The book got the Booker's Award and I found the premise interesting. This is like Ghost meets Saving Private Ryan. It’s a long read and I felt it could have been reduced a bit, maybe 50 pages. Or, maybe I was in a tearing hurry in the end to just finish it. When you see a war movie after a point the scenes seem to blur - dead bodies, destruction, torture, battle ground.
But, that’s a very small crib compared to the brilliance of the book - in terms of structure, characters, suspense ultimately it’s a murder mystery which also lays bare the Lankan mess with IPKF, UN, LTTE, srilankan army in 90’s which led to the death of Rajiv Gandhi. It’s also about photography and journalism which is what Maal (short for Maali Almeida) does. He takes commissions from the press, govt, NGOs and goes to war / conflict zones and takes pictures or fixes interviews. So apart from being a photographer he is also a fixer - he connects the journo’s to chiefs or leaders of various organizations.
The fact that he is gay and is constantly found groping or being groped, kissed etc was at times became irritating - as if sex is a constant thing in his mind. I had read Less by Andrew Seen Greer last year which is written from a gay perspective and I felt a similar sense of a constant need for sex. In reality I don’t think it’s like that or Is it ? I wouldn’t know. But Maal being gay and flirtatious is an important angle which becomes clearer only in the end.
Why should you read this book?
It’s funny, yet philosophical. The character of Maal is similar to what I found in most Murakami books, carefree, cynical but philosophical, speaks his mind, what he does he does very well. War, especially civil war is a very depressing topic, political deaths, bomb blasts, description of a mother whose whole family is killed etc. This is the news you read in all papers and throw it in the dustbin with disgust. But the beauty of the book is the way it is narrated through the voice of the ghosts and afterlife that the message is delivered without making you flinch or stop reading.
I loved the language, the dialogues and philosophical one liners or two. It’s almost like after a cynical outburst - someone says it in a deadpan expression.
The structure of the book is unique, at least I have not read it before.
Postscript: I browsed and read about the 83 pogrom and what happened. I was too young when this was happening and our history books don’t talk about these conflicts. Vanni - the graphic novel is one of the best portrayals of civil war in Sri Lanka.
I dusted and took out his first book Chinaman from my personal library, which incidentally I could not finish when it came out. Will read it soon.
Some passages which I liked:
“The memory comes to you in pain,The pain has many shades. Sometimes it arrives with sweat & other times it comes with nausea and headaches.”
“...in this noisy station & memories that lie at the edges of your thoughts, on your visions of periphery, at your tongue’s tip. They wash against the windows of your mind but stay hidden in the storm.”
“All stories are recycled and all stories are unfair. Many get lucky, and many get misery. Many are born to homes with books, many grow up in the swamps of war. In the end all become dust. All stories conclude with a fade to black.”
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