Customer Reviews

The Hamilton Case: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Some of the positive reviewers have already done a terrific job, I'll just emphasize a few points. First, this book is not a mystery, thriller or legal novel, although some people may get that impression from the title. There is not a lot of fast-paced action. That would be unsuited to the book, set in a hot, wet jungle climate mostly during the British colonial period. You can't read through it fast, because it is necessary to savor the author's use of language. This is a gourmet feast. If you have never been in a jungle at night, you'll learn exactly what it looks, sounds and feels like. Her description is strikingly original: the main character's brother-in-law has a hairy body. What the author says is "one longed to ask him if he'd had an accident with a bottle of hair restorer." The idea of Sam trying so hard to be an Englishman, while the British would always see him as Sinhalese (when he gets off the train at Paddington, a woman immediately assumes he's a porter, although he's been a barrister for many years) reminds me of the predicament of Hari Kumar in The Jewel in the Crown. The story is very intricate, and it is necessary to read to the end to see what may (or may not) have really happened. There are plenty of ghosts (real and figurative)that haunt this family. I think it may be necessary to read this book more than once to fully appreciate it.

Sam Obeysekere seems never to entertain a moment of self-doubt or humility, defined by his embrace of everything British, raised in a country whose values are dictated by the strict conventions and morality of a race affronted by the inherent messiness of Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Educated at Oxford, Sam fashions himself in the English image he covets, given his race; he practices law in Ceylon with typical pompous satisfaction, the same air of conceit that marks him by classmates at school, "Obey by name, Obey by nature", a phrase that haunts his life. As the protagonist, Sam critically examines those around him, yet he is emotionally in thrall to his beautiful mother, frightened, simpering sister and later, his wife, a woman he treats with unbelievable disdain. Sam's marriage is one of convenience, his wife a pawn for his entrenched beliefs about women and his scorn for the weaker sex. This is a man who exists isolated in the world, his days carefully constructed in the English manner, rigid and unbending; late in life, alone and estranged from his son, Obeysekere is given to some introspection; it occurs to him that everything could have been different.

Early in his career, when a planter if sound murdered, Sam is given the assignment as prosecutor. The Hamilton Case should be a career plum, an opportunity for Obeysekere to display his mastery of the courtroom, yet the case is fraught with contradictions from the beginning. Rather than believe natives could be the perpetrators, Sam prosecutes an Englishman, a friend of the murdered man. Confident he has presented the perfect scenario, Sam has nevertheless created a conundrum for himself: a white man accused of a crime against a man of color in a country ruled by British vanity and arrogance. Obeysekere's misperception of the true nature of the task is a metaphor for his life, his name forever attached to a convoluted confusion of mores, suspicion and racial innuendo, a case that is discussed for years without satisfactory conclusion.

Whether he is a victim of the British Empire, albeit a willing one, or an emotionally inept young man starving for peer acceptance, Obeysekere surrounds himself with curt denial of family and country, isolated by childhood distortions that reach like tentacles into his adult life. Every thought paraphrased in English vernacular, Sam is a product of his particular generation, as this foreign mentality usurps an entire culture for over a century. When the English finally desert the continent, Sam is adrift in a civilization that has little relevance to the Ceylon of his imagination.

Kretser's extraordinary gift shines in her translation of the ubiquitous Brits into the very marrow of certain personalities, jolly good fellows like Sam Obeysekere, shadow images of themselves. Kretser's language is otherworldly and transcendent, nuanced by time and place; this is a precise and penetrating vision of social hypocrisy against a remarkable canvas of profligate island beauty, laced with the imminence of decay. A kaleidoscope of shifting colors and shapes, The Hamilton Case is a heady mix of mystery and myth. Michelle de Kretser guards her secrets carefully, Obeysekere's raison d'etre based on a faulty premise, resulting in a life slightly skewed and greatly distorted. Although compared to Ishiguro's Remains of the Day, I found The Hamilton Case more reminiscent of C.S. Godshalk's Kalimantaan for its wealth of lush images and the contrast of Victorian convention in tenuous coexistence with a violent culture. Luan Gaines/ 2004.

