Not so Funny
I truly wish if we had a translation of Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy in native language. But still I wonder how will our readers embrace such writing especially with its homosexual theme and also who will dare to translate a book which carries a number of other controversial themes. Right now my concern is on the applicability of what book has to offer on ethnic conflict and 1983 riots which took place before our generations’ presence which seems to be forgotten intentionally by preceding generations. The way Selvadurai has presented the reader most probably first hand experiences of him on destruction of the state at that dark period should be retold amongst today’s youth who were blinded by opportunists. Especially the last chapter Riot Journal: An Epilogue, will help them not only to understand how that massacre was executed with the patronage of throne but also how it affected generations of people up to now.
Selvadurai was introduced to me by “the blog writer” of Sri Lankan blogosphere, Taboo. I cannot recall a memory about this author before it was mentioned in Taboo’s blog. Now I see the coincidence between what they wrote. He was mostly referring to the next novle by Selvadurai after Funny Boy, Cinnamon Gardens. The name was in my mind for a long time, but did not came across with a hard copy at bookstores or at book fair. Honestly few other books topped in my list to be bought so I was not so keen in finding this particular book. Selvadurai came to mind again because of a random post I saw in facebook about the book launch of his new book, The Hungry Ghosts, which I could not attend due to many reasons. But this time I did not let him slip away, found some soft copy to be occupied with just after end semester examinations. I could not resist the call to share some of flooding thoughts in my web journal just after reading the book to urge someone else in reading few hundreds of pages which he/she will never regret.