Customer Reviews

Bodies in Motion: Stories

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

As a Sri Lankan who has also managed to spend a great deal of time in the US, I read "Bodies in Motion" with two colliding mentalities. One was looking at the characters as representatives and composites of the people I met in the US, the transplants from Sri Lanka, who came there at various stages of their lives (Sri Lankans don't have a "cute" label like ABCD's for themselves), and also rather critically to see if and how she had misread the Sri Lankan culture she never really managed to live in.

I had, of course, read some of Mary Anne's online work before, and her style was familiar to me. So no surprises there. What was surprising was the detail she managed to bring into the people, and even more, the similarity between the immigrants and the Americans they live with while still maintaining their Sri Lankan-ness. There were times when I saw them as something out of a period sitcom with the main characters still being Sri Lankan.

Mary Anne's writing style is excellent and sensual, sometimes too much so.. you have to put the book down and digest what you just read, like after a tasty and rich meal, in order to avoid a sensory overload.

The stories themselves skip lightly across the years and generations.. a glimpse here, an anecdote there, a section somewhere else. But those glimpses are what makes the book so interesting. One person's actions in a main story add depth to that person's supporting role in another. It takes skill to pull it off, but Mary Anne does it in style. (Am I gushing yet?)

Of course, like any collection of short stories, the style and topic changes. Some are evidently semi-autobiographical (read Mary Anne's website and see if you can figure out which ones), some are a somewhat confusing, and trying to read these as one continuous story is an invitation to get the wrong impression of the book. Far better to look on it as a multi-generational miniseries (a la Steven Spielberg's "Taken").

Finally, has Mary Anne misread Sri Lankan culture, as viewed from a Sri Lankan viewpoint? Not by much. There are spots where she has made a few errors, none of which are critical, and would only be caught out by a person who has had a lot of experience of Sri Lanka. They are anachronisms and make no difference to the stories, I will not mention them here. She has, however, managed to capture a lot of the Sri Lankan mentality quite well.

In conclusion, this is an awesome book, almost sensual in the way it wraps itself around you. I would not recommend reading it in one go. The best way to read it is one story at a time, when you catch a few minutes, in the bus, just before you sleep..

I was very disappointed by this book. It promises poetic writing and great sensuality, and both items seemed to be missing in my copy! "Pretty" writing at some points, but no depth, which seems a requirement in order to be truly poetic. There wasn't a character I'd care to follow to the end of the page, never mind to the end of a book full of mish-mashed stories. There's probaly a good and interesting tale about Sri Lanka/immigration in here somewhere to be told, but it seems that the author doesn't have the skill to bring that story out and make it hold the reader's interest.

Mary Anne Mohanraj's collection of linked stories follows the lives of two Sri Lankan families, both in Sri Lanka and in the United States over the course of decades. The characters struggle against expectations, either in a futile attempt to embrace them or an outright rejection of them. For example, in the fine "The Emigrant," seventeen year old Kuyila emigrates from the U.S. to Sri Lanka to fulfill the duties of a daughter and wife by marrying a man selected by their parents. Despite all her best efforts to be a good wife and daughter-in-law, her efforts are tossed aside in a single night during Tamil/Sinhalese riots of the 1980s. In the title story, American Chaya discovers that she cannot face who she is deep down, not even for the American man she loves. She has tried so hard to be self-sufficient that she cannot connect with those whom she loves in either culture.

Despite Mohanraj's literary talent, many of the stories feel incomplete. In these weaker stories, the endings feel rushed, as though the author stopped herself from confronting the crux of the story. She avoids risks and defining dramatic moments. In "Lakshmi's Diary" the most important moment is described nineteen years after it happened, thus lessening the complex significance for the narrator. The strongest stories, however, convey a believable sense of what it means to be these characters, both within their culture and as unique individuals. The stories of the younger generation tend to be the most convincing. I particularly liked "Tightness in the Chest," the story of Vivek, in love with his unconventional wife Raji and living in the brutally cold Vermont. Here, the roles are reversed, with Vivek taking over then household duties and enduring the unexplained absences of his wife.

The promotional material for this book compares Mohanraj to fellow Sri Lankan Michael Ondaatje, a unfair comparison for two reasons: one, their writing is dissimilar, with Mohanraj's style more direct and less poetic, and two, it sets up unrealistic expectations. Mohanraj's writing here never approaches brilliance, but she offers some quiet stories about lives that the reader comes to care about.

Bodies in Motion is part of my introduction to South Asian literature. I found it an interesting primer on the culture clashes SA immigrants must face.

The writing is sensual and beautiful to read. Oceans Bright and Wide drew me right in. I really loved the perspective of a father trying to do the best thing for his daughter. Even though that best thing went against all his upbringing. Princess in the Forest is a nice glimpse at Sri Lankan myth and legend and the juxtaposition with a modern woman a thought provoking counterpoint.

I found it interesting to learn about some of the Sri Lanken culture through these characters. I may never be able to understand submitting to an arranged marraige, but I certainly spent time thinking about Riddhi's decision in A Gentle Man. Could I have done that? Could any of us, with western culture as our base?

Mary Anne gives us a view of two cultures that most of us will never experience, and perhaps not truly understand. But it is important to learn about these views. There are many people who live with one foot each in different cultures. Understanding how they might think and feel and act under those pressures is enlightening. And enlightenment is the first step to understanding.

In the Realm of Sex. This could well be the subtitle of Bodies in Motion. Or, for those spiritually inclined, Varieties of Sexual Experience. This novel celebrates sex in its own tangled and thorny way.
A family saga, as it were, of mysteries and secrets, romance and recidivism, ambitions and aberrations, it is akin to Galsworthy's Forsythe Saga of an earlier era. If property was the magnet there, sex is in Mohanraj's book. A loose bildungsroman.

