Amulet

by Punyakante Wijenaike

Genres: Fiction

172 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Chamodi Waidyathilaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amulet- by Punyakante Wijenaike ——- 📚reads from 2018📚This is more of a fictional memoir than a novel, but it also reveals a psychology aspect. 📚‘Amulet’ revolves around a husband and wife; the wife shyamali, who rosed and treated as an object by both her parents and her husband, the husband. who’s carrying a childhood trauma while hiding a dark family secret.📚This is a story with a deep psychology. Some might say shyamali’s husband should not receive sympathy. But i think he should receive sympathy more than anyone. His conquering heartless personality is due his fears of losing all the woman he loved, being betrayed by them and be a victim of sexual harassment by another woman. For more 👉🏽 https://www.instagram.com/p/BsF-5tHHM...

[Eshana Ranasinghe · Rating 2 out of 5]

My copy of The Amulet had an introduction which discussed the books influence and impact on English literature in Sri Lanka. I do not recommend reading it before the story if your copy contains it as well as it spoils the whole plot and plot twists of the story!

There is a distinct and familiar sri lankan-ness to the story. The spirituality and rituals which is a part of the culture does not comfort the protagonist like it does most people.

The Amulet contains conventions of the Gothic Romance style and reminded me of Rebecka by Daphne de Mauria. The narrative is the protagonist thinking over her life and her marriage so there is a blurring of chronology. Often scenes are repeated or related things are recollected out of time. It was a bit confusing at times and the repetition of description and passages went from being boring to irritating as the story progressed. Maybe it's just me but reading the same event over and over with very little added information isn't very interesting.

Worse was the ending which was open ended. The confrontation that has been set up from the very beginning, alluded to throughout the story never happened! What was the point then?? This could have easily been a short story. Even then there was no climax or any sort of resolution. It just sort of stops? What bs is that?

The book also contained a lot of triggering content which I felt could have been handled with a lot more respect and care. I included them here within the spoilers in case you want to be prepared.
The following were described, often in detail abuse, depression, sexism/misogyny/ internalized misogyny, marital rape, domestic abuse, miscarriage, murder, incest, infidelity, child abuse, pedophilia/molestation described several times, trauma, PTSD, death of a parent, suicide

While the story has merit in the descriptions of Sri Lankan culture, ritual, society and social influences/pressures, an authentic representation of a Kandian upbringing and abusive marriage of the time it was set as well as dysfunctional parent-child relationships the overall reading experience was boring and unpleasant.

I personally wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

You can read my detailed, spoilery thoughts on my blog

[Indika de Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story found in this book is pretty bleak and messed up. I had nothing but sympathy to book's characters. The book contains a lot of symbolism and interesting stuff.

Even though this book is an award winning story from a very good and popular Sri Lankan writer do not read it if you are feeling down, depressed and dejected...

[Thashuki Mendis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real page turner, curiosity led me to finish reading this book overnight! Gratiaen Prize winner of 1993.

[Shalini · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this one. There were several inconsistencies in character descriptions which were contradictory and quite a lot of repetition. The story was predictable and the narrations of both narrators sounded rushed and disorganized.