On Sal Mal Lane: Perhaps a little too topical

Next, throughout his life, stuck in what he saw now as a bookish understanding of political movements and their ideologies, he had truly believed that the parliamentay system would prevail, the sharing of wealth and rights would become a reality, the people would own and rule the country. Yet around him now, people, those very people he had counted on to stand up for social justice, to march out peacefully someday, en masse, to demand equality for all of them, they were running wild, shattering buildings, overturning vehicles. Around him people were on fire.

  --from page 301 of On Sal Mal Lane  

 

On Sal Mal Lane, with its NYT cover blurb "I don't know that I've seen children more opulently depicted in fiction since Dickens," is the book I've just finished reading. It was originally published in 2013 and maybe if I'd read it then, I would have found it moving in an interesting "My, what a place Sri Lanka is," sort of way, though I don't think I'd be noting similarities to Dickens because I'm just not seeing that so much. A book can center around children without being Dickensian. In late 2022, however, the whole story is a bit unnerving, not to say traumatizing. Excellent book, really, with a Scut Farkus character who just makes one want to weep for the wrongness of his life--but really not ideal reading just now for one who reads for escape. I'm thinking there's an Angela Thirkell in my immediate future.

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