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The Legend of Pradeep Mathew: A Novel, by Shehan Karunatilaka
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Winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize
* Winner of the $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature *
* A Publishers Weekly "First Fiction" Pick for Spring 2012 *
"A crazy ambidextrous delight. A drunk and totally unreliable narrator runs alongside the reader insisting him or her into the great fictional possibilities of cricket."--Michael Ondaatje
Aging sportswriter W.G. Karunasena's liver is shot. Years of drinking have seen to that. As his health fades, he embarks with his friend Ari on a madcap search for legendary cricket bowler Pradeep Mathew. En route they discover a mysterious six-fingered coach, a Tamil Tiger warlord, and startling truths about their beloved sport and country. A prizewinner in Sri Lanka, and a sensation in India and Britain, The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka is a nimble and original debut that blends cricket and the history of modern Sri Lanka into a vivid and comedic swirl.
- Sales Rank: #287888 in Books
- Published on: 2012-05-08
- Released on: 2012-05-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.02" h x 1.24" w x 5.50" l, 1.14 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 416 pages
From Booklist
*Starred Review* For American readers clueless about cricket—and we are everywhere—this first novel might be tough going, despite having won the 2008 Gratiaen Prize, a literary award established by novelist Michael Ondaatje for the best English-language writing by a resident Sri Lankan, and despite Karunatilaka’s noble efforts to explain the game to the uninformed. Thankfully, we are guided through the novel by charming, aging, alcoholic sportswriter-bounder W. G. (Wije) Karunasena and his trusted friend Ari Byrd—both equally passionate and opinionated about cricket—as they seek out the elusive (and fictional) Tamil bowler Pradeep Mathew, whose patchy but brilliant career included Sri Lanka’s inspired (and real-life) World Cup championship in 1996. Arguing and deconstructing cricket all the way, the pair leads us to, among other places, Colombo’s living rooms, bars, casinos, and cricket pitches—and their attendant characters—all played out amid the island’s heartrending, surreal, 26-year-long civil war. If Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost (2000) portrayed that war in darkly rendered overtones, Karunatilaka weaves it into the whole cloth of Colombo’s comically absurd daily life. Yet droll as his observations might be (“They say ambulances in Sri Lanka barely make it to the funeral”), Wije is clear-eyed about his own and his country’s failings and the terrors those failings have produced. More impressive, Wije, like many of his countrymen, carries a heroism he hardly knows he has. --Alan Moores
Review
“Karunatilaka offers the world a subversively funny, spot-on portrait of one tiny nation addressing its tragedy with humor, kindness and quiet, unwavering courage.” ―Seattle Times
“Shehan Karunatilaka's big-hearted, madcap novel reverberates with echoes of A Fan's Notes and Netherland.” ―Barnes and Noble Review
“Karunatilaka's rambunctious debut brims with inventive ideas and comic set-pieces. . . . Cricket aficionados will love The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, but Karunatilaka has stuffed his novel so full of life--albeit a crazily inflated version of it--for it to charm and dazzle the rest of us in equal measure.” ―Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
“Endearing . . . disguised as a sports story yet it's really about a man's love and disgust for his country.” ―Houston Chronicle
“In pursuing the true-or-false legend of a cricketer named Pradeep Mathew, Shehan Karunatilaka brings forth meditations on corruption, politics, terrorism, and colonialism as well as match-fixing and ball-tampering in cricket-obsessed Sri Lanka.” ―World Literature Today
About the Author
Shehan Karunatilaka lives and works in Singapore. He has written advertisements, rock songs, travel stories, and basslines. This is his first novel.
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
"Sport can unite worlds, tear down walls and transcend race, the past and all probability. Unlike life, sport matters."
By Mary Whipple
This mind-boggling "quest novel" from Sri Lanka operates under its own rules, defies expectations, twists and turns on its own momentum, and ultimately resolves itself in ways the reader never predicts. Wijedasa Gamini Karunasena, known as Wije, the main character here, is a sportswriter who has covered cricket for years. Winner of Ceylon Sportswriter of the Year, 1969 and 1976, he has always believed Pradeep Mathew, a Tamil who was a star in only four games over his career, to be the best cricket player who ever lived, someone whose feats have been wiped out, somehow, in the records. Though hobbled by drink, and in poor health, Wije buddies up with his friend, Ariyatne Cletus Byrd, to produce a documentary about the best cricket players in Sri Lanka, with one whole episode devoted to Pradeep Mathew. As Wije does his research on Pradeep, however, every lead seems to end, every clue seems to disappear, and Pradeep seems to be on the receiving end of a plan to wipe him off the face of Sri Lankan cricket history. No one even knows if Pradeep is alive or dead.
Wije's own life also becomes more complicated as the novel progresses. His drinking becomes serious enough to threaten his life. His wife Sheila is frustrated by his alcoholism. His son Garfield is alienated, living outside Sri Lanka and marrying and divorcing more than once. His friend Jonny is arrested and thrown in jail, and Ari, his statistician, wearies of Wije's problems. All this time, Sri Lanka is fighting for its political life, with the Tamil Tigers fighting for total control of the north and east and the military trying to maintain control of the rest of the country. Bombings, assassinations, and terrorism accompany the daily news about the latest Sri Lanka cricket team losses and occasional victories, with the characters here more concerned with the cricket results. "Sport can unite worlds, tear down walls and transcend race, the past and all probability," Wije observes. "Unlike life, sport matters."
