Tuesday, November 13, 2007

BOOK: Monkfish Moon by Romesh Gunesekera

Monkfish Moon by Romesh Gunesekera
short story collection

2nds Challenge

This was a nice collection of short stories, all set in Sri Lanka. Gunesekera writes beautifully, really giving the reader a sense of life in Sri Lanka. And while all different, the history and nature of Sri Lanka, the wars and upheavals provide a background to all the stories. His characters face dilemmas, between past and present, old ways and new, but the beauty of Sri Lanka is always there.

The titles are a little obscure for me; had to look up one last week, but I was pleased to recognize Carapace, which was probably my favorite story. A girl is deciding between two men, the local cook who has no promises for her, and not much of a future but true love, and the rich bloke going to Australia with a big house and a secure future, but actually unknown. Around here, carapace is the shell of the lobster, and carapace size determines whether a lobster is to be kept or thrown back.

2 comments:

  1. *completely unrelated to your excellent review* Guess what came in the mail for me today? Thank you, that was an interesting taste test. I like the Halloween kisses, but the molasses things didn't taste much like molasses. And your 'rockets' are what we call 'smarties'. Your 'smarties' are basically our M&Ms, so that was cool.

    Thank you for doing that for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kookie - glad you enjoyed the package. I've not tried the Purity molasses chews before; Purity is a famous Newfoundland company that has only begun exporting in the past few years.
    I think our smarties are better than the M&Ms though. Smarties are the first candy that our kids all ate - the milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hands.

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