Funny Boy

This book sets up an interesting series of observed relationships that culminate first in Arjie's sexual awakening and then his political (or apolitical) awakening around the time of the civil war in Sri Lanka. The stories of the forbidden love and the politically-troubled relationships he observes as a child bear closely on the choices he makes in his relationship with Shehan. He sees his family constantly pushing against the social expectations of a Tamil family and is brought into danger by their actions, but he makes choices based on similar principles – that love and friendship are more important than politics, that people are not the ethnicity they belong to, that life should not be lived by the arbitrary rules of society.

Similar to Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, the story is also about the development of an artist, culminating the writing experiment/achievement of the epilogue. The stories within the novel – of bride-bride, Radha Aunty, Darryl Uncle, and Jegan – seem to serve as practice or setup for the ‘reality' of the epilogue – the real-life crisis that forces the family to leave Sri Lanka as refugees, made more immediate and critical through the diary form.

(I guess this is just going to be a three-star kind of class? Maybe I should try harder.)