Another Sunday review!!

This is the review by Prof. K.N.O. Dharmadasa that appeared in The Nation of Oct. 15th .

An engagement with short-stories

Almost every week we find new writers, especially new writers of fiction, presenting their work before the public sometimes in book launchings and often by other means. The Sinhala readership is very familiar with the small notices on books appearing in the literary supplements of the major national dailies. As for modern English writing in Sri Lanka, although the readership is much smaller, the number of new writers engaging our attention proportionately seems almost the same. (As I am not conversant in Tamil I do not know about the situation in modern Tamil literature in Sri Lanka). But the fact of the matter is, how many of these new writers produce something worthwhile? How many new books, which appear before the readership, show future promise?

Reading through Isankya Kodithuwakku’s “The Banana Tree Crisis” I felt that here we have a new writer whose short stories, seven in all, each shows great promise due both to the insight the writer has on our society as well as the writer’s extremely readable and engaging literary style.

The seven short stories in the collection have varied themes, but the strikingly common factor in each is the writer’s deft handling of the theme with a keen sense to essential detail, while not losing sight of the larger picture and her ability to engage the reader’s attention throughout the narration.

A factor which runs through all these stories is their topicality. All seven stories in this collection relate to contemporary Sri Lankan society. Special mention needs to be made of “Buffer Zone” and “Shallow Canoes,” which deal with the tsunami and its aftermath and “The House in Jaffna” and “What I Carried ” that have as their background the ethnic conflict. In some stories both themes merge as in “Shallow Canoes.” While the above stories are located mostly in the rural areas, “The Banana Tree Crisis” has as its location a middle class neighbourhood in the city of Colombo and “How Mrs Senarath Called a Marriage for Mala” deals with a Sri Lankan middle class household in Kandy.

The writer seems to handle with ease such a diversity of themes, locations and characters so that the reader can settle down comfortably to go through each story to its end. Furthermore Isankya Kodithuwakku seems to be equally at ease when dealing either with the life of Colombo middle class or the changing life-patterns in a Kandyan household, and she can switch over and deal with the same ease with the poverty stricken fisher-folk in a Tamil-Muslim village in Batticaloa as well as with the dreams and aspirations of post-tsunami village life in a Sinhala community in southern Sri Lanka. It is remarkable for a new writer to have achieved such a feat in her first publication itself.

In “The Banana Tree Crisis”, we meet the Mr. Martin, an American who works for an NGO in Colombo. The story while depicting a mini “Clash of Civilisations” brings us into intimate contact with a special type of Sri Lankan urban dweller: a single mother with a rather tragic personal background. It is typical of the narrative art of Isankya to first introduce the reader to a “surface” knowledge of the characters involved in the plot and, while the narration goes on, to find a space, unobtrusively, to go deep into the history and psychology of the main protagonist(s).This in-depth knowledge of the characters prepares the reader for the critical episodes in the story.

The threat to the existence of the banana tree is brought about by a serpent that uses it to slither from one walled garden to next. The woman who is a single parent notices the serpent and decides that the banana tree, which is such a dispensable commodity, should go for “security reasons”, while the American, so intensely enamoured of the environment, challenges the decision. The Banana Tree crisis reaches such large proportions that it almost leads to a court-case! Isankya handles the characters, the mother, Mr. Martin, his woman-servant, the tree-cutters, the several episodes of the “crisis” and the dialogue, so deftly, that we are treated to an extremely amusing drama where several levels of conflict emerge: bachelor vs. mother, USA vs. Sri Lanka and West vs. East, native vs. foreigner, and so on.

The two coastal area stories “Buffer Zone” set in a Sinhala village in the Kalutara area and “Shallow Canoes,” set in a fishing village in the Tamil-Muslim Batticaloa region display Isankya Kodithuwakku’s intimate knowledge of the life in these out of the way places. We find the follies and foibles as well as the courage and determination of these simple folk in the face of adversity being portrayed with much sympathy and understanding. Take for example “The Buffer Zone” that unfolds the saga of two neighbouring families, the one of Lucy whose husband was away in the middle east when the tsunami struck, and the other with husband Thilak and wife Harriet, who manage to save themselves when the tsunami washes away their home. The story is about the contrasting attitudes of the victims in the post-tsunami scenario. As typical with some of the tsunami victims, for Thilak the “aid” that was pouring in, is “the only good thing that ever happened” in his life. Not only do people like him depend more and more on the hand-outs, they also prevent any one from their families trying to take the initiative to stand on their own feet again.

Thilak, squanders the “aid” money he gets as “the head of the household” and prevents his wife from trying to get an extra income by selling food-parcels. He also prevents her applying for a boat, and, furthermore, refuses the support being given to build his home, which is just across the danger zone of 100 meters, hoping to cajole “the authorities” to gift him a piece of land elsewhere, as they did in the case of Lucy, their neighbour (who was of course within the danger zone). Harriet, the wife, who is not the “head of the household” and therefore, does not have the deciding voice is left helpless. Lucy, who runs her household single-handedly, has better luck and is more practical-minded. Or, rather, she is forced to be so, because, as we learn later, her husband is not “in the Middle East”, as it had been publicised, but had left her for good. Things take a dramatic turn when Thilak dies of an accident and Harriet, who lives alone, gets raped and finds herself pregnant. The two women now join hands to face life as it comes and they start making a living on their own. In many ways, this story has an undercurrent of subtle criticism of some of the beliefs and values of Sri Lankan society.

“Shallow Canoes,” set in a village near the Batticaloa lagoon, is a story of human courage in the face of man-made as well as natural disasters. Originally, there was a village where poor people, Tamil and Muslim, lived harmoniously for long in neighbourly affinity until a Tamil terrorist group arrived and massacred a good portion of Muslim population, mostly men. The remaining people fled and settled down in the vicinity of the Batticaloa lagoon. Several years passed and this time the tsunami struck, carrying away many men, women and children. The story here is about some Australian donors, who with all good intentions go about handing over fishing boats to the womenfolk of the village on the principle of gender-equality. The donor ladies do not realise the depth of the native cultural tradition, which has never allowed women to get into a fishing boat, and their good-intentioned act only leads to bitterness and conflict within some families. Interestingly, the Tamils do not care very much, but the Muslims do and resent this “woman power” strongly, sometimes reacting violently.

Isankya Kodithuwakku’s narrative style grips the reader’s attention with a natural ease. As an example let me quote the opening of the story “How Mrs. Senarath Called a Marriage for Mala”:

“It was an old house placed on one of the hills that overlooked the Kandy Lake. Built dozen of years before, its deep, high verandas and carved trellis were from a simpler era when wood was cheap and labour was cheaper. The mansion still had the heavy, teak furniture of old, still carried the ancient brass lamps and the padikkam, but mixed with these were goods that did not quite gel with the rest of the picture. DVD players and television placed on bureaus with intricate carvings of flowers and fruits; glass and chrome tables decorated with carefully embroidered doilies; the newly fashionable stone figures designed to look like sculptures from the ancient ruins of Buddhist temples clashing with the traditional ebony decorations with the teak almirahs and tables. Mrs. Senarath was the culprit of these clashes........”

I have in this review dealt with only some of the stories. This is a work which shows much promise and I am sure that Isankya Kodithuwakku’s amusing style of presentation of characters and situations, while highlighting human frailties as well as strengths, and her extremely readable style will make the “The Banana Tree Crisis” collection a remarkable addition to Sri Lankan literature in English.

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It can be accessed here.