩියෙන් කතා රසය වෙනුවෙන් යොමු වූ සිංහල නවකථාවක් මෑතක කියවූවේ නම්, ඒ නෝබට් අයගමගේ ලියූ "කාල නදී ගලා බසී" විය යුතුය. එහි දොසක් වූයේ නම් එහි ප්‍රධාන චරිතය වූ සාදිරිස් නවකථාවේ සීමාව තුල වීරයෙකු තරම ට ඉහළ නංවා තිබීම ය. ඒ දොස අතහැරියොත් එය කතා රසයෙන්, ඉතිහාස රසයෙන් පිරිපුන් නිර්මාණයකි. එය ද රාජ්‍ය සාහිත්‍ය සම්මානය දිනූ බවකි මට මතක.

යකඩ සිල්පර ද කථා රසයෙන් පෝෂිත ය. සාදිරිස් වන් වීරයෙකු නැති වීම කථාවේ වටිනාකම වැඩි කිරීමට හේතු වේ. කුරුණෑගල සිට වන්නි හත්පත්තුව හරහා අනුරාධපුරයට ද, එතනින් උතුරුකරේ ට ද, කෝච්චි පාර තැනූ යුගයයි ඒ. අදට ද ඒ කෝච්චි පාර ද, ඊට බොහෝ සෙයින් සමාන්තරව දිවෙන, පසුව තැනුනු, පාදෙනිය- රිදීබැඳි ඇල්ල පාර ඔස්සේ , අනුරාධපුරයට දිවෙන පාර ත් (ඇල්ල පාර), මේ කෘතියේ කියෙනා යුගයේ ලක්ෂණ මද වශයෙන් කියා පායි. අදට ත් අයෙක් රාත්‍රි කෝච්චියෙන් අනුරාධපුරය දිසාවට ගමන් ගන්නේ නම්, ඇත්තෙන් ම තරමක් නාගරීකරණය වී තිබුන ද, ළඳු කැළෑ හරහා දිවෙන ස්වභාවයක්, කැළෑ ආශ්‍රති පාළුවක්, ඒ කළුවර ඇතුලේ මගියා ට අඟවයි. රාජාංගණයට, හත්තිකුච්චියට අවතීර්ණය ඇත්තේ මේ "ඇල්ල පාරෙනි". වැව් වලින් සහ කුඹුක් ගසින් දෙපස පිරි පාරක් වන "ඇල්ල පාර" මා පෞද්ගලිව අනුරධපුරයට යාමට වඩාත් ප්‍රිය කරන පාරයි. මේ කෘතියේ කියවෙන යුගයේ "ඇල්ල පාර" තිබී නැත. එහෙත්, නිකවැරටිය ඔස්සේ අඹන්පොළ හා තඹුත්තේගම ට පාරක් පැරණි පාරක් තිබී ඇත. එය මේ කෘතියේ කියවෙන ආරේ "පිං පාරක්" වෙන්ටැති - ඒ වසර සියගණන් හෝ ඊටත් වැඩි කාලයක් තිස්සේ භාවිත කැළෑ පාරක ට කියනා නමක් යැයි සිතුවෙමි. එහෙත් ලේඛකයා සමඟ කෙටි පෙළිසඳරකින්, ඒ සුද්ද්දාගේ කාලේ අවුරුද්දක ට දින කිහිපයක් ( හතක් ? ) ශ්‍රමය ලබා දීමෙන් නඩත්තු වූ කරත්ත පාරවල් බවක් දැන ගත්තෙමි. ඔහු තව දුරටත් කියා සිටියේ රිදීබැඳිඇල්ල පාර කෝච්චි පාර නිමැවිමෙන් අනතුරුව, සෑදු එකක් බවයි. එවිට මට මතක් වූයේ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රාසිංහයන් ඔහුගේ කළුනික සෙවීම කෘතියේ  පුත්තලම, කළුවරගස්වැව, නොච්චියාගම හරහා අනුරාධපුර ගිය හැටිය. සමහර විටෙක වික්‍රමසිංහයන් ඒ ගමන ගිය යුගයේ ප්‍රධාන අනුරාධපුර පාර, පුත්තලම හරහා යෙදී තිබෙන්න ට ඇත. මේ ටික කීවේ, කෘතිය මට කෙසේ ආමන්ත්‍රණය කරන්නේ ද යන්න පිළිබඳ ඇඟවීමට ය. මීට, එහි යෙදෙන පැරණි ව්‍යවහාරික භාෂාව, තවත් රසය උත්පාදනය කරයි. ඒ කතුවරයා ගේ පරීක්ෂණ වල ප්‍රතිඵලය. මේ සියල්ලෙන් සිදුකෙරෙණුයේ, නවකථාවේ අවකාශය නිර්මාණයයි. ඒ අතින් කතුවරයා ට උපරිම ලකුණු බිහි විය යුතුය. හපුගොඩාඅරච්චි අඹන්පොළ අයෙක් වන අතර, නවගත්තේගම ප්‍රවේශය ද මේ පාරෙනි. 

