When I started this book, I thought “ahh yes a book about the ghost of a dead gay Sri Lankan photojournalist.” By the end, I was thinking “ahh yes a book about the ghost of a dead gay Sri Lankan photojournalist!” This paragraph makes more sense out loud, where the emphasis is clearer, but the crux of my point is that at first I was bewildered by its subject matter but by the end of the book I was thoroughly appreciative of the work and in fact enjoyed it very much.
I was looking for a book to get me out of my reading slump. I had started several, and was making little headway through any of them. When I began on this book I would not have thought it would be any different. Yet it was! The world is fascinating and its mythology completely original. Maali is complicated and, as such, makes me want to keep unraveling his story.
I learned a lot about Sri Lanka through reading this. This has had immediate payoff as I have been making niche jokes and references to my Sri Lankan friend and really catching him off guard. I should probably back this up with some actual historical research given the book’s general lack of commitment to the nature of reality.
It was good to read some surrealist fiction. I haven’t done much of this since last spring, when I was in a class on the subject. There are actually cool things to come on that specific front, which I will try and remember to link here when they come to fruition.
If you are looking for something to intrigue you and sort of make your brain cells feel fuzzy, this might be the book for you.