Does War End?

Fiction asks troubling questions of Sri Lanka
As the long and bitter war within Sri Lanka comes to an end,it is time to look at the extent of the damage it has caused to the lives of ordinary people. Elmo Jayawardenas novel Sams Story is the account of one such life,rendered with tenderness and compassion. Sam,the narrator,believes that is far enough away from the conflict in the North,but it finally reaches him too,returning him to the village where he came from,and to a life of poverty and struggle.

A few years before 2000,Sam had left his village to come and work as a houseboy for a family in Colombo. Simple-minded and easily cheated,he spends his time caring for the dogs,watering the plants,cleaning the toilets and generally being bullied around by the other two house staff,the Tamil cook Leandro and the maid Janet. Sams recollections of his village childhood,the struggles of his mother and siblings,their Buddhist faith,and the tragic story of his friend Piya are alternated with the story of his life serving the upper middle-class family at the River Housewho are known to us only as the Master and Madam,and their children as the Boy and the Girl. Sam is amazed by the contrast between his one-room home in the village,where his mother struggled alone to bring up five children,and the abundance of River House: chairs to sit on and drink,chairs to read newspapers,chairs to watch cricket matches in the television room,chairs to relax in and look at the river. He is also devoted to the family he serves,and they,too,love him in their fashion: The Boy always said that when he grew up he would take me to work for him. Dont worry,Sammy,Ill take care of you. The directness of Sams language creates some moving moments,such as the description of his departure from the village: Together in that one-roomed shack,the six of us had done our best to make something of our lives. Now I was leaving,and even for poor people like us that was a sad thing.

Meanwhile,civil war continues to tear apart this beautiful island nation,and even Sam is troubled by the continuing news of unrest and violence from the North. The war in the North went on and on. Nobody seemed to care. