Shyam Selvadurai

As ignorant as I am about Buddhism, it took me a while to realize that the male protagonist was the man who would be recognized as the Buddha. I'm not even sure that I realized that the Buddha was an ordinary man before he achieved nirvana and became a religious leader. So, this book was an education for me.

Even more fascinating than the life of Siddhartha Guatama, is the story of his wife, Yasodhara, who is the central character. The two were married quite young and spent a number of years show more in a remote part of India where Yasodhara laboured in the fields and performed household tasks even though she was from an imperial family. Yasodhara loved the time they spent there as she and Siddhartha were very much in love. When they moved back to the royal city, Siddhartha becomes more attracted to the ascetic lifestyle and philosophy of wandering beggars. He decides to leave Yasodhara and their newly born child behind and follow these beggars. Yasodhara is forced to become a strong and resourceful woman in his absence. Siddhartha returns once to the city but does not intend to give up his seeking after truth. Because of a change in imperial leadership, Yasodhara has to leave the palace. She decides to follow the same lifestyle as Siddhartha, shaving her head and begging for her food. She is joined in this quest by other women from the palace.

Upper-class women at this time were very restricted. Everything they did was in service to a man and all decisions were made by men. Yasodhara got a taste of freedom when she and Siddhartha lived away from the imperial city. In a sense, being abandoned by her husband allowed her to develop independence much more so than if he had remained by her side. show less

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea is another partly heartbreaking story of first loves. Unlike previous young adult stories about gay young men, Selvadurai's novel is different. The story takes place in Sri Lanka, a place where (at least in the 80s, when the novel takes place) homosexuality is not something that's common or even talked about.

Amrith, a 14 year old boy, lives with his adoptive parents. His past is complicated and sad, but we don't find out the details until near the end of the show more novel. And in many ways, this is one of strongest coming of age novels I've read recently. In many of them, the boys have already come to terms with being gay, but Amrith doesn't even understand what's going on in his head. He doesn't even realize how he feels until his long lost cousin from Canada appears in his life.

Up until we meet Amrith's cousin, Niresh, the only things he cares about are not thinking about his mother's death and acting. He desperately wants to be in the school production of Othello -- and manages to win the part of Desdemona (a part he covets, after winning an award for his acting as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet). But the Niresh shows up, and Amrith's world is shaken up.

The world Selvadurai creates is both believable and emotionally driven. We follow Amrith as he struggles with his friendship with Niresh, slowly falling in love, and his relationships with his family (adoptive parents and sisters). Selvadurai allows us to watch as Amrith is torn apart, through his love of Niresh, mourning of his mother and love of acting and then how he must find a way to put himself back together.

As I was reading, I kept waiting for something to happen and then when it did, it was beautiful and heartbreaking. This novel is not like the majority of YA gay fiction I've read, there's no implied sex, no reciprocation of feelings. Instead, it's a story of love and loss, because when your first love with is your straight cousin, there's no way it can work out.

But don't let that stop you from reading. Swimming in the Monsoon Sea is so much more than just that storyline. Selvadurai is a brilliant story teller and I can't wait to read more of his books. show less

I loved this one. Set in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1928 as the country and its British colonizers are grappling the island's political future, the two principal characters grapple with personal happiness versus family expectations and societal constraints. Annalukshmi is a young woman who has recently earned her teaching certification, much to the horror of her family - working is "common" and will diminish her chances of finding a husband. Her chances are already damaged, as her fathers show more reversion to Hinduism forced her parents to separate and her mother return with the girls to Ceylon from Malaysia. When Annalukshmi's father writes that he is arranging a marriage for her to her Hindu cousin, her mother and aunt attempt to find a suitable alliance with a Christian instead. Annalukshmi, meanwhile, is not sure she wants to marry, as she loves teaching, though she discovers that her ambitions might be checked by racial considerations and preference.

Annalukshmi's beloved uncle Balendran grapples with his own happiness. As a young student in England, he fell in love with his soulmate Richard, but his father, anonymously tipped off about the nature of their relationship, shows up unexpectedly and ends it in a terrible way. Balendran marries a cousin and is miserable, until over time and with their shared love for their son, he and his wife develop a comfortable love and affection. Balendran does his father's bidding in all things, particularly since his elder brother's expulsion from the family. His father forces a reunion with Richard, who is now working on the commission that will make decisions about the future of British rule in Ceylon. Meeting Richard again forces Balendran to confront his feelings and his acquiescence to the wishes of his father and the strictures of society. The novel gently explores the characters' emotions and decisions against a vivid and evocative backdrop of the Sri Lankan setting. I recommend it highly. show less

This is the long-awaited successor to the wonderful [Funny boy] (1993). Where Selvadurai's first novel was basically a coming-of-age story, this is a much more complex and mature treatment of the "gay love story against a background of communal violence" idea. He uses traditional Buddhist stories interpolated into the narrative to explore the way the ways that bad actions and the need to find forgiveness and redemption work out in the lives of his characters, particularly the gay narrator show more and his property-shark grandmother. There's a danger in this sort of thing that you end up in the profound shallows of Herman Hesse country, and Selvadurai steers dangerously close once or twice, but I think he manages to stay afloat. It's probably the lively realism of the main story that saves him, set partly in Canada and partly in the "Cinammon Gardens" middle-class neighbourhoods in Colombo. Although the riots and communal violence happen mostly offstage, we aren't allowed to forget that there are real atrocities going on and large numbers of people suffering. show less