නවකථාවේ එන කතාව ද බොහෝ සෙයින් රසවත් ය. ගවරා නම් වූ කැළෑ මිනිසෙකු ගැන සඳහනක් වේ. ඒ චරිතය ප්‍රබන්ධයකි. අයෙකු ට ඒ චරිතය ඔස්සේ කථාවේ විශ්වාසනීයත්වයට යම් අභියෝගයක් එල්ල වන්නේ යැයි සිතෙනු ඇත. කිම ද අන් තැනෙක මේ පොතේ "ටාසෑන්" කෙනෙකු ද ඉන්නා බව අයෙකු කියා තිබෙනු දුටුවෙමි ( ඔවු, යම් ආරක ජේන් කෙනෙකු ද වේ ) . පෞද්ගලිකව මම ගවරා හේතුවෙන් කථාවට මහා හානියක් සිදු වූයේ යැයි නොසිතමි. ඒත් කථා රසයට ගවරා සම්මාදම් වී ඇත.

මෙහි එන ඩන්ස්ටන් මුලර් සහ රූත් විල්යමස් (මුලර්) යුවල යන ද්විචරිතයන් ගොඩනගා ඇති ආකාරයට මා ප්‍රියය. සුදුත් නැති කළුත් නැති, එහෙත් යුගයේ සාමාන්‍ය හැසිරීම් රටාවන් මධ්‍යයේ වුව යම් මානුෂීය ස්වභාවයක් සම්ප්‍රයුක්තයක් ලෙස පෙන්නුම් කරනු පමණක් නොව, යම් ආරක නවීනත්වයක සිතුම් පැතුම් පෙන්වන්නෝය, මෙහි එන චරිත බොහෝමයක්. එපමණක් නොව, රම්බා වේවා, පදක්කයා වේවා, සොයිසා වේවා, වඩා ස්වභාවික චරිතයන් හේතුවෙන් නවකතාවේ අගය කල යුතු පාර්ශවයන් වැඩි යැයි සිතමි. කළු චරිත නැත්තේ නොවේ - එහෙත් අළු චරිත රැස මැද කළු චරිත ස්වල්පයක් තිබීම, කෘතියේ පමණක් නොව කතුවරයා ව ද, වඩා උසස් තලයක පිහිටුවා ඇත.  කතුවරයා, ආරච්චිල දකින්නේ ද, තමනට සාම්ප්‍රදායිකව ලැබෙමින් තිබූ යම් යම් ලාභ ප්‍රයෝජන නැති වීමේ වේදනාවෙන් ක්‍රියා කරන්නෙකු ලෙසට ය.

සමස්ත වශයෙන් ධනාත්මක ලක්ෂණ වැඩි, කථා රසයෙන් පිරි, එක දිගට කියවීමට පෙළඹෙන ආරේ කෘතියකි. පෙර යුගයක ට  සිතින් ගොස්, රසවත් කතාවක් කියවීම ට කැමති අයට නිර්දේශ කරමි.





