Legend of Pradeep Mathew

I’m sure this is a very good book if you understand anything about cricket or Sri Lanka. I finally quit trying to understand cricket or remember names. I got the gist of it, but it was frustrating to not really understand the in jokes. I’m looking forward to book group discussion where the one member who understands all the background can explain it. For most Americans, I suspect it will be like reading a book in another language where you have to look up words in every sentence.

Nice book for cricket lovers!

Excellent idea... What a fine writer

Hard to understandNames difficult to keep track ofTo me unless you seen or played a sport it is difficult to explain

This mind-boggling "quest novel" from Sri Lanka operates under its own rules, defies expectations, twists and turns on its own momentum, and ultimately resolves itself in ways the reader never predicts. Wijedasa Gamini Karunasena, known as Wije, the main character here, is a sportswriter who has covered cricket for years. Winner of Ceylon Sportswriter of the Year, 1969 and 1976, he has always believed Pradeep Mathew, a Tamil who was a star in only four games over his career, to be the best cricket player who ever lived, someone whose feats have been wiped out, somehow, in the records. Though hobbled by drink, and in poor health, Wije buddies up with his friend, Ariyatne Cletus Byrd, to produce a documentary about the best cricket players in Sri Lanka, with one whole episode devoted to Pradeep Mathew. As Wije does his research on Pradeep, however, every lead seems to end, every clue seems to disappear, and Pradeep seems to be on the receiving end of a plan to wipe him off the face of Sri Lankan cricket history. No one even knows if Pradeep is alive or dead.Wije's own life also becomes more complicated as the novel progresses. His drinking becomes serious enough to threaten his life. His wife Sheila is frustrated by his alcoholism. His son Garfield is alienated, living outside Sri Lanka and marrying and divorcing more than once. His friend Jonny is arrested and thrown in jail, and Ari, his statistician, wearies of Wije's problems. All this time, Sri Lanka is fighting for its political life, with the Tamil Tigers fighting for total control of the north and east and the military trying to maintain control of the rest of the country. Bombings, assassinations, and terrorism accompany the daily news about the latest Sri Lanka cricket team losses and occasional victories, with the characters here more concerned with the cricket results. "Sport can unite worlds, tear down walls and transcend race, the past and all probability," Wije observes. "Unlike life, sport matters."Hugely successful with UK readers, many of whom are passionate cricket fans, the novel may be challenging to US readers because of the unfamiliar cricket vocabulary. The book itself is ultimately not just about cricket, however, as much as it is about people who love cricket because it provides them with an exciting escape from the everyday humdrum and people who believe that cricket offers some structure in which the injustices of their lives can be seen playing out against the larger world. The Sri Lankan team rarely wins, but the passion with which the fans support it suggests that they find their losses attributable to "cosmic" forces beyond their control, such as corruption, game fixing, the interference of the government, and tampering with players, all of which appear in this novel. Racism and the stratification of Sri Lankan society also play a role here.The novel, filled with wonderful dialogue and humor, portrays life in Sri Lanka in ways not seen before in literature. The line between what is true and what is fictional blurs as the novel develops, with the reader benefiting from the mystery and the uncertain chronological time line which keeps the suspense lively. A unique, enjoyable, and often wacky look at an unusual part of the world through a sport which few Americans understand. Mary Whipple

This novel, was previously published as "Chinaman", is about an old sports writer, Wijedasa Gamini Karunasena (or "Wije" as his friends call him) and his search for a forgotten Sri Lankan cricket hero, Pradeep Sivanathan Mathew. The "Chinaman" is the description of a cricket bowling manoeuvre) When Wije was diagnosed with liver failure and given a poor diagnosis he decided to make a documentary film about Pradeep Mathew. Throughout the book, Wije would lament his giving up alcohol on account of his health ("After fifty years of distinguished liver abuse, I, W.G. Karunasena , gave up booze."). He continues to sing praises of drink and drinking - "Has alcohol brought misery to humanity or kept it at bay?"The story is replete with cricket players, cricket matches, and cricket terminology but far from being intimidating to a non-cricket player, the author unfolds them all with clarity and panache. "The Duckworth-Lewis method of resolving rain-affected games has divided the cricketing fraternity into those who do not understand it and those who pretend they do." No wonder the philosopher C E M Joad described cricket as a game for two (batsman and bowler) played by 22 players.Some of the jokes might not be original but they fit perfectly into the story in Karunatilaka's hands: "It begins with the alcohol counselor two days after I am discharged. Before we go, Sheila [Wije's wife] gives me an article from "The Lanka Woman" on "How to overcome a Drinking Problem". `I didn't know that Lankan women had drinking problems,' I snort. `They do. They're called husbands.' Unlike me Sheila doesn't laugh at her own jokes."Karunatilaka inclines us to respect unsung heroes in sport, and sympathise with unfulfilled writers who pickle their livers with alcohol. He exposes the hypocrisy of the aristocratic class and shows us that the world is just like a zoo, where "the animals are as shabby as the people looking at them." The author is a spinner of a great tale in which he alludes to Sri Lanka's troubled history and the war with the Tamil Tigers, but his accounts of fights between cricketers are hilarious. The story begins with Wije's quixotic search for Pradeep Mathew, and if not for the snippets of information concerning his past, one might suspect that that man does not exist. By the end of the book, one might even wonder whether this was a story about Wije's documentary on Pradeep Mathew - or Pradeep Mathew's biography of Wijedasa the sports writer.

Excellent buy