The author, now living is Australia, is native to Sir Lanka, the setting for this rather complex 2003 novel. The country was called Ceylon before independence in 1948 and most of the action of the story takes place then, under the yoke of an English colonialism which penetrated into every aspect of life. The first few chapters introduce our main character, Sam Obeysekere, born in the early part of the 20th century to a privileged dark skinned Ceylonese family. There are troubles though and deep secrets which are only hinted at in the beginning. But as we get to know Sam better, there are some things that start us wondering. Sam grows up, is educated at Oxford, and comes back to Sri Lanka to become a prosecuting attorney. That's when he encounters the Hamilton Case. A wealthy tea grower had been murdered. At first it was blamed on the coolies who worked on his plantation. But after a little investigation, that an Englishman was put on trial, something unthinkable at the time because this was a Ceylonese court. Even after the case ended, there were loose ends that were never tied up, but that was only halfway through the book.

As the story goes along we meet some memorable characters, most notably Sam's mother Maud. She was once of the privileged set, the type of woman who raised eyebrows in the 1920s with her flamboyance. She drank and smoked and went to parties and usually was the subject of gossip. As she aged, however, and her husband died, she depended on Sam who was now a wealthy man, married and with a son of his own. By now my own feelings about him had changed as he treated both his wife and his mother badly. Basically, Maud was allowed to live in the home of her young womanhood where Sam was born. This home was at the edge of a jungle and she was virtually a prisoner there even though she had two servants, who are themselves interesting characters. It was in this portion of the book that I learned more than I ever imagined I wanted to know about insects, snakes, plants, humidity, monsoon storms, leaking roofs and deep loneliness. And I got to love Maud who somehow never lost her spirit and energy even though she started losing her mind.

The author uses words well, a flowery style that seems a bit too over-decorative in places, but yet is entirely appropriate to the characterizations of the people and the worship of the English language at the time. Through it all though, there is a rumble of discontent, and we're also introduced to the revolutionary who once was educated in the same English school as Sam. He was also privileged but chose be "of the people", insisting on wearing sarong at all times, even with an English jacket. Early on, he marries Sam's sister. But that is another part of this convoluted story that at first seems disjointed but yet all comes together in the final chapters.

One of the things I loved about this book is because it took me to a time and place I knew nothing about. It enriched my understanding of colonialism and its many effects which still resonate today. And it also introduced me to some very memorable characters, each of them flawed in different ways. This book was quite an undertaking for the author and I applaud her efforts even though there were parts that dragged a little. No doubt about it though, this is a fine book. No wonder it was chosen by The New York Times as one of their notable books of the year.

Please ignore those who have not finished the book before writing the review. This novel is about a "series of substitutions" that the characters make for absences in their lives. It is a meditation on the mystery novel, and the significance of the Hamilton case can't be understood until you give yourself the pleasure of finisihing the text. This novel is the story of Sam Obeysekere, a man born in Ceylon whose relationship to British Colonialism sets the stage for a discussion of the ways in which his family and culture are marked by the ghosts that rise up from the thousands of small deaths that result from being less than citizens. It's a gorgeous novel. While the part in the middle about his mother seems in some ways to be off-track, please stick with this novel. This is an extraordinarily beautiful book.

For the previous reviewers who said they "got tired of it", "didn't make sense"...yikes. Go back to the Hardy Boys.
This book is not a straightforward "whodunit", if that's what you want. This story is to be read on many levels. For the engaged reader who likes keeping track of a multilayered story and who enjoys pulling all the threads together, an active rather than a passive reader, this book was rewarding, even moving, by its end.

In 1802 Ceylon was made a colony of the British Empire. Immediately, dissensions within the kingdom gave the British an opportunity to interfere in Ceylonese affairs. Restrictions on European ownership of land were lifted. The British adopted a unitary administrative and judicial system for the whole island. They reduced the autocratic powers of the governor and set up Executive and Legislative councils to share in the task of government; unofficial members of government were gradually appointed to the Legislative Council. English became the language of government and the medium of instruction in schools. Opportunities were created for the Ceylonese entrepreneur, and employment was plentiful for the English-educated.

