On this episode of Outlook Bibliofile, Srilankan-born British author Romesh Gunesekera speaks about his latest novel Suncatcher, the story of two young boys set in 1960s' Sri Lanka.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to Outlook Bibliophile.
00:08 Today we have with us a booker shortlisted author for his novel Reef, Ramesh Gunasekara.
00:13 He has written numerous other books and short stories and he moved to the United Kingdom
00:17 in 1971.
00:18 Mr. Gunasekara, thank you so much for speaking to Outlook.
00:22 His latest novel is Suncatcher.
00:24 But before we get into Suncatcher, we are going to talk about something very important.
00:29 He keeps referring to two very important terms, time and memory.
00:33 Why is that?
00:34 Time and memory, well that's because that's what we are made of, time and memory it seems
00:38 to me.
00:41 And that's what writing for me is all about.
00:44 It's a negotiation with memory.
00:48 It's done in time.
00:50 And to me that's all about being human really.
00:55 Everything has to come from that, it has to speak to us through those terms.
01:00 Is it also because of the reason that you moved out of your country at a very young
01:03 age?
01:05 That's just accidents of life really.
01:08 I was quite young but I was very lucky enough to travel when I was very young.
01:13 My parents were lucky enough to get jobs abroad and so on.
01:18 So travelling seemed to me kind of normal in a way.
01:27 And when I left Sri Lanka to live in another country more permanently, it wasn't out of
01:33 my choice.
01:34 It was just because my parents had moved for jobs and so on.
01:40 So I moved along with that.
01:42 And then I've been drifting around as a result, I get stuck in places.
01:46 Jumping on to Suncatcher now, it's a beautiful story of love, compassion, friendship between
01:52 two young boys, Jay and Cairo.
01:55 I'm pretty sure our listeners would like to listen from you more than me about the story,
01:59 what exactly it is, the families they come from and the time it is set in.
02:06 It's a story set in 1964 in Sri Lanka, Ceylon as it was then.
02:13 And we may talk about why 1964, but let's just say for the moment, it's the year that
02:19 sort of came into this book.
02:25 I wanted to set it in the 60s.
02:29 The reason for that is partly to do with the fact that I was a child in the 60s.
02:36 So I wanted to draw on that what I could remember of a place and a time that doesn't really
02:41 exist anymore because obviously places change over time.
02:46 And then it became an important moment because of the politics of the time.
02:51 But I wanted to go in a story really to this previous period, if you like.
02:58 My last book was a book called Noontai Toh, which is set in the immediate aftermath of
03:05 the end of the war.
03:06 And so it was very much to do with that moment.
03:10 So I wanted to go to a period before that and see whether that was in any sense pivotal.
03:20 And it was, of course, as every moment in a way is, as the moment we're living in now.
03:27 There are so many huge changes going on around us, some of which we can see, some of which
03:31 we can't, but all of which will have huge repercussions.
03:39 And for these boys in 1964, big things happened to them, all things around them.
03:47 And I wanted to explore that.
03:48 The families they come from, you asked about, well, they come from very, very different
03:53 families.
03:54 So my narrator is a boy called Cairo, and he comes from, let's say, a more ordinary
04:03 family, except that it's not at all ordinary.
04:06 So his father is a sort of armchair Marxist, he's Trotskyite, but doesn't actually do anything
04:13 with his politics.
04:18 His mother works in the media for the radio station, Radio Ceylon, as it was then.
04:26 And the other boy, Jay, comes from a very well-to-do, very privileged family, and they
04:30 meet and they have a friendship.
04:33 But what I wanted to explore was the fragility of that friendship, as well as its life-changing
04:44 quality for both of them.
04:49 Do you also think that Cairo, because as much as I have understood, I actually realized
04:56 that he developed a near infatuation for almost everything that Jay possessed, so to speak.
05:03 And to him, Jay was more free, more adventurous, something that perhaps he always aspired for.
05:10 Do you want to shed more light on that?
05:13 Well, yeah, it is that.
05:15 And maybe connected to the Sri Lankan society a little bit.
05:19 Oh, you're asking really deep questions now for this moment, when I'm just beginning to
05:24 grapple with what this book is about.
