by Anuk Arudpragasam
This book was nominated for the Booker Prize last year. It takes place mostly in Sri Lanka. I thought it would be interesting as it was about a young man revisiting the times of turmoil in Sri Lanka.
However, I found it a long worded, directionless book. I skipped large parts of it. I couldn' really see how the various parts were connected or why. The young man was a student in India, where he met and fell in love with a young woman activisit. They have a passionate affair but eventually she breaks up with him to devote her time to her activitsm,
The young man seems to be seeking a meaning in his life. He had done some work with a NGO in the area where the fighting had been but eventually returns to the capital city to live with his mother, his grandmother and his grandmother's care giver. The caregiver had been traumitized by fighting, she lost her husband and two of her sons in the war and has psychological problems which require medication and electo shock therapy to help her cope. The woman goes to visit her family and ends up dying by falling in a well. The young travels a long distance to attend the funeral. He hopes to find out if the woman's death was an accident or suicide. He finds out at the end that this doesn't matter, as she is dead one way or the other.
Not sure how the love interest and the caregiver story and his mother/grandmother matter at all. The book was too introspective at times, I skipped large portions. It does seem that family and tradition and respect played a part in the book but there was no resolution for the man as far as I could see.
Very disappointing, don't know why it was picked.
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