Shehan Karunatilaka Q&A
Shehan Karunatilaka, author of award-winning debut novel Chinaman, chats to SALF’s Iman Qureshi about political power play, Sri Lankan cricket, and The Seamless Paki
IQ: What inspired this book? Your background is advertising right? What was the transition like?
SK: Lots of things inspired the story. My failed career as a left-arm spinner, reading Sri Lankan cricketer Anura Ranasinghe’s obituary and watching two old uncles fight at a wedding.
My background is actually bass playing. I’m a lapsed songwriter turned copywriter. I suppose you do flex the same muscles when writing a novel. But unlike with ad writing or music writing, it’s less immediate and you don’t have other people to hide behind.
IQ: What kind of research went into Chinaman? Did you just hang around bars and cricket clubs 90 hours a week?
SK: Lots of reading of sports books, downloading of old games and collecting of stats. And yes, quite a bit of drinking with old men.
IQ: I take it you’re a cricketer? Spin bowler?
SK: Played U-13, U-15 in Lanka and U-17 and social cricket in New Zealand. I was a naturally gifted left-arm chinaman bowler, but had no control or discipline. Always started the season as first picked and ended up on the reserves bench.
IQ: Your novel is unique in its style – subheadings, diagrams etc. Is it your style? WG’s style? And was it always the case right from the first draft?
SK: It is WG’s style, which I think he stole from Kurt Vonnegut. The story came together in bits and pieces. Some days WG would share an anecdote on Pradeep, other days he would rant about the world. Some episodes were long, others no more than a paragraph. This seemed the most logical way of keeping everything coherent.
IQ: WG is strangely loveable, despite being so obnoxious. How on earth did you manage that?
SK: No idea. The man just came to life before my eyes, which is why writing it gave me so much joy. WG was just supposed to be a minor character, then he became one of four narrators, then he became sole narrator, then he took over the book. The guy’s voice kept evolving and I just kept following where it led.
IQ: If you know nothing about cricket, do you miss much from Chinaman?
SK: Quite a few non-cricket fans have got into it. Which is a great delight. It was written so that a reader with zero knowledge of cricket or Sri Lanka could enjoy it. Not sure how far I succeeded with that. I do think it’s a richer experience if you know your cricket, but I don’t think you’d be lost if you don’t.
IQ: Are you the founder of the fabulous game The Seamless Paki? Or have you heard people actually play it!
SK: I have to credit my brother Lalith, who’s also responsible for the fantastic diagrams throughout the book. It’s one of the games we played, bored in the back seat of the car, on childhood trips through Lanka’s hill country and New Zealand’s mountains. I’m pretty sure the Seamless Paki was his invention.
IQ: You seem to see cricket in Sri Lanka as inherently political – how so?
SK: Many of the behind-the-scenes power plays featured in Chinaman are based on real incidents. Politics gravitates towards money, power and fame. So it’s no surprise that it’s all over Sri Lankan cricket.
I suspect there are power-games being played out in Sri Lankan cricket as we speak. That would explain the world cup final team selections, the slew of resignations and the current debacle in England.
Or it could just be that without Murali, we’re, God forbid, regressing to the 80s.
IQ: You don’t seem bound by a sense of nationalism or patriotism, and have been quite critical about many aspects of Sri Lankan society. Have you rattled any cages?
SK: I’ve seen comments online calling me anti-nationalist because I describe Sri Lanka as an underachieving nation. Criticising and wanting to improve your country should be seen as a sign of patriotism. Because that’s what it is.
There are some lies novelists can get away with. And some you should avoid telling. If you’re serious about writing about Sri Lanka, it would be lazy and irresponsible to airbrush certain truths.
So far, no major cages rattled. Hopefully that will continue. It is, after all, only a cricket book written by a drunk.
IQ: You make a strong statement about ethnic divisions in your book. Is racism (against Tamils) still embedded in the structures of Sri Lankan society?
SK: I’d like to think we’ve come a long way from the repression of the 50s and the horror of the 80s. I’d like to think that we’ve become a more compassionate and considerate society.
But I’m a middle-class Sinhala Buddhist who lives in Colombo and abroad. What would I know?
IQ: Women are totally marginalised in the book – is this reflective of Sri Lankan society?
SK: Not really. I think it’s more reflective of WG’s prejudices and my shortcomings as a writer.
IQ: What’s next for you?
SK: Have already started on a new book. It will require tons of research and a plenty of writing and I’m quite excited by it. It’s set in Sri Lanka, but has nothing to do with sports or drunks. That’s all I know so far.
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