Book Review: The Amazing Racist by Chhimi Tenduf-La

My Copy

The Amazing Racist by Chhimi Tenduf-La is one of the best fiction novels I have come across in recent times. The story initially spins around on a humorous note, but eventually turned out to be a beautiful and sensual portrait of daily life of Sri Lankans. 

The story revolves around an English teacher of an international school in Colombo, Eddie Trusted who fell in love with a lively and charming Sri Lankan beauty, Menaka Rupasinghe. The problem is that to get her, Eddie must win the heart of her traditional and frightful father, whose dream is to marry her daughter within his own race, caste and religion and possibly belonging to the same locality. 

Eddie was desperate to have his dream love and tried to win the heart of Thilak, the father of Menaka, through various ways. He ate highly spicy curries that make him breath fire and bleed spice, drive through red light areas in a drunken state, act violently with his colleagues, and even slept with snakes. But, will Thilak, who hates the colour of Eddie’s skin, will ever able to accept Eddie?

The book will take you to a mystical spell with glittering wit and interesting set of characters. The Amazing Racists is truly an amazing story of a man who gets the homely feeling in a strange land and a father with filthy tongue. Above all the story flows along the bond they share that are stronger than that exist between the families.

At the beginning of the novel, it seems that the book will follow its path towards a prototype love story. But, the things took an about turn when you go deeper into the story. The author has wonderfully portrayed the mind of the father, who does not want his daughter to be married to a man belonging to a different race. All the other factors simply have no importance in making this decision. Eddie desperately tries to win the heart of his father in law. Most of these incidents describing his effort are very interesting and captivating. Few of them though failed to make the same impact. 

The best thing about the book is the author’s eye on every minute detail of each character of the story. The way the bonding between Eddie and his father in law grew was quite naturally narrated and some of the events were quite emotional for the readers as well. At the same time the author created few hilarious situations that ease out the tension and emotion, thus creating a soothing atmosphere. 

But, the main attraction of the book is the way the Sri Lankan culture is presented in it. As a debut novel, it is a wonderful read indeed from Chhimi Tenduf-La. He has really produced a masterpiece with a unique style and simple flow of incidents. The Amazing Racist is a novel for people from every generation and group. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will rate as one of the best I have come across in the recent times.

Author: Chhimi Tenduf-La

Genre: Fiction

ISBN : 9789350099124

Publisher: Hachette India

Price: Rs 399/-

My Rating: 4.5/5

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