Chhimi Tenduf-La's debut novel The Amazing Racistoffers a straight-up, charming and funny story that is concerned less with intellectual razzle-dazzle than with being intelligent and endearing in its own simple way. A realistic portrayal of how the Sri Lankan society reacts to the socially odd phenomenon of a native and a white foreigner in a relationship, this is a book that glides past your eyes even as it is being supremely witty. Indian readers, in particular, will probably resonate with a lot of it.
The novel explores the intricacies and complications of a mixed marriage between an English man and a Sri Lankan woman. The awkwardness of Eddie, the rebellion of Menaka, the uptight relentlessness of her uncle Thilak; all of them create a reality that is so typically Sri Lankan that one cannot but remember the author's own story. Tenduf-La is half Tibetan and half English. Having married Samantha and stayed in Sri Lanka over the years, the author has had ample opportunity to explore the culture that he manages to reflect in his debut novel. This novel, then, is primarily about Eddie trying to negotiate the space Sri Lanka is; politically, geographically and culturally.
What is striking about the book is the ease with which Tenduf-la makes Sri Lanka available to the reader. As an "outsider" writing about the world he has now made his home, it is interesting to see how he has inverted racism. As a white (or "yellow", as he calls himself in the book) man in Sri Lanka talking about Sri Lankan reality, Chimmi is expected to have a racially superior voice; to try, in a way, to dislodge the white man's burden in a geographically decolonised space. He is expected to romanticise the land, the people and the culture; to give voice to the voiceless, the formerly colonised. What Tenduf-La does superbly is to invert this scenario.
The Amazing Racist is also remarkable because despite having a white narrative voice (Eddie Trusted) who explores an ex- colony through his personalised story, a major chunk of this novel is devoted to the personality of Thilak. Thilak's towering presence and his maneuvering with Eddie's personality to make him a subject of Sri Lankan reality rather than vice versa, strips the entire discourse around colonialism and decolonisation bare and immediately reverts it.
Eddie, trying to digest a spicy Sri Lankan curry or exploring the beauties and culture of Sri Lankan architecture, is the perfect foil to a native Sri Lankan who studies in an English medium school and tries to be as western as possible, so he can make peace with development and the sort of thing that could be considered material success.
A native dominating a white man and asserting racial superiority of the former over the latter is a rare sight. Tenduf-La has achieved this through what one could call "awkward racism". It is this dissection of racism that steers the plot of this novel.
However, this novel is also about love and families and how one reacts to familial ties and relationships while trying to assert and safeguard a self-respecting individuality. In that sense, though set up in Sri Lanka, The Amazing Racist is as much a story about Sri Lanka as it is about India or Afghanistan or Iran or any other country or society seeped in cultural nostalgia and the inherent feeling of superiority that comes with cultural chauvinism. The story, thus, has a more universal appeal: it tells us that societies reluctant to shed the baggage of their cultural mores are confusing their obstinacy with ideas of "purity" and "superiority".
On the whole, Tenduf-La's book is a delightful read. It is entertaining and meaningful in its portrayal of subtle politics; within families, personal equations and, of course, statecraft.
In the words of the author, "The book is a combination of my journey and various people, me included. Certainly the love of my daughter is in that book."
Though the book does not delve deep into the war or the other nuances of Sri Lankan politics, it does brush upon questions that have haunted the Sri Lankan reality for so long. In fact, come to think of it, these sporadic comments may well be a trailer to the next book Tenduf-La is working on, which will investigate deeper into the political milieu of Sri Lanka, through its child soldiers.
If you are a South Asian reader (if there exists a definite definition of South Asian-ness, that is), this book spells rib-tickling fun. If you're not, you'll still find plenty to chuckle about.
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