( 2017 ප්‍රකාශ වූ, 2018 නේක සම්මානයනට නිර්දේශයට සුදුසු වූ, මා මෙතෙක් කියවූ කෘති ගැන සාරාංශය: පළමු ස්ථානය  "පේමතො ජායති අසෝකෝ", දෙවෙනි ස්ථානය "බලකොටු සහ නෞකා", තෙවෙනි ස්ථානය "යකඩ සිල්පර", සිව්වෙනි ස්ථානය "චක්‍ර"; කියවා ඇති මුළු කෘති ගණන අටයි ; තව කෘති දෙකක් කියවීමට ඉතිරිව ඇත )

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

The first Neil Gaiman novel that I read was, "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" - that was an audio book. Its dark mood, and the sense of paranoia and insecurity,  left behind  a haunting quality that still lingers, in my mind.  I even bought a hard copy of it, in case I feel like going for a reread, one of these days. American Gods followed, its picaresque protagonist, along with  the road book style narration, not to mention a  larger number of colourful characters ( one of which was Mr. Nancy, albeit a minor one), all contributed to a grand narration. It too had its mood, especially brought in by the details of the stiff mid western winter. It had a certain epic proportion about it. This was the main reason for me to have certain hopes on The Anansi Boys - and again, I opted for the audio book media, since there's something about Gaiman's style, which comes out absorbing in audio books.

But somehow, this one came out a little below expectations for me. American Gods had an overall feel of a moroseness that I found engrossing, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, with its subtle witchcraft, disturbing to its otherwise normal lives of its characters, all created a reading experience, which to me was "reading Gaiman". The Anansi boys in contrast, has  relatively more humour - especially with the narration taking on a West Indian accent when appropriate, has a playfulness about the book - brought in by the characters of Spider and his dad, not to mention the typical wit of Gaiman. This wit, we see in the character of Grahame Coats - his pomposity and him meeting a match with Spider. The characters of Callyane Higgler and her friends too add an element of subtle amusement - through their confidence in going on about their lives.  Possibly it is this relative lighter nature that makes this book a little less attractive to me than the other two I've read. It could be said that the sorcery and the divine intervention, felt more direct here than in the other two, and that may have created an atmosphere that is largely different from what I've come to expect of, from Gaiman. There was  a mood of cold pessimism that I found appealing in the two books I've read of his before this. The mood difference in this book, which even with the two brothers being pursued, with their lives under threat, doesn't quite bring on to what I have hither to expected from the author. I do concur that it is possibly a  more personal liking or an  expectation of Gaiman's work here, that makes this book less attractive to me than his previous work.

I found the fantasy of this work, a little less believable, or far fetched (if that makes sense ), than on previous instances too. Yet, this is not to say that it is not an enjoyable read, for it definitely is. It is likely that we haven't had a character like Spider, a very playful cool dude with god like traits, who is almost the main character for  the first half of the book. The situation of  the whole mess that the boys find themselves in being somehow,  self inflicted gives the impression that the story line goes in circles, and thus somewhat convoluted. The fact that all characters find them selves in the same  Caribbean Island, doesn't help the reader to find the narration, that much more natural, convincing  and believable.

An interesting point to recognize was the episode of a certain character who has a birth after his death, in foreboding low state - not stopping there, the inference that it will be repeatedly be eaten by a villain only to re-incarnate in that same low position, suggests some of the lower plain births as found in the Buddhist tradition. It'll be interesting to note whether there is any similar folklore in the African tradition too.

However, if you enjoy Gaiman, there is more here to enjoy than to feel discouraged about. So I recommend this to Gaiman fans.

