Funny Boy: A Novel in 6 Stories

Kelly L. Green is the co-editor of the Children’s Literature edition
of the Canadian Book Review Annual.

Arjie Chelvaratnam is a Sri Lankan boy growing up amid the political
tumult of that country during the 1970s. Two factors intertwine to eject
Arjie from his comfortable, wealthy childhood into an adolescence even
more complicated and arduous than most: he is a Tamil boy in a largely
Sinhalese nation at a time of extreme tension between the two ethnic
groups, and he is destined to be gay.

The novel is constructed from six interrelated stories from Arjie’s
young life. When we meet him, he is a 7-year-old who avoids playing
cricket with his boy cousins in order to play “bride-bride” with his
sister and girl cousins (Arjie, in a cast-off white sari, is the bride).
A jealous new cousin returning from overseas makes sure that Arjie’s
reign as queen of the cousins comes to a brutal end at the hands of
Ammachi (grandma).

As the stories unfold, we meet a Sri Lankan Romeo and Juliet in the
form of Arjie’s youngest aunt, Radha, and her Sinhalese sweetheart. We
meet Mrs. Chelvaratnam’s childhood sweetheart, a white journalist who
grew up in Sri Lanka, just before he meets his death trying to uncover
facts about the strife between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. But mostly,
we watch Arjie grow up into a sensitive young man as the world as he
knows it slowly collapses and sends his family into the abyss of
emigration.

With Funny Boy, Selvadurai has created a coming-of-age novel of the
highest order. His six beautifully crafted stories are the first
offerings of a gifted young writer, who draws his readers into an exotic
world while simultaneously creating an atmosphere of familiarity with
his superb characterization. Readers will close the book hoping for
more.