The Hamilton Case, an absolutely gorgeously written novel, is set against the backdrop of this profound social change. The novel tells the story of Sam Obeysekere, an Oxford-educated, a lawyer, the son of a "mudaliar." Once regional leaders, the mudaliars became colonial administrators for the British, making them extremely rich. Sam is a loyal British subject who "obeys by name, obeys by nature."

Sam's Ceylon is a country of champagne parties, dowager ladies, servants, cricket matches, and elephant hunting. Sam's father, extravagant and wasteful, is killed early on in the story. His mother, Maud, is vacuous, with a weakness for "fornication and whatnot." Sam bitterly resents his mother's philandering ways and her decision to let his fragile sister Claudia, marry Jaya, a bourgeois friend from his childhood whom he bitterly resents. Sam takes his unspoken anxieties out on his family - a family further addled by being mortgaged to the hilt. Preservation of the family money becomes a war that is waged hourly, skirmish-by-skirmish. Sam thinks he has "weight and quiddity" but his life is like a "gale raging off stage, mocking him with losses."

The novel centers on the scandalous murder of Hamilton, a British landowner. Through what he believes is brilliant detective work, Sam "proves" that Hamilton was killed by another Englishman. But as the story progresses it becomes apparent that the case was interpreted according to the different interests of the particular political and legal parties at the time. Each protagonist, such as the Tamils and the British - were forced to choose his side in a colonial structure on the very brink of breaking down.

In the center of the novel, the narrative shifts back to Sam's dysfunctional family. Claudia, wracked with guilt at her child's death, commits suicide. Maud, with her fading beauty, is entombed in Lokugama, the family estate, where she is left to decay and wonder the corridors talking of enchantment. Sam's under appreciated and troubled wife Leela - whom he only marries out of a sense of filial duty - is ensconced in Allenby House, where in "every room the sea mourns with her." The final part of the novel involves Sam's troubled relationship with his son, Harry. Sam wants Harry to have the best of everything being "British" can offer, but Harry eventually turns on is father's fussy, archaic ways and ultimately betrays him

The Hamilton Case has an absorbing narrative drive and a rich texture. It is a complex book with some beautiful prose - witness the "sky as a moonstone feathered in gray" and "the moon, a silver sprat held in a mesh of leaves." De Kretser portrays some powerful colonial themes of race, class and readership, and she does it with a style that is, at once, languid and intellectual. Sam Obeysekere is obviously a boorish, self-absorbed man, and he does some terrible, misguided things, but in the end, he is heartrending in his dreadful, self-inflicted isolation and loneliness. Mike Leonard June 04.

The Hamilton Case is set in gorgeous, seductive landscape, Sri Lanka, and tells a captivating story of pompous Sam Obey, his family and its secrets. Sam is an Edwardian scholar who returns to his native Ceylon after studies. His native country is going through a complex period politically and socially, and different people make different decisions how to cope with the changes and chose to believe in different things. Through Sam's interaction with the other characters draws, we are unveiled a tragic portrait of Sam. Sam later takes on the Hamilton Case, which turns out to be a story within the story, and proves that there can be more than one way of seeing the world, more than one way to understand reality. The novel is cleverly written, and told through four different narratives. Author's language is lush and enchanting, and hauntingly draws the readers into the heart of Ceylonese jungle.

This novel, a fascinating journey through Sri Lankan history and character, is so skillfully evocative, written with such a full-spectrum sensitivity and distinctive style, that I can only be grateful to the author for providing me with one of the finest reading experiences of my life. In this age of numbing video overload, it's a relief to have one's faith reconfirmed in literary sense and sensibility. Bravo!

I read this book in Italy and was constantly admiring of Michelle de Kretser's gorgeous writing and profound insight into human nature and the arc of a life. It is so mature and so complete a work of art that, at the very least, it should be short listed for the Man Booker.

When I picked up this book, I was presented with a series of charming but not seemingly connected anecdotes about life in the island nation of Ceylon. They were interesting stories, but not a connected narrative, and I kept wondering when the mystery of the "Hamilton Case" was going to come up.

It turns out that there is a lot of introductory anecdotal text before the reader is treated to the "Hamilton Case." I've read that some reviewers didn't get through the book, and I encourage everyone to stick around until they get to the mystery. The book takes off from there. This is an excellent piece of historical fiction and a rich literary tale.