APRIL 5, 1996 GAY PEOPle's ChronICLE

25

BOOKS

Sri Lankan civil war is backdrop for coming out

Funny Boy

by Shyam Selvadurai

St. Martin's, $17.99 hardcover

Reviewed by Nels P. Highberg

An encyclopedia or history textbook rarely describes the major events in a country's history beyond the basic reporting of a few dates and key events. When the country described is Sri Lanka, a non-western nation with little political or economic impact upon the United States, the story takes up little space if given any at all.

In Funny Boy, Shyam Selvadurai uses the violent realities of Sri Lankan life in recent decades as the setting for a painful, provocative story of a boy learning what makes him "different" as he grows from childhood to adolescence.

The novel focuses on six events that shape the life of the main character, Arjie. From these events, Arjie begins to experience the major issues that shape one's adult life, including separation from family, committment to one's beliefs, distrust of those in power, and affection for a lover. As Arjie straddles the line between child and adult, he also shuffles between other disparate worlds. For example, early in the book, Arjie learns of the distinct behavioral differences between men and women.

After years of playing "bride-bride" with his little sister and their girl cousins, a game where Arjie wears a white sari as the bride, his parents force him to stop and play cricket with his older brother. The subsequent battles force Arjie into a place he never expected to be.

Arjie also moves from the private world of his home and family into the public world of Sri Lanka's political environment. At this time, Sri Lanka experienced escalating tensions between the country's two majority populations, the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Arjie, whose family is Tamil, learns of the hatred between these two groups when his aunt dates a Sinhalese man. Later, the story of a journalist who grew up next door to

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Arjie's mother shows Arjie what can happen because of this ethnic unrest.

Arjie understands the transformation his life is taking, saying “Nothing could take us back to where we had been before."

Another primary character is Shehan, one of Arjie's classmates.

Shyam Selvadurai

Shehan gives Arjie his first kiss, and Arjie takes great risks to be with him. However, the political upheaval increases until the pivotal riots of July 1983, when over two thousand Sinhalese and Tamil people were killed.

Arjie and Shehan face the greatest obstacle in their relationship as Arjie and his Tamil family question if they should exit the country and leave the Sinhalese, including Shehan, behind.

Arjie endures numerous feelings and circumstances that many adults never experience, and Selvadurai has created one of the most stimulating and well-drawn gay characters to come along in a while.

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