Funny Boy

By Shyam Selvadurai

In this remarkable debut novel, a boy’s bittersweet passage to maturity and sexual awakening is set against escalating political tensions in Sri Lanka, during the seven years leading up to the 1983 riots. Arjie Chelvaratnam is a Tamil boy growing up in an extended family in Colombo. It is through his eyes that the story unfolds and we meet a delightful, sometimes eccentric cast of characters. Arjie’s journey from the luminous simplicity of childhood days into the more intricately shaded world of adults – with its secrets, its injustices, and its capacity for violence – is a memorable one, as time and time again the true longings of the human heart are held against the way things are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781551997193

Shyam Selvadurai

Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Funny Boy, his first novel, won the W.H. Smith/ Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award in the United States. He is the author of Cinnamon Gardens and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, and the editor of an anthology, Story-wallah! A Celebration of South Asian Fiction. His books have been published in the United States, United Kingdom, and India, and in translation.

Reviews for Funny Boy

[kyuuketsukirui · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When adults say Arjie is "funny", he knows they don't mean it in any way he's familiar with the word. It's not until he's fourteen and falling in love with his best friend that he realizes what they meant and why he's always felt different. Set in Sri Lanka during the '70s and '80s, the book also deals with the racial tensions at the time, as Arjie becomes more and more aware of the growing conflict the older he gets.This is not a young adult book, but rather a book about children/teens, and while there have definitely been YA books I've enjoyed, this sort of story is really much, much more my thing. The writing is excellent and I am eager to read more by Selvadurai (I have one book here, and at least one more on my wishlist).

[mynovelthoughts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed Funny Boy but thought that some situations in which the young narrator overhears adult conversations were forced. Overall though, this is an intriguing novel about the civil war in Sri Lanka and a young boy growing up and discovering his sexuality.

[nickelini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In a sentence, this is the story of a young boy growing up in Sri Lanka during the civil war and slowly realizing that he's gay. But it in the bigger picture, it's about anyone who is different and growing up in any traditional culture and family, and the confrontation with injustice. Beautifully and sensitively written. Although the author doesn't cover the Edenic qualities of Sri Lanka that I so love in novels by Michael Ondaatje and Roma Tearne, I still loved this book. Highly recommended for readers who appreciate quality fiction.

[ocgreg34 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Arjie Chelvaratnam enjoys his spend-the-days at the home of his grandparents in Colombo, Sri Lanka. While the older boys try to beacheachother at cricket or other sports, he spends the time playing bride-bride with the girls, somehow always managing to be the bride in a beautiful white sari. Then his cousin Tanuja arrives -- nicknamed "Her Fatness" -- and soon she reveals to the entire family just wht Arjie's up to. After that, his parents force him to do more manly things to prevent him from becoming "funny", like switching schools to the more sadistic Queen Victoria Academy.But school's aren't the only thing changing in Arjie's world. Through a series of events involving everyone in his family: his favorite dark skinned Radha Aunty finally home from America; a former lover of his mother's showing up unexpectedly to research the growing anti-Tamil climate in Sri Lanka; his father hiring a former Tamil Tiger to work as a supervisor at his hotel in predominantly Sinhalese country. Arjie realizes how society's perception of differences can have a severe impact, especially during the climax of "Funny Boy" which acts as a moment by moment account of the 1983 anti-Tamil riots that racked the country.What begins as a simple coming out tale turns into a portrait of a country at war, seen through the eyes of a young boy as he tries to deal with his budding sexuality amidst a volatile climate.

[eargent_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I seem to be going through a phase of reading east Indian authors and I am enjoying the books very much. This was another great one.