Original Prin a hilarious romp of a novel
Prin is a midlife academic at a financially strapped Catholic university in downtown Toronto. A specialist in the sea horse in Canadian literature (particularly in the work of Michael Ondaatje), a committed husband, and a devoted father of four precocious daughters, Prin is more or less grateful with his lot in life, despite often wrestling with questions of faith.
Following a brush with cancer, Prin commits to becoming a better person. He wants to prove himself a loving husband and a more devout Catholic. His vows are soon tested when a former girlfriend arrives on the scene to help save Prin’s institution. Pledging to do all he can to support the university president, Prin boards a plane to the Middle East with Wende to pursue a sketchy international partnership opportunity, despite — or perhaps because of — his uncertainty about Wende’s romantic intentions.
Boyagoda sets up a tightly paced novel in “Original Prin” that succeeds on a number of fronts. It’s a hilarious romp of a campus novel, poking fun at the marketdriven ethos of the modern Canadian academy. It’s a touching look at the complicated sacrifices demanded of familial love. At heart, it’s a richly humorous novel that explores the struggle for spiritual believers in a fiercely secular world. While Prin’s a typical middle-class Torontonian, he also probes his relationship with God daily. Prin’s comic scenes in the confessional, looking for solace from a recalcitrant priest, are some of the funniest in the book. Boyagoda’s also adept at capturing the rambunctious multi-faith, multicultural zeitgeist of the city.
When Prin and Wende encounter a terrorist cell on their Middle East sojourn, the pace picks up, and the novel pivots, with varying success, into a contemporary geopolitical thriller. The first in a projected trilogy, Boyagoda ends the book on a cliffhanger that feels a tad too abrupt, a little too much like an adrenalin-filled Netflix season finale. With an instantly likable protagonist, however, and a firstrate cast of supporting characters — including Prin’s overprotective mother, Lizzie, and her partner, Kareem — in this first instalment, Boyagoda has crafted a novel that’s fresh and utterly original.