Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai


 Funny Boy essentially revolves around Arjie who was nicknamed "funny boy" because he showed tendencies which the society doesn't associate with the male sex. Growing up he found himself enjoying playing bride-bride with his sisters rather than a game of cricket. His parents tried out radical measures to drive out the "funniness" (if that's even a word) out of him but that only pushed him closer to discovering himself and his own identity. He eventually came to understand that what his parents considered to be "normal" may not be the only "normal". That there are things far more important than conforming to stereotypes and keeping up the facade. That there are people out there like him-- who would gladly be a part of his journey if only he mustered up the courage to  open up.


No book based in Sri Lanka is complete without talking of the civil war and this was no exception. More than the actual war it mostly focussed on the effect it had on Arjie and his family. How the war made an adult out of them at such a tender age. Arjie's coming of age in the background of the war was a true delight to read.


My only issue with the book was I had expected to read more about Arjie's queer side but the author only talked about it in the first few pages and it wasn't brought up until much later. After a point I considered this book more of a historical fiction and that seemed to work for me. 


This is a book  I actually read from cover to cover savouring each page. It has so much to offer and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes reading coming of age books and historical fiction.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Image
 I had picked up Bewilderment with the expectations that anyone would naturally have for a Booker shortlisted book but I have to say this book fell short by a wide margin. I was having trouble figuring out what the point of this book was and 270ish pages later I was no wiser. I would like to say however that Richard Powers has talked about a number of issues ranging from  mental health, grief and global warming and has handled them in a really sensitive manner. Maybe I would be comfortable labelling this as a thematic book rather than a plot driven or character driven one. Richard Powers writes beautifully. The sentences kind of flows like thoughts of the main characters. Indeed Bewilderment is a powerful book. But the lack of character development kind of did not work for me. I was struggling to finish this book and considered DNFing at a point. I wished I did because the ending was rushed and did not do any justice to whatever little the plot had to offer.  All in all I...
Read more

Women, Dreaming by Salma

Image
 "Women Dreaming" was a book which I picked because of its gorgeous cover. The premise looked promising and I had a lot of expectations from this book. The book kicked off with a great start. The first 100 pages were flawless as the author described the plight of Muslim women in a small village which reeked of patriarchy and stereotypes. The struggles of three generations of women was written with heartbreaking compassion. Mehar's husband Hasan did not believe women were entitled to the same rights as men and even outlined the do's and don'ts for his the women in his family. When Mehar divorces him after she learns of his second marriage, it becomes the talk of the town with Hasan gradually losing his reputation among the villagers. The ongoing tussle between Mehar and Hasan, destroys the childhood of their children who ends up turning bitter and hated coming back home from hostel. Even with a promising storyline the story fell flat. It kept on dragging and the in...
Read more