05:27 But yeah, it is that relationship.
05:30 What I think is, Jay is the kind of friend that I think we all have.
05:38 If we haven't had a friend like Jay, we've always wanted a friend like Jay.
05:43 Somebody who just seems to be better than, you know, just a hero.
05:50 And having a hero for a friend is a very difficult thing.
05:55 It doesn't really work like that.
05:59 But there's a discrepancy in the ages.
06:00 So Cairo is younger.
06:03 And he does hero worship Jay.
06:08 And the story is, I suppose, about how he understands Jay a bit more and begins to see
06:17 Jay's flaws.
06:20 And I suppose, just as we do with our friends, we see their flaws.
06:24 And then there's another journey we go on in which we accept that as well.
06:31 So I guess that's the journey.
06:33 And it's an important one for me.
06:38 I mean, I've had Jay friends, Jay a friend particularly.
06:45 So it is exploring that.
06:47 And how it relates to the rest of society, I think, I hope, as novels do, that I've managed
06:57 to shape it in such a way that it does have some resonance.
07:01 And of course, the tension between freedom, as you were expressing it as well, freedom
07:13 and control, freedom and the restraints of society, freedom and privilege, and then the
07:21 opposites of that privilege and the sort of uncaring aspects of privilege.
07:25 I think those are there in society as well, the way we treat each other, the way we treat
07:30 each other across social divides.
07:36 And part of Cairo's journey is his political awakening, I suppose, his understanding of
07:45 the politics of everyday life, never mind his father's politics, but the politics of
07:50 everyday life that, you know, when even in a relationship or friendship, there's power
07:57 that's exchanged.
07:58 Absolutely.
07:59 And those sorts of things.
08:02 One very significant theme of Suncatcher is the class divide, as you've been referring
08:09 to.
08:10 You've often talked about the relevance of a certain book and not really limiting the
08:15 relevance to a particular time period.
08:17 How do you see the relevance of Suncatcher in the modern day Sri Lanka?
08:23 Well, I think it's probably not just the modern, what I hope is it's not just the modern day
08:28 Sri Lanka, it's the modern day in many places.
08:35 The theme of friendship and the tensions and the fragility of friendship, as I was saying,
08:42 is something that we all have wherever we live.
08:48 But what became apparent to me as I was writing the book, or after I finished writing the
08:52 book almost, is how different moments in time, which seem so special and so significant in
09:04 society as well, political moments even, and seem unique, actually are not.
09:10 Very similar moments happen almost all the time.
09:12 It's almost as though, you know, we have these cameras and they're taking these frames, pictures,
09:17 but they're all, you know, it's like every moment is a slight change and every moment
09:21 seems terribly, terribly important.
09:23 So you know, 1964, these boys are growing up around them, unknown to them almost.
09:31 The world is changing, the political world is changing, new political alignments are
09:37 being made.
09:38 And, you know, on the sort of day-to-day detail, like in the Suncatcher, as these boys, while
09:47 they're cycling off somewhere or driving off somewhere, in Parliament you have MPs crossing
09:52 the floor, changing the balance of power in Parliament, the government is about to fall.
09:57 Well, you know, this could be Sri Lanka in the last couple of years, it could be Britain
10:06 in the last couple of years, and the parallels are just incredibly clear, I think.
10:14 And as somebody was telling me, if you just read the sort of opening bit about it, you
10:20 know, schools are closed, government disarray, the religious right on the rise, left-wing
10:28 parties not quite sure where to go.
10:30 I mean, that's today.
10:31 That's the current 2019.
10:32 Just count any country and it's the same scenario, almost the same scenario.
10:39 I'm not going to get into the ending of...
10:42 No, let's not.
10:43 Let's not do that.
10:44 Let's not for this interview.
10:46 But since I have completely read it, so I can say that it's a beautiful book.
10:51 It is available online and it is available at the bookstores near you.
10:55 Mr. Gunasekar, always a pleasure speaking to you.
10:58 Lovely.
10:59 Thank you very much for this interview.
11:00 Thank you.
11:01 [Music]