I don’t inhale books, but I do like the scent of the pages. By inhale, I mean, finishing a book in the speed of light. I know friends who have this capability, but I’m yet to obtain such super strengths. I tend to be a slow reader. I stay immersed in the story-world for longer, and that, I know is not a bad thing. Especially when there are pages full of beautifully crafted sentences, paragraphs that are soul moving and mind awakening.
I decided to read Ruins on my way to Colombo (via The Hague). A week into traveling I was almost done with the book. The airline entertainment failed to grab my attention in the presence of Ruins. Maybe because I’ve grown to become a less of a movie junkie and more towards appreciating the written word, but I’m terribly choosey with what I read. Or maybe because I was reading about the country I was born in. I was immersing myself with the characters who reminded me of simple parts of people I’ve engaged with at some point in my life in Colombo. Rajith Savanadasa manages to craft the common Sri Lankan lingo into English paragraphs without leading the reader astray. Anyone would be thrilled to get a glimpse into the day-to-day speak of the middle class of Colombo. The book reminded me of all the sights and sounds I was used to growing up.
The story is told from points of view from a maid, a daughter, a brother, a mother and a father. The perspective of a middle-class family in Colombo. Each view, each chapter can easily form its own short story. There is truth wrapped around fiction that span topics such as the situation in the post-war Sri Lanka, corruption, media censorship, IDP camps, missing refugees, brutal war endings, cost of living, superstition, teenager pressures, alcoholism, struggles of married life, the world the well-to-do escaped to. Though told from a very Sri Lankan angle, these issues transcend borders of the island nation and find common ground with other societies going through a similar experience or have a relatable past.
Few hour before I touched down at Colombo-Bandaranayake Airport, I finished the book. I didn’t inhale this one, but I was surprised how quickly I was done with it. This book seems to have a lot of thought and work gone into to be written in the fashion it is in. There are no grand elements of literature that held me captivated but it had its own magic and the pages had the scent of Sri Lanka hidden within to keep me engaged. There are certainly more to be explored in some of these characters. As a person who can relate to the elements that drive the story and who has considerable familiarity with the society which this was based on – this was a refreshing read of English literature written in a very Sri Lankan style.