කහපාට උවැසියෝ - චම්පා වෛද්‍යතිලක

මේ ලේඛිකාව මහත් කථාබහට ලක් වූයේ ඇගේ "ඇදහිය නොහැකි නිහඬතාව" නම් වූ කෘතිය හේතුවෙනි. එය ස්වර්ණ පුස්තකයට නිර්දේශ වූවා පමණක් නොව, ගොඩගේ සම්මනායෙන් ද පිදුම් ලත් හ. ඒ සියළු ගෞරවයන් යුක්තියුක්ත ය. බාහිර ලොව සිදුවීම්, කථා නායිකාවගේ මනෝ ලෝකයේ සිදුවීම් හා  මුසුව ආඛ්‍යායනයේ යෙදී ඇත්තේ ඇතැම් විට සිමා හඳුනා ගත නොහැකි අයුරිනි. එය එම කෘතිය ට බොහෝ සේ ගැලපුණි. ඇගේ දෙවෙනි නවකථාව වන, උක්ත කෘතිය කියවනා කල් හි පෙනී යන්නේ, එය ඇගේ ම අනන්‍ය ආඛ්‍යාන ශෛලිය හා බැඳී ඇති බවෙකි. එනම් මේ කෘතියේ ප්‍රධාන තුන් චරිතයෝ - මධුරා, සුධිරා හා චංචලා - තම කතාවන් හි, පියවි බාහිර ලොව හා මනෝ ලොව එකට බැඳ මේ කෘතිය පුරාවට ම ප්‍රකාශ කරති. මෙය, කෘතිය මුල, අපූරත්වයකින් පාඨකයා බැඳ ගත්ත ද, සිදුවීම් වල මන්දගාමීත්වය, ඒවා හි තිව්‍රතාවන්ගේ දුර්වල බව,

සහ කථාවස්තුවේ දුර්වල බව හේතුවෙන්, කෘතියේ මගක් යන විට තරමක් ආයාසකාරි කියවීමක ට හේතු වේ. නවකථාවේ ඉදිරිගමනක්, ප්‍රගමනයක් ඇත්තේම නැති තරම් ය.

ඓතිහාසික කථාවක් නොවී, ඓතිහාසික චරිත තුලින් වර්තමානික චරිත වර්ණ ගැන්වීමේ අපූරු රසයක් ඇත. කතුවරිය මේ ශෛලීය සූර ලෙස භාවිත කරයි. අතීත හා වර්තමානික කලාපීය දේශපාලනය සහ, මිනිසුන් සතුව එකිනෙකා කෙරෙහි ඇති, එක් එක් ජනවර්ග කෙරෙහි ඇති අවිශ්වාසය, පසුබිම් සංගීතයක් මෙන් හොල්මන් කරයි. එය ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබෙන ආකාරය පිළිබඳ මගේ එතරම් පැහැදීමක් නැත.  

මේ සියල්ල මධ්‍යයේ වුව, පාඨකයා කෘතියේ මැද පමණ කියවාගෙන යන විට තරමක් වෙහෙසට පත් වීමත් , කියවීමේ උනන්දුව අඩු වීමත්, නොසලකා හල නොහැක.  ඒ ඇගේ ආඛ්‍යාන ශෛලිය, කථා වස්තුව ට ඉසිලීමට නොහැකි ලෙස බර වැඩි වීම හේතුවෙනි. කථා වස්තුව  සරල හෝ කෙටි හෝ වන,  එහෙත් අත්දැකීමේ තීව්‍රතාව මත සාර්ථක වන කෘතීන් බොහෝ ඇත. අත්දැකීම්, සහ ඒ පිළිබඳ මනෝ විශ්ලේෂණය නවකතාව තුලට සාර්ථක ව ගොණු කිරීම ආදියෙන් රසවත් වූ නිර්මාණයෝ ඇත. එහෙත් මෙහි ඒ සංයෝජන මාත්‍රාවන්ගේ යම් අඩුවක් ඇත.

කෘතියේ අවසන් පිටු තිහ පමණ වන විට දිගැරුණු සියළු නූල් පන්දු වන් කථා - එනම් මධුරා ගේ අවිනිශ්චිතතාවය, සචිත්‍ර ගේ රැවටීම, සුධීරා ගේ අචල ආගමික විශ්වාසය සහ එහි පළුදු වීම - විසඳීමට කතුවරිය හදිසියෙන් මෙන් යත්න දරන්නීය. මට මේ නවකථාවේ එන එක් සාර්ථක ව ගොඩ නැගූ චරිතයක් වේ නම් ඒ චංචලා ගේ චරිතයයි. ඇය ඒ හරහා, අප රට ඓතිහාසික රැවටිමක ට ලක් වීමත්, වර්තමානයේ බලාපොරොත්තු රහිත ව වෙසෙන ආකරයත් පෙන්නුම් කර ඇති අයුරු අපූරුය.  මා චංචලා ගේ චරිතය ගොඩ නැගීමට ලේඛිකාවට බොහෝ ලකුණු දුන්න ද , අන් චරිත තුලින් ඒ සාර්ථකත්වය නොදැක්කෙ මි. වකුගොඩ රෝගය හා සබැඳි කථාවේ දි ආසනික්  මතුකරලීමට අමතරව ( එය මතු කරලීමේ කිසිදු දොසක් නැත ), ඉඟි කොට ඇති ජන වාර්ගික සැකය  මා සිත් නොගත්තේ ය. මගේ පෞද්ගලික අදහස නම් එය නොකල යුත්තක් ව තිබූ බවයි.

