Funny Boy

I had the honor of going to see Mr. Selvadurai read when he came to my city. I even asked him, "What are the best aspects of being a writer?" He (jokingly, I think) said that it was the working at home part :) He was a truly entertaining, funny, and delightful man. He put so much expression into his voice when he read from Funny Boy. Well, I just finished Funny Boy yesterday, and I must say that it was a very refreshing read! I loved all the descriptions of Ammachi and Appachi's house, and all the wonderful, vivid descriptions of Sri Lanka. It really brought me into another world, and I loved it. Shyam writes simply and beautifully; his writing is not at all confounding and is very accessible. I found I breezed through the book. It was also very compelling. Arjie's coming-of-age in Funny Boy is one that everyone must read about. His emotions are rare, powerful, and they stick with you. The other characters in the book are also interesting. I especially liked the story about Arjie and Shehan. Another story I liked was one of the first ones - when they played bride-bride, and how they called his cousin, "Her Fatness." I laughed hysterically. Shyam is an author to look out for. I am looking forward to reading his oher works. He has a talent for writing beautifully and searingly - yet, he never fails to inject a little humour/comic relief to lighten up the mood. I absolutely loved Funny Boy and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. Kudos to Mr. Selvadurai!

Touching, inspirational, moving, funny, heartwarming, uplifting, sad, heartbreaking. Not many books can convey such a wide range of emotions so effectively. It's the story of an immensely likable young boy growing up in Sri Lanka in turbulent times trying to understand himself and make sense of his crazy world. He struggles to understand the unspoken "rules" and learn how to succeed and find happiness within the restrictions placed upon him. This book is beautifully written with six chapters, each representing a separate passage of time. (I found this to be very effective, although it did leave me with questions!) The setting is beautiful, the characters convincing and the dialogue is believable. You will root for Arjie! I found the following passage from page 267 particularly insightful and relevant given the current political climate, "How was it that some people got to decide what was correct or not, just or unjust? It had to do with who was in charge; everything had to do with who held power and who didn't." I strongly recommend this book. (I would definitely purchase a sequel should there be one, and I plan on reading Selvadurai's next book "Cinnamon Gardens".) You won't want to or be able to put this book down!

I am a librarian (at least i think I am, I have the degree but am working here at a dotcom). Anyhow, classifying and cataloguing is a big part of what we do. Unfortunately, when it comes to this novel, people seemd to content to only classify it as gay fiction, and that is where I found it in my local ..., in the gay fiction section. This is such a tragedy to me as this novel is about so much more. In fact, the homosexuality is only a small (albeit important) part of one of the most entertaining and well written "bildungsromans" that I have read in a long while. Selvadurai deftly describes his childhood within a well to do Sri Lankan family, and the devastation that the political upheavals (between the Sinhalese and the Tamils) made on his life. This book describes the horrors visited upon his family (the fate of the grandparents is too horrible to even try and contemplate)while the narrator comes to consciousness in many ways. I went from being heartily amused in the first chapter about children playing (so, so funny,..and so relatable to anybody who was ever terrorized by a tyrannical fat cousin)to being deeply saddened by the end of the novel, when Sri Lanka is no longer his idyllic home, but rather a place of danger that he and his family must escape. I do not hesitate in giving this novel five stars (despite the fact that it is very episodic) because it is so well written. Selvadurai is a huge talent, and I have Cinnamon Gardens waiting to be read at home.I urge everybody to read this book, even if you aren't comfortable enough going to the previously unexplored "gay fiction" section. Books like this are an increasingly rare breed, so we may as well search thenm out while we can.

This novel's theme is similar to Edmund White's "A Boy's Own Story". It is a story of a young boy's realization that he is gay, and of his first steps in dealing with this. What makes this novel special is the setting - the tropical paradise of Sri Lanka, a garden of eden, but wracked by civil unrest. You can see the exotic landscape and smell the flowers in the beautiful prose from this Canadian based writer.Arjie is a schoolboy at a strict British style boys only school. He has always had the feeling that he is different. Starting as an unformed feeling that manifest itself in his playing "bride" with his girl playmates, it gradually develops into homosexual feelings.Arjie develops a crush on another boy at school, Shehan who is a prefect. To the reader, it is not clear who seduces who. Both boys seem to want a relationship, though Shehan is in denial of his homosexuality.The two have a brief affair which is physically OK but has no emotional depth. The civil unrest grew in parallel to Arjie's sexual awakening. In a twin climax he finds both his inclinations confirmed and the need to flee his country for safe haven.The language of the novel is well written, describing in detail not only the flavour of the exotic country but also the religious quarrel that separates the two sides in the civil war.

A touching coming of age novel written by a sensitive Sri Lankan now living in Canada. The ability to describe in splendid detail events from one's childhood is always amazing, and adds credibility to this story. Truly a "funny boy" the protagonist is torn between his own misplaced desire to play with his female relatives and his fondness for a male classmate. The ethnic conflict that is visible in family business, local underground activist movements and even in the fact that the protagonist's own parents are from the opposite sides of the conflict add a note of realism that is so distant and foreign to most western readers. To have lost the innocence of one's childhood and entered the forbidden realm of the "funny" (viz gay), to have lost one's schoolmates, the family home to arsonists and finally to have been forced to flee the country, all of these are major events in a young life that is nevertheless depicted by the author as dreamy, romantic and still "fun".