Customer Reviews

The Unyielding Clamor of the Night: A Novel

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I can't decide whether this is a book about Sri Lanka, although that country's name is never mentioned, or about some fantastical country concocted in the author's mind. The geographical and historical references about the Indian subcontinent are there, but the characters act like decadent Westerners questioning their angst and indulging their fleshy desires. The writing flows well enough, but is wasted on a plot that is contrived and awkward at best.

A well written novel. It is engaging. It is not fast paced, but it also does not plod. As a previous reviewer stated, if you are looking for someone to cheer for, this is not the book. Initially, the ending of the novel was frustrating too me. However, as I have thought since about the book, I have been fascinated by the open-endedness and the ambiguity. Sometimes life doesn't have heroes. Sometimes individuals feel like they are forced to choose one side or another, with both sides being unsatisfying. This book captures this dilemma.

Arun has left his privileged home on a Southeast Asian island to teach in an area where a civil war is tearing apart daily village life. Motivated by idealism, Arun adopts a life of poverty and dedicates himself to improving the lives of others, but even his optimism and hopes are shattered by problems trying to educate the village's children, and when the war hits too close to home he must confront long-buried secrets and assess his life anew. A stark, evocative novel of goodwill and war evolves.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is the first novel by Neil Bissoondath that I've read. "The Unyielding Clamor of the Night" is a difficult story to embrace. It is an eye-opener to what the experience must be like for many who live in third-world countries with oppressive dictatorships and age-old racial rivalries. Loosely based on Sri Lanka, Bissoondath follows a young man named Arun whose family runs a wealthy printing business in the capital. Arun announces to his family that he does not wish to take over the family business, leaving it for his sister Joy & brother-in-law Surein. Both Arun's father and mother become fatalities of a bomb on a small airplane. This leads Arun to follow his dream to become a teacher. He travels to the southern poorer part of the country to a town called Omeara. As the new teacher, he finds an uphill battle to acceptance. Few students show up for school. The ones who come have arms missing or are learning disabled. Arun makes friends with the mayor of the town who hired him, the butcher and his family. Mr. Jaisaram has a wife who has vowed to remain silent. His daughter Anjani is a beautiful free spirit who has education but does not like to conform. Arun and Anjani become good friends, with Anjani warning him of the limits of her attraction. We learn that Anjani has had an affair with another female student that caused her to be expelled from the school in the capital and sent home to the South. Still, one night Anjani comes to Arun who loses his virginity. Arun has a plastic prosthesis for a congenital withered leg that was eventually amputated. He overcomes his doubts about his self-image and gives in to the lovely Anjani. Meanwhile political events swirl about the story. The army has a camp outside of town and runs maneuvers in the mountains for a group of rebels called "the Boys." An unknown bomb maker blows up a bus on market day, raining hands and legs over the small village. One morning dead dogs are discovered killed and mutilated along with one man executed by the Boys. The army storms into town looking for rebels. For a novel that is often cerebral inside Arun's mind, there are a number of exciting events that occur. Arun begins to teach the soldiers at the camp and develops a friendship with a young officer named Seth. There are a number of secrets within this small town that peel off like layers of an onion.

However Bissoondath takes a major risk because it is very hard to understand or like characters who resort to terrorism. With Anjani's death, we learn who the bombmaker is just as Arun learns the true causes of his parents' death. We are presented with a third-world society where no one's hands are clean. Education and social stratification vie with the notion that in war the end must justify the means. As Arun's good friend Seth sits on the platform waiting for the train that will soon take him home to meet his new son, the book ends with a bang. After spending so much time with these characters and getting a glimpse into a hard existence, it is sad that Bissoondath leaves no one for whom we can cheer. Neil's prose at first struck me as overly wordy, but eventually I came to enjoy his lyrical descriptions of the beach, town & life of people in Omeara. When both the government and those who oppose them are ruthless, does "terrorist" simply become a title one gives to an opponent? I appreciated my journey through this world, but found the ending as disturbing as the novel was enjoyable. If you're the kind of reader who needs a good guy for whom to cheer, this will not be your cup of tea. However, if you enjoy gritty adventure about characters for whom violence may be the only voice of protest available, this may help us understand why much of our world today is rocked by explosions.