මා හට පෙනි ගියේ මේ කෘතිය, බොහෝ දේ කීමට උත්සාහ දැරූ අපේක්ෂා රැසක් මුල් කරගෙන ලියවුන්නක් බවයි.  යක්ෂ මූලය සහ අතීත-වර්තමාන චරිත ආදි ගැලපීම් ඉතා සාර්ථක ය. වෙසෙසින් මෙහි එන පත්තිණි දේව ඇදහිල්ල ප්‍රශ්ණයට මතු කර ඇති ආකරය මා වඩාත් සිත් ගත්තේය. එපමණක් නොව  කිහිප විටෙක කියවෙන ආටානාටිය සුත්‍රය ගැන ද, ගැහැණිය අයිති කර ගත යුතු වස්තුවක් නොවේ ය යන්න ත් ( එහෙත් ආදරය කල යුතු මනුස්ස දුවක් පමණක බවත් ) මා බෙහෙවින් සිත් ගත් අදහස් ය. අනාගතයේ දිනෙක මේ අයිතිය පිළිබඳ අද තිබෙන අදහස් යල් පැන ගිය කලෙක, අද අපි විශ්වාස කරනා දේ ඉතා පටු ලෙස දැකිය හැකි බව සිතුණු අවස්ථා, මේ කෘතිය කියවීමේ කාල පරාසයට පමණක් සීමා නොවේ.

එහෙත් සමහර චරිත  නවකතාවට සම්බන්ධ වී ඇති අයුරේ 'මතුපිටමය' ස්වභාවය, දේශපාලන කාරණා ඉදීරිපත් කොට ඇති ආකරය , අවසන් පිටු 30 පමණ වන තෙක් මන්දගාමී, මනෝ ආඛ්‍යායනයකට මුල් තැන දීම, නවකථාවේ  සාර්ථකත්වය හීන කිරීමට හේතු බවකි මට නම් හැඟුණේ. ඒ අනුව පාඨකයා ට සිතෙනුයේ, මේ නම් අපූරු ලේඛන ශෛලියක් ඇති ලේඛිකාවකගේ, එතරම් සාර්ථක නොවන කෘතියක් බවකි.

Running in the Family - Michael Ondaatje

The after effects was "Warlight" was such that, I elevated Ondaatje to the level of Camus, as possibly my favourite author ( these things change, of course ). Yet there it was. As a result, I took into my hands his one poetry collection I have, "The Cinnamon Peeler" (abandoned 1/4th of the way last year) to read afresh, and also his memoir "Running in the Family" - the plan was to read the latter as extra reading ( meaning a page here, a page there, during lunch, waiting to pick a kid etc.), not trespassing upon that cherished domain of the limited reading time, and the former with a dose of just one or two poems a day. The former continues, and the latter is now complete. As expected, the reading allotments were as I planned till more than half the book was completed. Till past the 180th page, its abstract style, ensured that it could be read in that fashion. Till the 180th page, we hear of his ancestors, his parents, his aunts, his father's run ins with John Kotalawela, bathing in the rain in Wilpattu, his parents' drunken friends and relations, his father's carefree life style in England etc. The most interesting and concrete story till that time was his grandma's experience in the floods of 1947, at Nuwara Eliya. These abstract stories then feed the main theme, which becomes apparent in the next 50 plus pages. Why did Michael Ondaatje return to Sri Lanka in 1978 and 1980 ? It is for the partly fictional history, no doubt carried out with a lot of research, that he presents to us, but more so to his siblings Christopher, Jeniffer and Janet. There is a quote attributed to his brother, Christopher, here:

