Funny Boy: A Novel

I must admit, when I first bought this book, I didn't know when I would read it. Thankfully, it only took me a few days to finally begin reading it. A few pages in, and I was surrounded by children playing "bride-bride". Of course, this was all in my head because of the incredible imagery that was included in every page of this book. At first I thought the chapters were long, but in reality, I read through them so quickly because I was intrigued with every sentence. I could see so much of myself in little Arjie. I would cheer him on, tell him not to do this or that. My heart felt for him and every emotion he felt. Very few books have done this for me. I'm grateful that I came across this book. Well written and a quick read that left me asking for more! Well done!

I was led to Shyam Selvadurai's book via the collection of South Asian fiction he edited, called: Story Wallah. The first chapter of Funny Boy appeared in that anthology as "Pigs Can Fly." It was towards the end of Story Wallah, and I fell in love with the voice and the story so much that I did not want it to end, so I looked in the back of the book to see what else he had written. When I saw the title of his novel, Funny Boy, I knew it had to be the same narrator, and hence the story would go on. I was not disappointed. The first-person narrator of Funny Boy, Arjie, continues with his tale of growing up in Sri Lanka. While he begins his life in a kind of magical world as the young boy who prefers to play with girls, playing "bride-bride" instead of joining the boys playing ball in the field, he quickly loses his bearings because the world cannot actually tolerate such difference. Two threads of the story twine together tightly in this novel: Arjie's search for happiness as his awareness grows, and the growing racial unrest that returns to his country. Just as Arjie is being torn apart inside, his country is being torn apart on the outside, and the young man looking back on growing up in Sri Lanka makes a vivid connection between the two experiences. Because I read a lot of memoir, and this seemed so real (and is likely at least partly autobiographical fiction), I felt at times that the narrative character was obviously manipulated in order to hear things he otherwise…

I really enjoyed this book. I felt so bad for the main character for the way his father treated him calling him "funny boy" and basically saying he better not turn out gay. There was alot of racial issues that I was unaware was happening in India and this was def a different look on the country I wish to visit more than anywhere else. Overall the book was really good and I wish there was a second in the series about the main character when he goes to Canada.

I really liked this little fast-paced semi-autobiographical novel. The reader learns a lot about the tensions that plagued Sri Lanka for many years (a struggle I had vaguely heard about but really knew nothing substantial about), and also saw yet another example of one ethnic group (the Sinhalese) not being able to coexist with another group on the outs (the Tamil) due to age old somewhat vaguely remembered conflicts. The violence that emerges as a result of this conflict, which is graphically depicted in the second half of the novel, eventually lead to Arjie (the "funny boy" of the title) and his family (who are peace-loving Tamil) having to flee to Canada. This ethnic conflict builds throughout novel and parallels Arjie's dawning awareness of his own sexuality. Arjie, then, is "other" in two ways as both Tamil and gay. Arjie's sexuality only becomes an issue within the extended family when an aunt from out of town arrived at the grandparents' home and the new female cousin took exception to Arjie playing "wedding" with the girls, a game in which he always played the bride but now there is a rival who wants to usurp his centrality in the game. This hilarious antics involved in this opening episode result in Arjie's mother and father having to put their foot down with Arjie to get him on the straight path in order to avoid shaming the family. Arjie's innocent childhood began to fade into the past as he is forced to play with the boy cousins instead and is then transferred to…

Always interesting to read how youth cope with an issue outside the square and this book was no exception. Sri Lanka is a very traditional country but thanks to this book and my travel experiences there, there is room for those that don't fit the traditional mould. This is an extremely personal account of what it is like to be gay in Sri Lanka without this being the central focus. Well worth reading. It does get a bit impersonal at the end when the writer becomes enmeshed in the war. However, very insightful.