Hugely successful with UK readers, many of whom are passionate cricket fans, the novel may be challenging to US readers because of the unfamiliar cricket vocabulary. The book itself is ultimately not just about cricket, however, as much as it is about people who love cricket because it provides them with an exciting escape from the everyday humdrum and people who believe that cricket offers some structure in which the injustices of their lives can be seen playing out against the larger world. The Sri Lankan team rarely wins, but the passion with which the fans support it suggests that they find their losses attributable to "cosmic" forces beyond their control, such as corruption, game fixing, the interference of the government, and tampering with players, all of which appear in this novel. Racism and the stratification of Sri Lankan society also play a role here.
The novel, filled with wonderful dialogue and humor, portrays life in Sri Lanka in ways not seen before in literature. The line between what is true and what is fictional blurs as the novel develops, with the reader benefiting from the mystery and the uncertain chronological time line which keeps the suspense lively. A unique, enjoyable, and often wacky look at an unusual part of the world through a sport which few Americans understand. Mary Whipple
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
The Legend of Pradeep Mathew: A Novel
By Anurag Som
This is the best book I have read this year. It is the People Magazine meets International Cricket meets Oprah of books! Set in SriLanka, commenting on the Cricket scene in the 80s and 90s, this book to me was a bitter sweet reminder of the game I once loved and enjoyed through my own father's eyes. Having lived through the trauma of international cricket played in Sharjah, where India lost enough matches by fair or unfair means, I soon weaned off what should have been the national sport of India (as it probably should have been of Sri Lanka and the rest of the subcontinent). This book is like life- comic, tragic, mysterious and sensuous.
Some excerpts that stood out for me...
"Did the drinking make me a thinker or did the thinking make me drink?"
Having just lost a friend to alcohol, this book helped me deal with some of the many unknowns of the last days of what might have been my friend's experience dealing with the sickness that is alcoholism.
"In real life, justice is rarely poetic and too often invisible. Good sits in a corner, collects a check and pays a mortgage. Evil builds empires."
...so literally, though I never think in terms of good and evil, I completely get this.
"I didn't know I made you so unhappy, I didn't know you thought so little of our life. Did you really think I was complete;y pointless?....For what it's worth, I have memories I will not let you spoil."
...sometimes we never really know how others experience us, especially those closest to us.
"You saw me ask W.G. for money, though he does not mention how drunk he was or that he referred to me as a 'lazy useless f*****' and that is why I left the room."
...life is full of one sided tales, toxic moments, careless whispers and tough, misunderstood love.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
It is cricket after all
By Hande Z
This novel, was previously reprinted as "Chinaman", is about an old sports writer, Wijedasa Gamini Karunasena (or "Wije" as his friends call him) and his search for a forgotten Sri Lankan cricket hero, Pradeep Sivanathan Mathew. The "Chinaman" is the description of a cricket bowling manoeuvre) When Wije was diagnosed with liver failure and given a poor diagnosis he decided to make a documentary film about Pradeep Mathew. Throughout the book, Wije would lament his giving up alcohol on account of his health ("After fifty years of distinguished liver abuse, I, W.G. Karunasena , gave up booze."). He continues to sing praises of drink and drinking - "Has alcohol brought misery to humanity or kept it at bay?"
The story is replete with cricket players, cricket matches, and cricket terminology but far from being intimidating to a non-cricket player, the author unfolds them all with clarity and panache. "The Duckworth-Lewis method of resolving rain-affected games has divided the cricketing fraternity into those who do not understand it and those who pretend they do." No wonder the philosopher C E M Joad described cricket as a game for two (batsman and bowler) played by 22 players.
Some of the jokes might not be original but they fit perfectly into the story in Karunatilaka's hands: "It begins with the alcohol counselor two days after I am discharged. Before we go, Sheila [Wije's wife] gives me an article from "The Lanka Woman" on "How to overcome a Drinking Problem". `I didn't know that Lankan women had drinking problems,' I snort. `They do. They're called husbands.' Unlike me Sheila doesn't laugh at her own jokes."
Karunatilaka inclines us to respect unsung heroes in sport, and sympathise with unfulfilled writers who pickle their livers with alcohol. He exposes the hypocrisy of the aristocratic class and shows us that the world is just like a zoo, where "the animals are as shabby as the people looking at them." The author is a spinner of a great tale in which he alludes to Sri Lanka's troubled history and the war with the Tamil Tigers, but his accounts of fights between cricketers are hilarious. The story begins with Wije's quixotic search for Pradeep Mathew, and if not for the snippets of information concerning his past, one might suspect that that man does not exist. By the end of the book, one might even wonder whether this was a story about Wije's documentary on Pradeep Mathew - or Pradeep Mathew's biography of Wijedasa the sports writer.
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