A key to greater enjoyment of literature

Coming after his highly popular Guide to Literary Criticism and Guide to Poetry, D.C.R. A. Goonetilleke’s Guide to Fiction is just as rapier-sharp in its analysis of the variegated sample texts (while at the same time showcasing their subtleties). It is a treasure trove for the student of literature.

The senior don, Emeritus Professor at the English Department of the Kelaniya University, is known as an authority on Sri Lankan English literature, apart from being a well-established critic of twentieth century and postcolonial literature.

He is known for adroitly spotting ‘the elephant in the room’ whether it is our English writers’ preoccupation with Black July or the fact that the true division in Sri Lankan society is not between the races but betwixt the Westernized and the vernacular-speaking.

The introduction of the book is sharply focused and so is what follows; one admires Prof Goonetilleke for having a mind that vivisects each literary work with clinical precision, his writing crisp and compelling. But this is not to say he kills the spontaneous joy of literature- far from it.

Encompassing the Regency period

(Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) down to Adichie Chimamanda (2009- The Thing around your Neck) the book gives a rich slice of the English cannon in prose with an excerpt from each text - whether short stories and novels followed by a commentary.

Ranging from British, Afro-American, Indian and migrant to postcolonial writing, the thirteen novels and short stories chosen deal with the issues the

writers raise, their standpoint, language and techniques they adopt as shaped by the periods and countries in which they lived.

With his usual economy of words, the book is a pleasure to read.

There are certain slight slips, like the family in Saki’s The Lumber Room being interpreted as ‘upper class’ because the garden was ‘spacious and well-tended’ and the servants included a ‘groom and a kitchen maid’ (in the 19th Century).

But then as ‘DCRA’ says in the introduction, these are not relevant questions when it comes to fiction. Because characters live only ‘within the context of a given work and their verisimilitude functions only within the context of the given work’.

Some would not agree with him (particularly the hardcore aficionados who love the fanspeculations) but one finds it difficult not to be swayed by his sound opinions.

Our pantheon of English academics are sometimes propelled by the ‘ivory tower’ status but DCRA transmits his innate passion for literature through this (relatively) small companion volume which will inspire many an academic-to-be to burrow deep into the sweet marrows of literature.