"'You must get his book right,' my brother tells me. 'you can only write it once.' But the book again is incomplete"

Michael was the youngest of four children, and it is possible he who knew his father least. Michael has left Ceylon when he was 11, and after living with his relations upon their parents' separation and divorce. To me, it felt that his trips back to, by then Sri Lanka, was to pick up whatever strands he could off his relations, their memories, and try to see who his father was - possibly his father who he didn't know well enough. The agony of Micheal is apparent in these last 50 odd pages -

"Her behaviour in his drunken moments was there to shock him in his times of gentleness when he loved muted behaviour"

"You see I thought they would have found out what a disgraceful family I had come from. Mummy had drummed this story into us about what we had all been through there."

"My loss was that I never spoke to him as an adult. Was he locked in the ceremony of being 'a father'? He died before I even thought of such things."

"You must understand all this was happening while his first family was in England or Canada or Colombo totally unaware of what was happening to him. That would always be the curse on us, the guilt we would be left with"

“There is so much to know and we can only guess. Guess around him. To know him from these stray actions I am told about by those who loved him. And yet, he is still one of those books we long to read whose pages remain uncut. We are still unwise. It is not that he became too complicated but that he had reduced himself to a few things around him and he gave them immense meaning and significance.”

To me, this was clearly the agony and the remorse of a son, for a father, he couldn't ever meet and get to know, again - denied at an early age through the faults of his parents. While his father's actions from a youth suggest that he was more than a handful when drunk, it can clearly be read, he appears to be searching high and low for someone, who is to be blamed for this injustice that he had to endure - of never knowing his father well enough.

A son will always, as he grows more mature try to understand and read his father - "who is this imperfect man who fathered me, who is also imperfect to the core ? Whose actions and habits are deep inside of me, either encouraged, or discouraged ? Who laid the platform for me to write my story?" - the son would be thinking. Being denied of that, a son would be in agony, unable to open his heavy heart to any one else in the world. Michael, a great wordsmith if ever there was one, had done his best to come to terms and understand the father he didn't know to his heart's content. And it makes a heart rendering reading, in those last 50 odd pages. The first abstract "salad", scanty at times, is the foundation for things to come.

Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

Here's a book, which is very modern in its outlook towards life. A few people, mostly friends, who have known each other all their life, and at least one who has had  very  close relationships with most of the them, make the core of these novel. All of them have successful careers and at least one comes close to a genius. By the end of the  first half of the book, I was quite awed, and looking forward to a concise novel, which tackles modern morality as well modern life's challenges. Although publish 21 years back, most of the issues  could be thought of as current, with some balance for the development of modern thought over that period. So much so, I started speaking highly of it, to few of the fellow book worms community.  Speaking of the characters, I was really impressed with how the composer worked, and the lengths he went to have an undisturbed environment to do his life's work. It cannot be denied that a certain degree of selfishness is implicit in the natural thought pattern of a genius. Then we have the news paper editor, who is ruthless and doesn't hesitate to take hard and unpopular decisions, even having the gall of presenting morality as incontestable as well as possibly, a little bit of self deception for his raison d'être. The character of the legislator too is presented flawlessly.  This fascinated me, for in essence it projects how deep rooted to modern life one's calling was, and I was thinking "oh! here at last is a book, of modern times, with its day to day battles of morality and work ethics." 

Even when I passed the 70% mark of the book, I was still thrilled and so optimistic of a nail biting finish, which probably would leave me in dilemma as to which side I was on. But, that was not to be! The book ends in some haste, with a far fetched plot, that doesn't sound convincing. I was shattered! I had to withdraw my subtle recommendations for the book, while still having a regretful feel that there was still so much of quality literature in the book. But with that ending, I could in no way recommend it to my friends. So what went wrong ? A little bit of "googling" showed that Ian Mc Ewan has suffered himself, for this won the Booker award, and one review went to the extent of stating that the author is hard done by, for his worst book won the prestigious Booker, and those who start reading him with this book ( assuming it to be his best, obviously), would never return to the author ( One reviewer goes on to say that this book had done lasting damage to the reputation of one of the best contemporary authors ).  

