First I saw this book; my purchase decision solely lied on its
beautiful design. The chaotic, unconventional graphic design approach mesmerized
me and it’s really rare to find such experimentation in a paperback novel
format in Sri Lankan Literature. Second point which captured my eye was that
even he appeared in a pen name, the author stated that he’s an
Anandian,
which is also happen to be my school and the first thing that popped to my head
was “you are kidding me”, because producing this kind of art piece isnot a mean
feat and I was not acknowledged about it all this time until I read the
introduction of the book.
The story revolves around the life experiences of a high
class drug addictyouthwho puts the period to his drug addiction and tries to
move on with his life amidst of uncertain social, political and cultural
landscape of war torned Sri Lankan suburbia and clash of his ideologies with
the system. This was the first novel which came to my occasional reading
experiences which features one unusual combination; high class society in
Colombo dealing with the experiences of war, which is for me was nonexistent at
that time or simply their opinion was regarded as high minded display of
pretentious “human rights” or “party politics” mentality. Here the protagonist of the story
“Mark”,
a youth from a well off yet unconventional family has friends of the middle
class well as lower class and he studied at government school and reading for
the degree in university of Colombo who genuinely sympathizes with the trauma
and debacle that’s Sri Lankan middle class is facing not just during the war
but even right now.
Pro leftist point of view (which is not my favorite political
belief to speak) is amply visible and justified through characters’ struggle in
“the survival of the fittest” capitalistic system to survive on a daily basis.
One of the key thinking of the author which I also believe in is that ’89 riots
and government crackdown of JVP rebels cost Sri Lanka most of the people of our
elder generation who are creative, rebellious and stand up with a straightened
backbone for what they genuinely believe. It changed the whole political,
social and cultural landscape of this country adversely in years to come and
the consequences we experiences today is due to the space left by all those
vanished intellectual souls who were determined enough to attempt change.
I like how the author bought pop cultural elements in
snippets and captions throughout the book. The grungy design approach also
follows the whole aura which is created by the philosophy of Nirvana, Rage
Against The Machine, Fight Club & Trainspotting Scripts etc… How we see
the world in our generation is strongly guided by these cultural elements
nowadays due to the fact that post MTV and internet era have pushed the
boundaries of knowledge and aesthetic experiences irrespective of which world
we belong to. The author has managed to capture this insight but sometimes went
too far in statements such as “industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails”
rather than plainly saying the band name without overstressing on the knowledge
of his music taste. Nonetheless the
effort to understand the current situation in the Sri Lankan political,
societal and cultural landscape through pop cultural influences without
discarding them as just what people like when they were teenagers is much
commendable.
Our protagonist; Mark’s ex- girlfriend Jane
who never gives up hope and belief on him till the end of the story gives a touch
to the whole dark story. It also tends
to make the readers believe that the
fact that affection and true love is not dead and vanished yet in this
capitalistic system and leaves a glimpse of hope that humanity is still visible
and can be found if one is ready to open his/her eyes and look around with an
open heart. The story also shows the much grave tragedy of the youth who usestheir
bodily pleasures as a mechanism to runway form their failures, fears and pains
and how it turns in toan emotional addiction and grave societal problem in an
indirect way.
Before winding up, the credit must be given to the
publishers,
Sri Serendipity publishing House for taking the adventure of
this aesthetically as well as ideologically innovative yet harmful project (due
to the insecurities of holding contradictory viewpoints in present day society)
and to successfully finishing the journey and gifting the Sri Lankan readers
with an awesomely looking, rich literature piece to cleanse their hungry minds.
May there be more words and wits for the author;
Mark Wilde (whoever you
are) to write the best about the bad and to make this world a much safer, happier
and healthy place for all to live.
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