“Does the panel of judges know that it stands judged the moment the verdict is proclaimed?” asks the only poet to make the Gratiaen Prize shortlist this year. Malinda Seneviratne joins five others on a shortlist that embraces a multiplicity of genres, encompassing two novelists, a poet and a playwright, alongside the authors of a memoir and a collection of short stories.
The list is particularly robust – Shehan Karunatilaka, Jehan Aloysius, Vihanga Perera and Malinda himself have all been nominated for the Gratiaen before, while Sybil Wettasinghe actually won it in 1995. Anthea Senaratne has had her work recognized by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and is a stalwart of the Wadiya writers group.
The Gratiaen shortlist, announced on March 23, this year is always something of an event. Instituted by Michael Ondaatje in 1993 with his Booker Prize winnings, the Gratiaen recognizes and supports Sri Lankan writing in English. As in previous years, the nominees are announced in the small hall at the British Council, which though filled to overflowing, still allows latecomers to take advantage of the standing room at the back. Dr. Anila Dias Bandaranaike, Dr. Kanchana Warnapala and Michael Meyler made up the panel of judges this year and their citations were bracing and balanced, with plenty of constructive criticism thrown in.
Last year, the judges made little secret of their dissatisfaction with having to choose at least five entries; in sharp contrast, this year, the judges seemed to have been spoiled for choice, going so far as to list 6 nominees.
Anthea Senaratne’s self-published collection of short stories titled “The Mango Tree” was lauded by the judges for being written in a simple, unpretentious style which they said “captures some of the essence of the trials and the foibles of the everyday existence of ordinary people”.
Reading from “Moments in Time”, Anthea sketched out the life of a woman who, desirous of escape from the very mundane concerns of her daily life, takes a walk through the city. She seems to anchor herself by looking outwards, observing her surroundings and all who cross her path. “...The stink of rotting fruit made her hold her breath as she walked past quickly. The breathing was so important she realized half smiling to herself. There are some moments to exhale and some to inhale and some just to hold your breath.”
Jehan Aloysius was nominated for his unpublished play – “The Ritual” – in which he serves not only as playwright, but as director and main actor as well. Staged at the British Council in 2002, the play which has since toured the island was hailed as “a powerful, provocative and experimental piece of drama” by the judges. Reading from the “The Ritual”, Jehan voiced the parts of Karunawathie and Ariyawathie which ends in a memorable altercation (Ariyawathie: Don’t get on my bad side, Karuna. We’ll see. I’ll do a gurukama if you come too much! Karunawathie: Do it! Do it! (picks up the grinding stone.) Go and do it before I break your head in two.)
“On one level we questioned the authenticity of this portrayal of village life; we felt the use of four-letter words was occasionally gratuitous and didn’t ring true; and we were put off by the unrelenting darkness and starkness, with little sign of humour or relief,” explained the judges, concluding though that the ambitious play nevertheless met many of the requirements of good drama.
Malinda Seneviratne, the one poet, was nominated for the second year running for his collection “The Underside of Silence”, subtitled, “A Book of Questions and Answers.” Praised for its “intriguingly original structure” - each set of facing pages consists of a series of (usually unrelated) questions on the left hand page, and a poem on the right hand page; the questions are rhetorical, and the poems do not necessarily provide any answers – the judges expressed reservations only in terms of themes being “perhaps rather too abstract and insufficiently varied.”
Saying that it was the questions that initially drew them to this work, they had Malinda share some that appeared in his title poem with his audience: “Is there a special chamber in hell wherein the raucous laughter of politicians is fried alive?” was one, another “Did you notice how the mirror looked at you while you were asleep, and how the shoes took a walk wearing your skin?”And a third “Did you know that the revolution begins with poetry and that it ends with the abandonment of love?”
“Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew” by Shehan Karunatilaka impressed the judges by being “witty and thought-provoking; rooted in an entirely authentic Sri Lankan milieu; well-written and well-sustained, with a number of twists in the plot, a false ending or two, and a clever play on the shifting line between truth and fiction”. In fact their only complaints were that “it was perhaps too long and could do with some prudent editing.”
After being diagnosed with a failing liver, the book’s narrator, an oldish, alcoholic sports journalist, W.G. Karunasena, decides to devote what time he has left to tracking down a certain Pradeep Mathew, in his opinion great, former Sri Lankan national cricketer. “My wife asks me why I love sport more than her” is the question that sets WG off on a long rumination that hilariously and poignantly illustrates that there can in fact be no real victor in the competition between his family and the drama, beauty and immortality as represented in the greatest sporting moments in history.
Vihanga Perera’s “Stable Horses” was the submission that prompted the most discussion among the three judges – not a novel in the traditional sense of the word, the work was fragmented, the characters’ development proved unpredictable and its eccentrically titled and episodic chapters did not proceed in chronological order. However, the piece - praised for its originality and humour – was included in the shortlist after being dubbed a “youthful contemporary take on an increasingly dysfunctional society”.
Vihanga read from a chapter that described an evening when his narrator C.S. Kaushalyan and his friends go to see a play at a famous theatre in Peradeniya. “I don’t think I like Sinhabahu. Anyways. But I’m arrested in the midst of it all. I’m caught by the caught pack of 750 odd – Living History. Absorbing the ritualistic cultural reinstating. Absorbing not a play – but a phenomenon that made some of us more assured and safe.” “Eternally Yours” is a sequel to Sybil Wettasinghe’s earlier memoir Child in Me – Gratiaen Prize winner 1995.
This book picks up after her family has left Gintota for Colombo. “One of its endearing images is the wide-eyed child’s eye view of the big city, and the contrast with her home village,” said the judges, adding that while both books have the same delightful child-like charm which can appeal to all ages, they could also be criticised for being too naive. But the author herself answers that charge at the end of her book:
“Needless to say I have only picked out the colourful experiences, the colourless ones are best forgotten, which is like sorting out the most pleasing colours from my box of paints.”
The Gratiaen Prize 2008 will be announced on April 4. |
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