Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
"The Hungry Ghost" was an easy choice. I've loved Shyam's other novels, "Funny Boy" and
"Cinnamon Gardens", they're rye, compelling, very memorable tales. Their characters are
strong, stubborn independent women and gay men living in Sri Lanka. I think what's different
about this one is, that the canvass is broader, it's epic, it's darker, it's tougher and it's
set in a 26 year Civil War between the Sinhalese and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. And the
main characters are... Lives are completely transformed by that lore.
I think what Shyam does best in the novel is, capturing how so many of us are living
ghosts, we're from other places, we've come here, we inhabit this city but equally our
feet are back in another place, another time, other lives. And that's of course what makes
this city both difficult and memorable and what brings our city to life, what brings
Toronto to life is the characters like, Shivan who's here, or Daya who's still back in Colombo
but able to cast his shadow of over lives here. I don't think any city is a resting
place for immigrants. I think instead it's a place that's alive with both, the "here"
and the "there" and we never sit down, in that way we're always thinking back to where
we're from and where we're going to. And I think this novel captures that standing up
feeling, that insecurity very well.
If you're looking for a novel that mixes the epic, in this case, the Sri Lankan Civil War
and the intimate and personal, a study of characters in a family ripping each other
apart, this is your book.