Liyanage Amarakeerthi (W. A. Liyanage) received his primary and secondary education at rural schools in Kurunegala district entering the university of Colombo in 1990 where he received a BA. In 1998, Amarakeerthi went to the university of Wisconsin on a Fulbright Scholarship for his postgraduate studies. On completing an MA in Literature in 2000, he was funded by the university of Wisconsin for his doctoral work under Prof .Charles Hallisey. After obtaining his PhD in 2004 he moved to Cornell University on a teaching appointment where he also attended the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University. He joined university of Peradeniya in 2008. During his postgraduate studies he was able to take a host courses in literature, literary theory, theories of drama, translation theory, theories of aesthetics, film Studies and so on. He has published more than 15 books of fiction, poetry and literary theory. He won national literary award for the ‘best' collection of short stories in 2000 and for the ‘best' novel in 2008. At Peradeniya he teaches courses in literary theory, translation Studies, postcolonial theory, theories of drama, and Aesthetics.
"A man never sees another in his truest form, and we try to interpret the other based on what we see and assume, and these interpretations are largely wrong"
The above is one of my favorite lines from this book, and reading this was a new experience for me. I could many times relate to the ideas and thoughts of the protagonist of the book, which was Bandula Balagalla. අහම්බකාරක in English means a series of co incidences that was never planned or achieved by putting in sleepless nights or effort, but events that just occurred. Reader is taken through the life of Bandula Balagalla, a rich Walawe man who lives with many inheritances to his name. He is a wealthy but intelligent man with an uncorrupted mind, mainly due to his education abroad, and is filled with ideas and patience beyond an ordinary man. These traits could largely be credited to his hobby of reading an unhealthy amount of books that has exposed him to many cultures and values. Hence his way of thinking is broad and empathetic.
Author writes this book, with two people in mind, one is someone who is got a good plan and executes them shrewdly and the other leaves everything to co incidences. The former is Wijaya Wickramasinghe. His life and his plummeting to success was not a over night success nor a luck but his shrewd planning that he carried on for years, betraying many with lies; in another words we can say a life based on many fake ideals. Latter is the main protagonist who rise to the top with little effort from his side, and random occurrence of many incidents played a huge part to get him to where he is. His kindness and humility shields him from many harm, and his self happiness matters to him above all, which makes him oblivious to the rumors circulating around him and the corruption that goes around in his external world.
අහම්බකාරක opened my eyes to the real world, that goes around in our country, the political turmoil during the civil war, unfairness in our society, and how everything; thoughts, decisions, actions that goes on around us is entirely politically based.
Lots of issues we face in our country, the class hierarchy, how politicians save themselves , how connections with the politicians could take you to places, all of this is addressed in this book, cleverly interwoven through thrilling stories, made up with thrilling characters.
In the end, due to Bandula Balagalla's good heartedness, he gets cheated by his own best friend, yet he maintains a state of coolness, accept life for what it is, in the midst of every let down he face in his life. On another note, I should appreciate the author's creativity and his fearlessness to publish a book of this sort.
It was an okay read. I wasn't a huge fan of the book to be honest. This story is about a person who pretends he can't talk (mute) and a rich gentleman who is trying to get his voice back. It was a quick read but I did not get the wow factor.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.