"The less they are heard, the easier they are forgotten."
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
by Shehan Karunatilaka
Genre: Historical Fiction
About: Maali Almeida is having a strange dream. He dreams his body is sinking in the Beira Lake, while his soul is stuck in line. The afterlife, it seems, is a bureaucracy with a deadline and he's given seven moons to go into The Light. But Maali never knew what he wanted to do in life, and he's not sure what he wants to do in death either. All that matters, all that's ever mattered, are his photographs. Someone may even have killed him for them...
The Good
I loved this novel. I'm so sure it will stick with me and remain a top read but to summarise briefly my thoughts, here are seven things I loved about this novel:
🌑 Maali Almeida. I loved the voice of this novel. Maali is a deeply flawed but deeply beautiful character. Usually I find second person too distant and lacking personality but this narration is, oddly for a ghost, full of life.
🌒 The Subject Matter. Karunatilaka doesn't give a history lesson, but the way he opens the readers eyes to the past is exactly like we're looking at Maali's photographs. It's a hard look but the surreal dark humour of the novel prevents this from being a bleak read.
🌓 The Philosophy. As I said, it has a dark humour and goes over very deep, unsolvable topics. I loved the way ideas were brought to the reader. It never felt preachy, the writing was razor sharp and had me bookmarking so many sections I knew I'd want to go back over to think about.
🌔 The Afterlife. A very humourous take on what happens after we pass. As the novel progressed there were more and more layers to it. I loved the ghosts, ghouls, demons, cons and bureaucracy to it all.
🌕 The Mystery. How Maali died wasn't the main plot and yet this part of the story was really gripping, especially towards the end. I had different theories throughout and really enjoyed the reveal.
🌖 The Characters. Everyone was interesting to me. Sena goes through a transformation, DD is heartbreaking to watch through Maali's eyes, I became so fiercely protective of Jaki and I loved Ranee's interactions. Everyone was complex and so distinct.
🌗 The Writing. It really was breathtaking. Not in a flowery prose kind of way but just how Karunatilaka got his ideas across with intelligence, humour and originality.
The Bad
It wasn't a fast read. I don't think it was a really slow read either, but I always find novels that use sections, instead of chapters, as a slower reading experience. It made total sense for this to be split into the seven moons, but I just enjoy the pacing of novels with chapters better. I also think there's a lot of complexity given to this novel in regards to the history, which can be confusing for people, like me, who are ignorant of Sri Lanka's past. Again, not exactly a negative as I think Karunatilaka did a fantastic job of educating the reader and I loved this book so much, but there were moments of confusion which of course takes you out of the reading experience. However, better educating myself and re-reading this, I'm sure it won't be a problem in the future.
The Somewhat Iffy
The rules of the afterlife were a bit hazy to me. Not sure why seven moons were given to Maali when it seems as if you can walk into The Light whenever. I also noticed a few inconsistencies, such as how many whispers were used at the end (Maali says two, then later on claims it was three), and he is surprised by dog ghosts at the end when I thought he'd met an animal ghost already towards the beginning of the novel.
Overall
Dark, funny and utterly unique. It's as vivid and beautiful as its cover, with clever and thought-provoking writing. Maali Almeida has become a new favourite literary character for me.
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