Suncatcher

Author: Romesh Gunesekera

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was my May pick for my Around the World Book Tour, and this is the book I chose for Sri Lanka.

In this book, set in 1960s Ceylon, we follow Kairo, a pre-teen boy who meets an older boy called Jay who he immediately feels a connection with. As strikes interrupt Kairo’s schooling, he spends most of his time over at Jay’s house, helping him take care of his pet birds and fish.

This book is really more of a character study than a plot-based story. It has a heavy coming-of-age theme and puts us in the atmosphere of 1960s Ceylon as Kairo learns about the different schools of thought dualling over power in the newly independent country. Kairo learns about communist ideals from his  father as well as capitalist ones from Jay’s uncle, all while trying to reconcile his admiration of Jay to his discomfort with the way he sees Jay treating others.

While I understand the sorts of themes and perspectives the author was trying to tease out, I didn’t feel like the story was either particularly interesting, and the fact that we’re seeing everything in this book through the eyes of a young boy means that much of the exposure to the sorts of ideas the author was trying to convey were limited mostly to his interactions with adults.

I think the author may have chosen to tell this story through Kairo’s perspective than, for example, one of his parents because Kairo, as a child, was perhaps more of an unbiased observer than any adult would be. But the story just felt a bit lackluster, and Kairo as a character seemed to have no goal other than being Jay’s friend. And while this is probably pretty accurate for most pre-teens, it doesn’t make for a very compelling narrative (for me at least).

I will say that literary fiction is not my preferred genre, and I don’t read a lot of it, so my thoughts on this book are very much coloured by that. One of the things I did like about this book is what I imagine would be a relatability people throughout the world could probably have with Kairo as a character. Despite the fact that this book is set in a very particular place and time, the experience of starting a new friendship but also learning that just because you like someone, doesn’t mean you always agree with them, is probably something a lot of people can relate to.