Book cover and writer Sunethra Rajakarunanayake
Prolific Sri Lankan writer Sunethra Rajakarunanayake’s new novel, Jayan!, Is bound to raise the bar in Sinhala fiction.
It is an enchanting tale of a dysfunctional aristocratic family in Rathnapura with more than its fair share of squabbles, scandals, betrayals, secret romances, eccentricities, accidental pregnancies and above all a woman, the livewire of action, sustaining lifelong injuries by a gun shot fired by a man who was in love with her.
The injuries confine Heen Nona, or Angelica, to a wheel chair. Though her former lover goes to India and marries a Bengali woman, her free-spirited nature defies any attempts for thwarting her enthusiasm, rebellious nature and joie de vivre, becoming the sole catalyst for change in the family which had been preserving the hereditary status quo for centuries.
The novel begins with Jayan Jayasundera, Angelica’s nephew and a senior Sri Lankan police officer seeking political refuge in Vietnam to escape political vendetta at home and his hesitant love affair with charming, devout Thien Thi who is toying with the idea of becoming a nun if everything fails in her life.
Jayan comes back to Sri Lanka and while spending time at the ancestral home, begins to unearth the truth about her favourite aunt Angelica by going through her diaries, letters and talking to the people she associated closely. Meantime, Thien Thi comes for a brief vacation to Sri Lanka with a friend but goes back unable to see any positive overtures from Jayan who seems also not to know where his future is heading.
The non-linear action of the novel is presented through the viewpoints of several characters in the family and it is Angelica’s notes that connect the dots, culminating in a socially-relevant novel reflecting the socio-economic changes taking shape in the latter part of the 20th century.
Written in hypnotic prose akin to past masters of Sinhala fiction with a generous mix of the lingo common to the people of Rathnapura. The places and family names and other historical details of the novel are familiar to me as I spent first 18 years of my life in a town just 28 miles north-east of the city where the action takes place.
Even in death Angelica remains a powerful influence on the surviving family members and Jayan’s decision to go back to Vietnam to marry Thien Thi is obviously triggered by her beloved aunt’s liberal, humane qualities that set a precedence for other aristocratic families obsessed with protecting their birth rights exploiting the less fortunate sections of the society.
The feudal family heritage ceases with the youth revolution of 1971 with the spacious family mansion, Hill Crest, becoming a tourist hotel succumbing to the pressures of the free economy.
Sunethra’s novel is shortlisted for the prestigious Swarna Pushthaka award along with Sepali Mayadunne’s Aththani Kanu. I have read four out of the nominated works and it is hard for me to select between Jayan! and Sepali’s book. Both writers who have been writing for more than three decades claim formidable track records in the field of Sinhala fiction.
However, the final outcome of the award can be quite different as the nominated books include works by some of the most talented writers of the younger generation. – Somasiri Munasinghe
