Scan barcode
A review by waqasmhd
Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka
5.0
This is one of the best books I’ve read this year (2011).
Let me start with telling this first, I used to like and play cricket a lot. But over the time I just got dragged away from the game and lost all interest in the game. Now I hardly watch or play it. I am not interested in cricket anymore.
So for exactly this reason I was reluctant to pick this book up, thinking of it containing all sort of cricket clichés and stuff, which is another way of making myself bored. I only bought it on the forced recommendation of a friend who also doesn’t like cricket but told some good things about this book. Although, I bought it, it stayed in my ‘to-be-read’ bucket for longtime after my buying it.
Finally when I decided to read this book, I wasn’t expecting much and thought I wouldn’t be able to go beyond first few pages. So I wanted to get done with it asap, without wasting my time on something I wasn’t interested in.
But to be honest I was sucked right into it from the start despite my lack of interest in the cricket. Shehan’s got brilliant writing style that never feels tedious or overbearing. Writing flows from one heading to another at quite reasonable intervals so you don’t feel stuck under same chapter for long. Book is actually divided into 5 main parts (2nd being the longest).
Reading the blurb would make you think that its chockfull of cricket terminologies that would require thorough background knowledge of the game on your part as pre-requisite. Well, I cannot say completely no to it and I can understand if someone is not aware of cricket, it could be hard to digest this book for him, but you don’t need to know the game in detail. And knowledge about name of certain cricketers will let you enjoy this book a lot more.
What I realized that it wasn’t as much about the game of cricket itself rather it portrays Srilankan society, its culture and its ugly politics both in and out of the game. Cricket is part of the story but these other stuff makes this book very interesting.
Let me start with telling this first, I used to like and play cricket a lot. But over the time I just got dragged away from the game and lost all interest in the game. Now I hardly watch or play it. I am not interested in cricket anymore.
So for exactly this reason I was reluctant to pick this book up, thinking of it containing all sort of cricket clichés and stuff, which is another way of making myself bored. I only bought it on the forced recommendation of a friend who also doesn’t like cricket but told some good things about this book. Although, I bought it, it stayed in my ‘to-be-read’ bucket for longtime after my buying it.
Finally when I decided to read this book, I wasn’t expecting much and thought I wouldn’t be able to go beyond first few pages. So I wanted to get done with it asap, without wasting my time on something I wasn’t interested in.
But to be honest I was sucked right into it from the start despite my lack of interest in the cricket. Shehan’s got brilliant writing style that never feels tedious or overbearing. Writing flows from one heading to another at quite reasonable intervals so you don’t feel stuck under same chapter for long. Book is actually divided into 5 main parts (2nd being the longest).
Reading the blurb would make you think that its chockfull of cricket terminologies that would require thorough background knowledge of the game on your part as pre-requisite. Well, I cannot say completely no to it and I can understand if someone is not aware of cricket, it could be hard to digest this book for him, but you don’t need to know the game in detail. And knowledge about name of certain cricketers will let you enjoy this book a lot more.
What I realized that it wasn’t as much about the game of cricket itself rather it portrays Srilankan society, its culture and its ugly politics both in and out of the game. Cricket is part of the story but these other stuff makes this book very interesting.