💃🏽 Fleur's Fantastic Reviews: Stories 🌟
A source of magic...
Do
you recollect the last time you looked around your home and found a source of
magic? A painting that seems to acquire
an unusual quality of life at night or the fireflies in your garden, the
carriers of heavenly nectar that give life to all creatures hidden among the
grass? Charulatha Abeysekara’s
most recent novel, deceptively titled Stories is an incredible reminder
of the beauty of every day magic - also
termed magical realism in the world of literature.
Stories has a hypnotic opening scene in
which we are introduced to Cheran, a Sri Lankan Tamil and his girlfriend the
incense-exuding Liz who is partly Scottish with links to Sri Lanka. As Cheran’s
curiosity is roused by the mysterious qualities of his significant other, the
couple journey from Britain to Sri Lanka. The novel then unravels bringing to
life a somewhat lonesome but magical childhood spent amidst the lush landscape
of Rathnapura.
A child’s imagination as a source of
magic is often over-stated. However, in Stories Charulatha
Abeysekara weaves a fantastic story
around this concept. Muthu, the little girl we come to know and love through
the novel acquires magical qualities in the solitude of her childhood. Often
thought of as a queer specimen by certain members of her family and some
villagers, Muthu communicates with nature and two kavum-shaped
apparitions that seem to guide and protect her. The beauty of the novel is its
ability to elevate pain and loneliness to a magical plain. It conveys that when
removed from the noise of the world, the imagination is enlivened, enabling a
union with nature and the discovery of its mysteries.
Most Sri Lankan novels are steeped in
the political and very rightly so. Colonialism, independence and the ethnic
conflict have provided the backdrop for fiction written in Sinhala, Tamil and
English.These novels are used as mediums of cultural exchange and platforms
that address the complexities of the country’s political setting. However, Stories
merely touches on certain events that led to the thirty-year war. This lent the
novel its uniqueness. It is a rare novel that explores in great depth, the
personal world of an imaginative child. It’s a refreshing tale and one that
will leave you with a sense of hope and an eye for magic.
* Listen to Salman Rushdie, widely
recognized for his novel, Midnight’s Children speak fondly about the importance of
magic in fiction.
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