Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country’s history. But the novel also recalls the mordant wit and surrealism of Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls or Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. The obvious literary comparisons are with the magical realism of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. James Walton, Times (UK)Ī mix of mischievous magic realism and absurdist humour. The result is an unexpectedly exhilarating read. Karunatilaka respects the conventions of all the genres that he piles up so extravagantly. There can’t be many novels that simultaneously bring to mind Agatha Christie, Salman Rushdie, Raymond Chandler, John le Carré and Stranger Things-but this one does. Karunatilaka’s novel never courts despair. Comic, macabre, angry and thumpingly alive.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |