Finished reading the Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein, yesterday and was pretty impressed. I won’t bother going into plot details but let’s just say that it was an amazing read. Amir shows that casual cruelty that is so a characteristic of childhood, his adult reincarnation the guilt of actions not taken, of not standing up to someone who showed him unbridled love and loyalty. He travels back to Afghanistan because of a message, “there is a way to be good again.” Even on this journey he shows himself to be human, making promises he can’t keep. He is no textbook hero; instead he is just like us, deeply tortured by the inactions of his past. He does however atone for his sins, taking Hassan’s son back to the US with him. It’s still no fairytale with the book ending with a vestige of a smile from Sohrab hinting at the possibility of a better future.
The book that I read before that was Monsoon Dream by Nilani de Silva. It had a few interesting parallels to Kite Runner, both a tale of exile and traveling back to their homeland to find reconciliation and come to terms with their demons of the past. What does differentitate the two books is that while Kite Runner was excellent, Monsoon Dream was, well, crap. To me it read like a first draft that had accidentally been published.
One thing that really pisses me off about some Sri Lankan fiction, especially from expatriate writers is inaccuracies about small details in Sri Lanka, they are small but important. For example one thing that I remember about Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje was when one of the characters puts on a coat. Now I’ve spent a looong time in Sri Lanka, and unless you are up-country there is not one place I can think of where the temperature drops enough to necessitate a coat, especially not Colombo! One such incident that jumped out at me from Monsoon Dream was the author’s assertion that ancient Sri Lankans wrote their history on papyrus. Now as far as I’m aware our ancient manuscripts were written on Ola leafs, a processed form of palmyrah leaves, surely if you are going to write about Sri Lanka you should not make such a basic etymological mistake!
On a more basic level there are so many problems with Monsoon Dream, for one thing there is no character development. The main character Anushka doesn’t change at all throughout the book. I mean she grows up, leaves home, comes back, goes back to England, marries a Swede, has kids, reconciles with her father and still her character is the same. No change in the outlook on life, no evidence of her growing up. There is no sense of place throughout the book; Kite Runner gives a wonderful impression of Kabul in the wintertime. Monsoon Dream travels from Sri Lanka, to a detention center in England, Sweden, back to Sri Lanka, etc but nothing changes, no descriptions nothing.
The inconsistencies in the book are bloody annoying as well. The book opens with Anushka on a plane with the statement that she is leaving Sri Lanka for England because her father wanted her to kill herself for shaming the family. What is weird is that there is no allusion to this in the rest of the book, or it was so insignificant that I just missed it. The rest of the characters in the book are just plain caricatures, the husband she marries a white Swede that spouts unbelievable dialogue like “you are the engine and I am more than happy to take the driving seat and drive at directions that you point.” Of course this is not that unbelievable considering some of the other conversations that occur in this book, Anushka to her daughter, “’yes,’ her mother replied, “the international schools here are a new trend, developed within the framework of the Sri Lankan educational system. Most of the students in the international schools here are locals whose parents have pots of money. They learn to speak English with either an American twang or a clipped British accent.” Now my question is who the hell talks like that to their kid, I don’t think I’ve had a member of my family talk to me so formally. And the whole book is full of mini lectures about issues in Sri Lanka like this, most of them somewhat inaccurate like the one quoted. I went to an International School, don’t remember anybody teaching me to speak English with a clipped British accent, I’m not even sure what a clipped British accent is.
That’s the whole problem with this book, nothing is human about it. Every decision the heroine makes is calculated, there is no passion, no heart in anything. The story itself (which might be autobiographical) is a hell of a story but what is the point of it being told in such an amateurish manner? This book lacks anything human about it, Anushka is flawless, and she’s so calculated she might as well be a damn computer. This book should have been rejected by the publishers as being too childish, too inconsistent. The contrast between this book and good literature was for me highlighted because I read Kite Runner right afterward. Whoever Nilani de Silva is, she needs to go back to writing school. I’m pissed with myself for wasting Rs. 500 on this book and carting it all the way from Sri Lanka. To think couple of hundred rupees more and I could have brought a bottle of Reserve for myself.