Profusion and perplexity, pain and pleasure seem to be crowding each other out. Experiments and explorations mark not just the arena of sex here. Fumblings, failures, and resolutions too are jostling to be in a great mix: civil society sex, perhaps of the entire subcontinent.

The title of a chapter towards the end, Wood and Flesh, is fairly symbolic and quite representative of the sexual cornucopia. The frame of Savitha and Thayalan's bed had on it "carved out fruits in impossible combinations, on the same tree: mangoes, bananas, coconuts, jackfruit. Birds nested in the canopied frame; small creatures hid in the dense foliage of headboard and footboard. Elephants
thundered along the base of the frame, and monkeys chittered just above their heads. IT WAS A CACOPHONY OF NATURE, UNBEARABLE IN ITS LOVELINESS." (Emphasis added).

This treat for the tongue, seemingly chaotic with plenitude, was not random or jumbled. It was a lot to choose from. So too the sex fare for the characters' revel and relish.

That this foliage also conceals a murder, and employs cuisine as a tool of rebellion and assertion on the part of a female character, are a reader's delight to discover and mull over.

What is Loveliness cannot be unbearable, it may seem Cacophonous alright. Just seem. Appearance and reality must remain in uneasy tension, in turns, conflictual and convergent.

At places the style adds to denseness or confusion. The genealogy should better be at the end.

Mary Anne Mohanraj is a major literary signature in Sri Lankan writing. She deserves lush commendation and a warm welcome in the fellowhood of South Asian writers.

Bodies In Motion is a tapestry of lush and poetic stories arcing through time and connecting the members of two Sri Lankan families through moments and memories.

Each member of the families is given their own section with a story that distills their existence into moments of revelation, identity, love, and loss. You will be sucked into their lives as you read each section, learning about people like Mangai, the unattractive baby of the family who falls in love with her brother's wife; Kuyila, sent off into an arranged marriage because of her lack of intelligence compared to her brilliant sisters, who intentionally causes the miscarriage of her first pregnancy, bears a daughter, then loses her husband to his first love; and Chaya, who cannot share her innermost feelings with man she loves and loses him because of her unwillingness to open up.

As each chapter finishes, you will be eager to discover the next person in the timeline and experience the fragments of his or her life which will in turn provide insights into the next. While many of the stories are filled with loss and pain, they are all covered with a shadow of hope - for their futures and the futures of the friends and family who will follow them.

Bodies in Motion is like a family photo album where each individual picture captures a moment in the family's story. The photo album may jump around between various family members and may span years and perhaps even generations, but taken in its entirety, it portrays the individuals who are united by a common genealogy.

Ms. Mohanraj follows two Sri Lankan families over several generations and introduces us to a varied mix of progeny. Each chapter focuses on one family member and could easily stand alone as a short story. However, when all the stories are put together, they emit a richness that is greater than the sum of the individual stories. The reader is treated to nuances of family relationships and the evolution of family culture over the generations and back and forth across the ocean. The individual stories are also tied together with rich sensuality and multiple references to spicy Sri Lankan cookery and steamy sexuality.

Looking at generational expectations and the immigrant/emigrant experience are but two possible book club topics that could spring from this book.

Keep writing, Ms. Mohanraj!

It's a measure of the success of this book that it was even published: short story collections, even inner-linked ones such as these, are a hard sell to editors and publishing houses. But books on the immigrant experience in America are popular nowadays, and Bodies in Motion is a welcome addition to the bookshelves. For the most part, however, the themes are not new. Characters protest against arranged marriage, women yearn for more freedom and education, husbands want old-fashioned and docile mates, American culture seduces with insincerity, etc.
A good book with some exquisite writing, but Mohanraj might do well to have spent a little longer trying to dig deeper, past the familiar and already been there, done that.

This book was a lovely and sensual introduction to immigrant fiction. As a white American who's immigrants are far removed from her life, this book was an eye-opener for me. I loved learning about the culture of Sri Lankan in this fashion, as well as gaining a greater understanding of what immigrants in today's world face.

The stories in this book draw you in. The different characters see different facets of each other. One of the things I loved was seeing a previous viewpont character from a different point of view, by a father or mother, child or lover. The different faces we all wear are described my Mohanraj very well and with ease.

These are the stories of life and love, sex and death, laughter and tears, trust and betrayal and most of all: humanity. Each of the varied stories through the years and families offers something different to be treasured. And you can almost smell the curries wafting up from the pages.

Bodies In Motion is a collection of short stories that spans 60 years and two interlocking Sri Lankan families. The creation of this book also spans time as according to her web site, the author wrote the stories over the course of ten years.

Like most short story collections, the book offers a glimpse into the characters' lives, so the writing itself must draw you in. Some of the stories transported me into the characters' world. I also learned a little about Sri Lankan history and culture and the Sri Lankan immigrant experience. Though like other readers I thought the most rich and juicy details centered around spicy cooking and sexuality. Mohanraj literally and figuratively plumbs the depths of her characters through their intimate relationships. I enjoyed reading about the same character through the years and from different POVs. Often the story ended without a complete resolution, though at times the resolution was further explained in another story.

The second story "Seven Cups of Water" introduces Managi a lesbian who ends the collection in a prologue with a beautiful description of her joy in cooking and eating. Sushila with whom she spends a steamy seven nights is later portrayed through her husband's eyes in one of the best stories "Tightness in the Chest"