A Beautiful Day in Gay Sri Lanka
Violence, violins, and Itali-ans in this edition of the newsletter.
I’m continuing to make my way through the shortlist of the Tournament of Books shortlist, and as a result, you’re going to get to hear about 3 very different and very good books this week. Two of them in particular, both mysteries, manifested in very different forms of sublime reading pleasure.
To wit: One of those took over my life for a short burst of time. It took me less than 24 hours to plow it through because 1. I was on an airplane and 2. I really needed to find out how the central mystery resolved. And the other was a slow burn that consumed my thoughts, and more than once my dreams, over the course of more than a week. It dropped me into a world where I’d never been, and it felt like I had to learn a whole new language to gain any traction. One was a clear view and the other was hard-won struggle to see through the fog. Different routes to similar satisfaction.
You’ll have to read on to know which is which, and while you do, you can meditate on whether I’m giving off Nepo Baby vibes while writing this because my mother was a librarian.
THE LIBRARY IS OPEN
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
by Shehan Karunatilaka (2022)
Like many a book nerd, I follow the awarding of the the Booker Prize every year. If you’re unfamiliar, the Booker Prize is awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. It used to be just for novels written by folks who lived within the British Commonwealth, but then a couple years ago, much to the chagrin of many, they controversially added Americans to the contestant pool. The list of winners is truly a Who’s Who of English literature, and nearly without fail each year, I almost always prefer other books on their shortlist to the eventual winner.
I thought that would surely be the case this year, since I had loved shortlist nominee The Trees by Percival Everett so much. There was also a certified banger by Claire Keegan - a slim takedown of the Magdalene Laundries - on the list. So imagine my surprise when Seven Moons ended up being a book that absolutely rules. A deserved Booker winner!
Taking place during a Sri Lankan civil war in the early 80s, it tells the story of the ill-fated, gambling, homosexual lothario photographer Maali Almeida after he’s been killed. He’s now in the afterlife, which is kind of like a DMV situation for ghosts, and he’s desperate to get his collection of incriminating photos into the hands of the loved ones he’s left behind - his ex-girlfriend and kind-of boyfriend. Those are among the many people, with hired goons and corrupt government officials included, that Maali has frustrated while he inhabited his living body. So, you could say that finding his own killer from the afterlife is going to be somewhat complicated. The book is a dream combination of history lesson, spy novel, Agatha Christie mystery, and queer love story.
I knew very little about Sri Lanka before I picked this book up except for the fact that its capital is Colombo, and it resembles a big, beautiful avocado that India dropped into the ocean below it. The book is a challenging read at first with unfamiliar rhythms and Sri Lankan language flair that takes some getting used to. The hard work is the price to enter Maali’s world, and it will be rewarding. As a friend told me, eventually the novel reveals itself. And it did for me, as my favorite book of the year so far.
Read it if you like: complicated queer love stories, learning about new places, very dark humor, timeline jumping, magical realism with curse words, deserving Booker winners.
The Violin Conspiracy
by Brendan Slocumb (2022)
Right off the bat, let me tell you that I flew through this book. It was the perfect book to keep me company on a cross country flight because it was all I wanted to think about. I’m not sure if tells us anything complex in new or innovative ways, but I’m not certain if that even matters when the pages are turning. Having read more about the author after finishing the book, it’s also fascinating and horrifying that many of the harrowing experiences with racism that take place in the book are lifted directly from his own life.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The Violin Conspiracy is about a young, Black violin prodigy who runs into obstacles whenever he tries to develop a career in music doing what he loves. Whether it’s his own selfish family, the classical music industry’s indifference to outsiders, or widespread institutional racism, nothing comes easy for Ray as he tries to branch out on his own as an artist. One stroke of luck, which feels a little like a Monkey’s Paw situation in retrospect, is that his violin, given to him by one of the few people who always believed in him, his own dear grandmother, ends up being a rare Stradivarius valued at more than $10 million. This violin was received as part of a complicated relationship that Ray’s enslaved great, great grandfather had, and now the slaveowner’s surviving relatives want the violin back and aren’t above any legal or extra-legal actions to achieve their nefarious goals.
BUT. The violin goes missing before a big competition that could change his life, and the book threads this mystery with the story of Ray’s own upbringing and journey through the cutthroat world of competitive classical music. The book makes it a point to let us know how outrageously underrepresented Black individuals are in the classical music arena, often by design. The mystery is one you can figure out if you’re paying attention, and characters aren’t drawn with a ton of nuance - mainly, the good guys are very good and the bad guys are very bad. However, the pages turn at a rapid clip, and you’ll be glad you spent time with Ray getting to the bottom of the…violin conspiracy. (Only slightly related, the author’s instagram is a delight.)
Read it if you like: mysteries you can kind of figure out, classical music, the movie Music of My Heart, fantasies of racists being humiliated, a hero you can root for.
Mercury Pictures Presents
by Anthony Marra (2022)
*Billy Crystal voice* It’s a wonderful night for Oscar! Oscar, Oscar! Who will win?!
It’s that time of year, so why not dig into an old Hollywood book.
One of the better authors at assembling large casts of characters around a central theme and mastering the alchemy of heartwarming, but not saccharine, results is Anthony Marra. I loved his Chechnya-set The Czar of Love and Techno from a couple years ago, so I was excited to see what he’d do when he brought the party to 1940’s Los Angeles and Italy when early, small Hollywood studios were making propaganda films and trying to stay afloat. Here, Marra tells the story of just how much of the Hollywood system was built on the labor of immigrants, often ones who happened to come from the countries that made up the Axis Powers during WWII, which honestly sounds a little awkward!
The story focuses on Maria, an Italian immigrant who’s made her way up from administrative assistant to associate producer at the flagging and flailing Mercury Pictures, a tiny Hollywood studio in financial trouble, no thanks to its brother owners who can’t seem to get along. We get the story of how Maria got to America, having to leave her doting cinephile father behind, and how a boy her father helps save from drowning comes and brings her news many years later. Other stories spins out in webs from there, fun connections are drawn, and history is made. It’s a very smooth read. In particular, there’s a scene set in an Italian village which involves a prospective mobster, a brothel, and a passport exchange, which is very much *chef’s kiss.* It’s all set in the past, but it touches on themes that continue to resonate today. As a person who loves connected rings of stories, I liked this one a lot.
(Honesty corner: This book is good, but The Czar of Love and Techno does what this book does even better. Read that one too!)
Read if you like: the You Must Remember This podcast, old Hollywood stuff, the White Lotus but 70 years ago, WWII, connected stories that come together to form a novel.
LIGHTNING ROUND - Tournament of Books Winners Edition
Speaking of, the ne plus ultra of connected stories forming a novel won the tournament over a decade ago. Yikes!
Have you ever wondered what you might do if your sister were a serial killer? I have just the book for you.
Have you ever thought of the concept of a person being like an accidental - a symbol that makes a tone sharper or flatter in music - changing everyone around them in subtle ways?
Until next time…happy reading!