Coming-of-age novel

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, by Shyam Selvadurai; New Delhi: Penguin India; 2006 (first print 2005); 211 pp.; Rs. 250.

The monsoons and the roiling sea mirror the turbulence within Amrith, especially after Niresh's unexpected visit. We first meet Amrith after a storm on the anniversary of his mother's death. Ever since his parents were killed in a motorcycle accident (the details are murky, though we know that his father was an alcoholic), Amrith has lived with his mother's bubbly best friend, Bundle, and her gentle husband, Lucky. However, Amrith seems to blame Aunty Bundle for his mother's death. He punishes her by pretending to have forgotten his own mother: "She asked him the same questions every year. 'Son, don't you remember your mother at all?' He shook his head . . . and avoided looking at her. Later . . . Amrith kept a few steps behind Aunty Bundle. He felt a curious bitter pleasure in denying her his memories."

Amrith leads a privileged life with the Manuel-Pillais--it involves country clubs, servants, tailor-made clothes, summer vacations and good food . . . most things that money can buy. But emotionally he's destitute, constantly yearning for his mother, whom he achingly recalls in vivid flash backs that he doesn't share. He is a shy, withdrawn, "invisible" teenager, one who does not have friends. Although he is close to his adoptive sisters, Selvi and Mala, he experiences a sense of alienation from the family. The situation peaks when Niresh visits Sri Lanka with his father, Merlin, Amrith's maternal uncle. A mature 16-year-old who's grown up in Canada, Niresh forges an immediate bond with his newfound cousin, lapping up everything that is Sri Lankan about him. For Niresh, who isn't as self-assured as he appears, feels alienated in both his Western and Eastern worlds. And for the first time since losing his mother, Amrith finds someone who "belongs to him." He starts to idolize his Canadian relative, slowly letting down his own guard. As he does so, he is puzzled and ashamed by his physical reaction to Niresh's body.

Before Niresh's arrival, Amrith's holidays show all the signs of dragging--his only plans were to learn typing at Uncle Lucky's office and audition for the role of Desdemona in his school's production of Othello. Amrith's life soon begins to parallel the play, with its theme of jealousy and revenge. Enthralled by Niresh, Amrith neglects rehearsing for the part and, ultimately, is cast as Cassio. He's mercilessly teased about it (especially the scene where Cassio and Iago kiss) because of his devotion to Niresh. However, the drama teacher rebukes a student who picks on Amrith: "I have friends in the theater world who are that way inclined, and it's no laughing matter in this country," she says. "I don't like such things being ridiculed. Don't ever do that again."

As Amrith starts acknowledging the nature of his love for Niresh--and it's lifetime implications--he realizes that he will always be different. In his country, this type of love is not "natural." He is a "ponnaya," a derogatory word "whose precise meaning Amrith did not understand, though he knew it disparaged the masculinity of another man, reducing him to the level of a woman."

In this gay coming-of-age novel, Selvadurai paints a vivid picture of his native country, the background to his portrayal of a teenager's loneliness and angst. However, Amrith's acceptance of his homosexuality is less convincing--it seems a little too quick for a boy who's spent more than six years dealing with other life-changing issues. But we do watch him mature, learn from his mistakes, forgive and realize that jealousy can drive a person to take extreme measures. When it creates a rift between him and Niresh, Amrith knows how to "surmount the barrier" that's between them. And as the year's first monsoon season slowly ebbs, so does some of Amrith's inner turmoil.

Farah Ameen works as a copy editor in New York.