A Brief Encounter with Awakening: Revisiting Anuk Arudpragasam’s “The Story of a Brief Marriage”
The beginning of the end of the 20th century was often marked by the politicization of the literary world, with authors around the world increasingly describing stories of human lives caught in the meshes of oppression and violence. Literary fiction is thus valued for its ability to inspire empathy for lives otherwise lost or reduced to mere statistics on a news page. It is here that Anuk Arudpragasam, with his penetrating observation and lively eloquence, goes a step further. It brings to life the story of a freak marriage that only lasted a day and a night in the North East Camp on the coast of Sri Lanka.
The second and final novel by Anuk Arudpragasam, A passage to the north (Hamish Hamilton, 2021), was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. Unlike many other authors, Arudpragasam does not delve into his protagonist’s backstory in his debut novel, The story of a brief marriage (2016); nor does it provide details of the conflict at play. Rather, it focuses on depicting the intricacies of alienation and uncertainty through the story of Dinesh, who survived the civil war in Sri Lanka. .
We only know that Dinesh is an orphan living in the jungle near the refugee camp during the prevailing conflict between the Sri Lankan army and LTTE ground forces over Tamil held territory in Sri Lanka. There is, on the one hand, the advance of the bombardments of the army which tries to occupy the territory, and on the other, the rebellion of the LTTE. Amid such continuing violence and insecurity, Dinesh is one day approached by Somasundaram, a man who wants Dinesh’s hand for his daughter, Ganga. The story covers this turbulent day, with Dinesh first exploring the prospect of marrying a stranger in such a strange time, then uncovering her corporeality and awareness of being with another human being after spending an aeon in the isolation and disconnection.
Having lost his mother on an evacuation trip, the only belongings Dinesh took with him were “small items he found here and there and took pity on…anything lost or left behind by other evacuees. and who seemed to him to need company”. His long-lost connection to home, family, friends, and possessions pushed him into a sleepy, drifting life devoid of any functionality. So when Dinesh is approached for marriage, he can’t think of the last time he felt connected to someone else. Through this longing for companionship and inspiration, found in mundane everyday acts like sleeping, talking, or eating, Arudpragasam shows how the simplest acts of human existence can be disrupted by surviving prolonged conflict. .
Tamil novelist born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Anuk Arudpragasam obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University in the United States. He writes in Tamil and English. Her next work in progress explores a mother-daughter relationship in the Tamil diaspora. Photo: Ruvin De Silva
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Tamil novelist born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Anuk Arudpragasam obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University in the United States. He writes in Tamil and English. Her next work in progress explores a mother-daughter relationship in the Tamil diaspora. Photo: Ruvin De Silva
It’s been weeks since Dinesh slept properly,”[e]even though his eyes were heavy, as if lead had accumulated at the bottom of his eyelids”. With extraordinary subtlety, the author reveals how Dinesh leads his life without any conscience or purpose in this disjointed camp. He realizes that he lived in a camp where people stopped talking – not because they didn’t want to talk, but because they had nothing to say.Nevertheless, as Dinesh finds himself in the company of Ganga , he begins to make conversations – conversations that often seem out of place or meaningless, but spark newfound excitement and intrigue. This brief acquaintance with Ganga helps Dinesh rediscover the rudimentary sense that he possesses a body with a allure and an agency.While sharing their first meal together, “it was strange for him to think that his right hand was also for eating, that with his hand he was going to put something in his mouth”.
Eventually, the marriage meets a fate as swift as its beginnings. Through these fleeting and seemingly insignificant discoveries, however, the author makes crucial revelations about loneliness and death, and how it ultimately robs one’s body and mind. As a reader, I felt like I could almost touch Dinesh’s emotions, hear them and feel them.
Nousheen Sharmila Ritu is a contributor to Daily Star Books and an aspiring social scientist.