On the subject of Euthanasia: The Netherlands was the first European country to have Euthanasia legalised as far back as 1982. Assisted suicide became Law in 2001. This reader feels that the author had the impending law in his mind, it possibly troubled him, as to how those with vested interests could make use of this for criminal offenses and monetary gain.  If that was so, this book was written with political intent in mind. But worse still, the Booker panel of judges found it acceptable! As I've said a number of times the book was very contemporary and there is also mention, almost in passing of how a legislator - one of the main characters in the novel- aspires the UK to leave the EU - this was before the Monetary Union was established. To return to more  relevant  politics for this novel,  how McEwan has presented his argument here, is rather simplistic, and clearly botched. He sounds it far too simple, that even those who had doubts about the impending law, mayn't have taken him seriously. Maybe it is challenging to write about a subject which wasn't quite law yet ( note that this book came out four years prior to that law), but am sure the political discussion would've been quite prevalent. 

And worse, looks like it was only the Booker panel of judges who actually believed in McEwan's botched political message - and also the literature garb that was dressed in.  

The Green Mile - Stephen King

The primary reason that I ventured to read this book, was the need to watch the movie adaptation of it, casting Mr. Tom Hanks in the lead role. It is possibly the only Hanks movie that I've missed out on, especially from his older work. With respect to the author, Stephen King, this was my second outing with him, after "The Shining" - which I read on my Kindle ( in contrast to the audiobook of Green Mile ) I've got to say that with respect to the book - I like Green Mile much more than the Shining. The Shining came up a better creation in its movie format.

Charles Dickens published most of his books in installments, and this was on King's mind when he wrote this books - he calls them chapbooks. This can be detected as a new part gives a little recap of how the previous installment left off. But this didn't dampen the flow.

About the novel; The novel is based on the happenings at the State Penitentiary in Louisiana, in the year of 1932. Racism was very rampant, and our novel's main character is a giant of a man, with the initials JC - as in Jesus Christ. This man, had a very strange gift, similar to that Sage. But just like that Sage, the modern JC didn't mind sacrificing himself, for he was "very tired" and "hurting" due to the badness prevalent everywhere. Now make no mistake - no where in the novel is this allegory made - not even hinted. But this is, as usual "reading" of this reviewer, for there is no point in stating a synopsis of a novel, in this era, as another frequent book-worm reviewer stated in these very pages recently. So the outline will be left to a bear minimum. The comparison to Jesus Christ, is what dawned upon me, as I read this book. Such a good man, the reader cannot help thinking. He didn't deserve what he got, the reader can't help thinking. The happenings related to JC, in this book, reminded me of the historical figure, for the incidents suggest that the writer had the historical Sage in his mind, when formulating the character of his penitentiary inmate.

I read the Stephen Fry narration, and he did a very good job, accentuating with the Southern drawl, as appropriate. This narration method, complimented by how King identifies racism for its ugly self, even in those who like to think of themselves as refined, gives a hint of how deep rooted discriminating thought processes, can harm society. Possibly this is one of the biggest lessons t obe learned from this book.
Here's and excerpt; ""Hammersmith, the reporter - Hammersmith who had been to college in Bowling Green, Hammersmith who liked to think of himself as enlightened, Hammersmith who had told me that mongrel dogs and Negroes were about the same, that either might take a chomp out of you suddenly, and for no reason. Except he kept calling them your Negroes, as if they were still property ... but not his property. No, not his. Never his. And at that time, the South was full of Hammersmiths."

In summary,  I am glad that I read this book, even though this type of  genre - thriller with a touch of the Supernatural isn't my usual read - hence the book being slotted for the traffic hours. I may possibly read a couple of "Kings", provided I can get them in the same format. He's proving to be a bit of a guilty pleasure.

A word about the movie before I wind up; The movie edition I think is edited round about right, and the novel too am afraid would've been benefited with  that length. The late Michael Clarke Duncan was nominated for an Oscar for the best supporting actor, and oh boy, does he deserve it, if not the award ! The movie too is very good, although at over three hours it is a bit of long sit in.

