Just finished this book. It came highly recommended and I was curious. I must say I wasn’t overly impressed. I rarely read books authored by Sri Lankans. Gasp! How unpatriotic! Yeah well, I like a good plot and I’ve yet to come across a well written Sri Lankan book. This one was no exception. Is it a true story though? I find it hard to believe that something like this could have happened and we haven’t heard a word about it. At least I haven’t. So I discussed it with Pissu, and we came to the conclusion that the story is fiction, with a couple of true facts woven in. Is that right?
Anyhoo, It was waaay too predictable for me. True, the middle half was interesting. Actually the whole thing was quite interesting, the ragging and whatnot. I was pretty amazed at what goes on in the universities. But the ending was pure disappointment. The four friends, oh so predictably, hook up with each other, bad guy ruins the entire plan for the love of the girl who he can never have, all four escape at the end(!) Come on!! Very unthrilling finish. Now if I had it my way, Sujatha would have been tortured, not too much, but just enough to make the bad guys seem badder, Mithra would have died trying to save Sujatha, Nali would have turned out to secretly be in cahoots with the JSP, the prez and his cabinet would have got blown up, you know exciting stuff like that. Or maybe I’m just sadistic and evil…
7 comments:
Bah...u suck! I loved the book...couldn't put it down...I'm hihgly doubtful that it's a true story, just a sort of 'twist' by the author...
i read all three of nihal de silva's books in a row, in about 4 days i think and for me it went downhill..my favourite is road from elephant pass, then ginirella and finally, the far spent day..i suppose 3 nihal de silva's in 4 days is too much because by the time i got to the 3rd book, i felt like i knew what was going to happen...
Of COURSE it's fiction! Do you think the JVP's really building concentration camps in Yala? Come on, guys, Sri Lankans seem to love conspiracy theories. The author clearly stated it's a work of fiction.
oh he did?? ok then i missed that, cuz someone said its a true story and then when i got to the camp in yala part i was like 'huh? this cant be true'. also at the beginning wasnt there a foreward saying how he got the journals and he just changed the names and dates? confusing.
It's all fiction... Try thinking of the foreward as part of the story where the supposed writer is character in the book relating the story of the Ginirella Conspiracy. Think of it this way and it makes sense. It's not an original approach but works really well.
Yeah the last part of the story of 4 friends is too childish & stupid. But rest of the book is quite closer to reality i guess. Most of us know this raggin part actually happends in much wilder way also here. I don't belive the whole ginirella thing. But i have seen how they give speeches which made lot of poor students belive they are the god to save them.
i loved the book! waiting to read the Road to Elephantpass... another book, that comes highly recommended...
I too wrote something about this (but with way less detail) a day before you :)
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