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Reef Romesh Gunesekera 9781862070943 Books

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Reef Romesh Gunesekera 9781862070943 Books

A lovely story viewed by a young boy who grew up admiring Salgado ( a man devoted to save the reef) and finding his way thanks to Salgado's view of future.
Events from the last century that many readers will remember and think that all those facts were part of our recent history. It is a book written in a slow warm mood that readers grasp easily up to the end


Tags : Reef [Romesh Gunesekera] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Reef is a love story set in a spoiled paradise. It is told by Trtion, who at the age of eleven goes to work as a houseboy to Mister Salgado,Romesh Gunesekera,Reef,Granta Books,1862070946,Fiction General,General & Literary Fiction,Modern & contemporary fiction,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Fiction

Reef Romesh Gunesekera 9781862070943 Books Reviews

After a short break in Sri Lanka, as someone of dual nationality with Sri Lanka I was enveloped by this book which I read in quite a short time. It begins well, but I found so much of it quite morbid and fearful, both at the level of political/terrorist violence and at a sexual level.

The author's trademark topic is food which is well treated in his short stories (read Monkfish Moon by him for more) and really well served up in Reef. This and many other exotic features such as wildlife, native patois are obvious highlights and selling points in the book. Dialogues are sketchy, incomplete and we can fill in the missing words even if the degree of articulateness is lacking or obtuse.

There are dark, brooding undercurrents and Mr Salgado ultimately is a failed, lonely guy - in romance and in his job (though the romantic side is incomplete - by the end and there may be reconcilliation). His failure is because of the nature of Sri Lanka itself apart from anything personal. The way that the governments there cannot be expected to protect people or do any real good and the way the country swings from one extreme to another. This is captured in the dialogue.

There are also dark sexual overtones/undertones in this book. Things to do with homosexuality, male bonding, fear psychoses, violence. Sexual references are covert and psychological - e.g., there is a greatly distorted story of Angulimala, more violent than the original describing a necklace of fingers, but in a subtext, penises. True to Sri Lankan style, we don't hear much beyond a couple gazing at each other and finding comfort in company. At the end there is a violent break up, perhaps too violent.

I am concerned that the impression of Sri Lanka conveyed may be overcritical, brooding and dark. I think the Man Eaters of Punanai by C. Ondaatje, conveys something of Sri Lanka's troubles and potential treasures without any brooding sentiment.

This book was dark, depressing and aromatic. Good to have read its limpid, chatty and at times disturbing/churning prose.
A finalist for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, "Reef" is the story of a Sri Lankan boy who carves out a place for himself in a precarious world.
Animated by the lyrical narration of Triton, whose simple, focused voice resounds with enthusiasm and curiosity, mixed with the ignorance of the humble and uneducated, this is a touching, absorbing, entertaining novel.
In the first pages, Triton is an adult, a restaurant owner in England, who stops at a gas station and encounters a cowering immigrant attendant who begs his help in figuring out his new job.
Triton is plunged into the memories of 20 years before in Sri Lanka when, on the eve of a "bungled coup" he is scarcely aware of, he was brought to work at age 11 for Mister Salgado, a brooding scientist with a pessimistic passion for the nation's coral reefs.
"Mister Salgado's house was the centre of the universe, and everything in the world took place within its enclosure."
His life shadowed by the hated figure of Joseph, the manservant, young Triton secures some pieces of onion to rub on the man's bed pallet. But suddenly there's an eruption of screams from next door. The old wife, it turns out, has tied her unfaithful husband in the bath and rubbed him all over with chilli powder. Triton chucked away his onion quarters; "they seemed too tame, but I was not ready to use chilli yet."
But soon, after a scene of abuse Triton can never speak of, Joseph is banished from the house and Triton has what he wants. He has Mr. Salgado to himself and he goes about his work with single-minded dedication, anticipating his employer's wishes, reading his books, emulating him in small matters like list-making.
But even this is not enough. With the outside world irrelevant, except as it affects the mood and movements of his master, Triton, an ambitious man even if he doesn't know it, transforms himself into a chef extraordinaire. There is nothing he cannot create.
And a new, exciting presence at the house, Nili, a woman with an appreciative appetite, and a salutary effect on Mr. Salgado, spurs Triton to go all out. The food is "more than good. I knew, because I can feel it inside me when I get it right. It's a kind of energy that revitalizes every cell in my body. Suddenly everything becomes possible and the whole world, that before seemed slowly to be coming apart at the seams, pulls together."
The house enjoys a resurgence of love and energy but outside events intrude, eroding their homelife and threatening their physical safety. Triton ignores politics as no concern of his, but no one can remain apart from the world, although it doesn't necessarily do any harm to try.
Absorbed in his art, focused on his master, Triton finds contentment and satisfaction which he conveys in simple, delectable language and deceptively offhand anecdotes. Triton is a captivating character and Gunesekera a subtle, graceful writer with a rich feel for language.
I would not say it is a page turner - but it provided an interesting insight into life in this troubled time.
Bought this book for my English Literature class and had to write a paper on it. I do not like literature classes but this book was interesting in how it used the imagery to explain the food used throughout the book. The shipping was fast and accurate and the condition of the book was as described.
Just beautiful and very human!
A wonderful read.
A lovely story viewed by a young boy who grew up admiring Salgado ( a man devoted to save the reef) and finding his way thanks to Salgado's view of future.
Events from the last century that many readers will remember and think that all those facts were part of our recent history. It is a book written in a slow warm mood that readers grasp easily up to the end