In Our Mad and Furious City - Guy Gunaratne

"My daddy got here on the gravy train

I guess my mama had a real bad start to the game
They went walking and she took his name
Round here

....

Two little Hitlers in an old church hall
Some cheesy covers and those neighbors that banged on the walls
Andy says it's time to show them all
Round here"

                 ( Round Here - George Michael )

   This song  played like a sound track, while I was reading this book, a Man Booker long listed novel by Guy Gunaratne, whose father had moved to the UK from Sri Lanka, back in the early fifties.  This is in contrast to what ought to have been the soundtrack that the book offers in it -  the bars and rhymes of London Grime, their own response to 2Pac and Biggy. One of the five narrators is a Grime rapper moving to his bars. I hoped it would be a quick read, but I was wrong. Saddled with North London Sun Urban slang, I had to withstand the dampened speed.

This novel is set inside of two days, as chaos breaks lose in a restless  North London Sub Urban neighbourhood, in the aftermath of the killing of an off duty soldier. We have five narrators here - three youths, and two of their parents, all from an immigrant lineage.  The chaos, which breaks lose towards the final 15%-20% of the book, is kept as in a tinderbox, with Gunaratne's own pace so tensed up, that it floods over to the mind of the reader. I guess, if that was Gunaratne's aim, to leave the reader anxious, restless and tensed, building it up till the final blow up, he was successful. Throughout the narration we are in the minds of these individuals - a mother who has fled Belfast as a girl in its worst times, her son, a colored man who had left his Caribbean island to find a new life, and his determined, amateur athlete son, and Yousuf of Pakistani origin. If you think you will meet anyone with Sri Lankan roots even as a passive character, think again. There are Indians, Serbians and Somalians, as passive characters, for it is clear that Gunaratne's had a story to tell on how to fit in  this neighbourhood. Towards the latter part of the book he hints of this in not so indefinite ways.

"So here it all is, this London. A place that you can love, make rhymes out of pyres and a romance of the colours, talk gladly of the changes and the flux and the rise and the fall without feeling its storm rain on your skin and its bone-scarring winds, a city that won’t love you back unless you become insoluble to the fury, the madness of bound and unbound peoples and the immovables of the place."

Gunaratne hints that although fascism as presented by Mosley in the late fifties may no longer be obvious, given it is no longer "refined" to be "ultra-nationalist",  White Racism as well as radicalised muslim youths - the two feed off each other, over any convenient incident - is very much prevalent. Yet, he hints there is hope for those who came over to find a new and a  different life. I felt that Gunaratne hints that as long as you keep yourself away from the waylaid traps, which even the setters don't identify them as such, you can find that new life. Further, I sniff that the very reason why Gunaratne was careful to leave off any Sri Lankan immigrant from the whole story,  was to portray by practice that "ghetto ethnic" mentality is best left alone, if you want to find a new life in a new land. ( It is also possible that Gunaratne, a second generation Londoner is naturally far from his ethnic roots.)

So, within this chaos of two days we see that some youths find their way, not withstanding their paralyzed fathers and alcoholic mothers, however bleak their daily lot appears at first. Yet, I cannot but again help noticing the community the author has picked to portray, who falls. Gunaratne clearly feels that ethnic or communal feeling in your adopted home, makes others restless, and one feeds off the other in a viscous cycle to blow up sooner or later.

As a digression;

What makes a good book ? Is it one that creates for you a comfortable environment in which one can cozy up ( like I did recently with Ondaatje's Warlight ?), or is it a book which successfully creates the mood,, atmosphere and feelings that was the author's intent in writing his or her work ? I firmly believe  it is the latter. I'll be lying if I said that I enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover. I had even thought of giving this book three and a half stars. But then, as I concluded reading it, the subtle messages that were Gunaratne  aimed to convey to the reader, dawned upon me. And the chaos, the tension  made sense - even skillful in how the author did it. For the author has crept out behind me in stealth, and just as I thought I was done with it, he shows me his not so obvious messages. And I was then, impressed ! Gunaratne is a writer and a player. The player in him, excelled, once the author in him as meddled with the reader's mind.