Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

Chinaman is a 2010 novel by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karnathilaka, who won the Booker for another of his works in 2022. The book is predominantly a work of Sports journalism, but also equally a whodunit and a historical fiction of Sri Lanka. The writing is imbued with classic Post Modernist elements such as unreliable narrator, non linear narrative and regular intrusions by the author. While at it's kernel it's fiction, it is set inside a shell of reality because it talks a lot about the dizzying times of 1990s Sri Lanka when the country was in a constant state of political upheaval but their Cricket was mostly in a state of 'Up' considering the World Cup win of 1996 and the world class Lankan Cricketers of those days. There are sizeable portions of family drama, too, in the story. Thus, the book is quite a boundary spanner. 

Throughout, the iconoclastic and stubborn attitudes and perspectives of the geriatric and cranky narrator, W.G. Karunasena, gets you to chuckle a few times during the read. As a cricket fan, some writing on fanhood resonated with my own fanhood moments.  

I enjoyed how unlike books like Midnight's Children, which I felt are scrubbed clean (to an extent) such that someone who does not understand the nuances of India as much may also follow along without much difficulty, this book comes fully embedded with references from deep inside Sri Lanka. This book unabashedly flaunts its Sri Lankan-ness. I therefore was encouraged to explore some of the topics through Wikipedia. For example, I had to wiki 'Rambutan' from the phrase 'pink as a rambutan' - it's a fruit similar to the Litchi . And it's not just such specific items such as the colors of fruits- I also learnt more about Sri Lankan history. The history and contributions of the 'Burgher' community, Sinhala becoming mandatory and how it created trouble for non-native Sinhala speakers, the decline of Colombo from the envy of entire Asia, and so on. I enjoyed the 'Sri Lankan-ness' of the book's English grammar, because I (like many) love to track the local variants of a non-native language. Such as Bangalorean English or Hyderabadi Hindi.     

Since there is so much cricket underlying all the politics, humour and family drama in the book, I feel that someone who is not a cricket fan will have a lot of difficulty in getting through it. However, I suppose it's all about attitudes. For someone who has just a passing interest in the Sport, this book may be all the more interesting in that it might be an eye opener into one of the world's biggest sports. Stuff which I as a fan already knew or glossed over, would be exciting trivia or news to such a reader. 

Labels: Books

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 9:58 PM