To even understand the title of this book you've got to know that Colpetty is a suburb of Colombo and a rather posh one at that. The book falls under the category of Sri Lankan English fiction. A slightly difficult classification but Sri Lankan English is not pidgin but there are some idiosyncrasies and quirks of Sri Lankan English which are now par for the course (in Sri Lanka of course only!).
One blogger asked me whether we have many writers in English and surprisingly for such a small country we do have many. We have several of Sri Lankan origin who emigrated years and years ago - Michael Ondaatjie, Roma Tearne, Michelle de Kretser and Ru Freeman to name a few and then we have the current crop of Shehan Karunatilleke, Shyam Selvadorai, Romesh Goonasekera, Karen Roberts, V V Ganeshananthan amongst many others and then we have quite a few Sri Lankan authors residing in Sri Lanka like Ashok Ferry, Madhubashani Dissanayake and Ameena Hussein who do much for budding authors in Sri Lanka.
The story of Colpetty People is a collection of stories of various characters - reminiscent and everyone of us can identify with one or more of the characters. We all have an Aunt or Uncle from these stories and that is what made the reading of this book enjoyable for me. The book uses so many different types of people in different settings - lots in the UK and Sri Lanka.
It is a fun read actually light heartedly poking fun at ourselves which is never a bad thing!
This sounds like a really interesting book. Familiar characters that the reader can identify with are a big draw as well as the setting.
ReplyDeleteI have read Michael Ondaatje, Ru Freeman, and V.V. Ganeshananthan and I've heard of Shyam Selvadurai but I hadn't heard of the others so I'll have to see if I can track down their books over here.
I guess the characters in the story are tied together by the location? Sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWow. This was very interesting. I didn't realize English was used to such a great degree in Sri Lanka. I love learning about other places around the world. Thanks, Mystica.
ReplyDeleteI've not read Ondaatje but hope to get to one of his books at some point! Karen Roberts sounds familiar. The book is appealing as it reveals people in the area and their personalities.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to have a lighthearted read once in a while and even better when you recognize yourself in the characters!
ReplyDeleteInteresting concept - sounds fun. Have a great reading week Mystica.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'm too busy claiming Ondaatje as Canadian to remember his Sri Lankan roots. Thanks for the reminder. :-)
ReplyDeleteSeems like you had a good week of reading. Thanks for explaining the title and sharing on this one too.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this one too. Have you read anything by Carl Muller, Mystica? I think I tried once but couldn't get into it. Of course, I plan to try again.
ReplyDelete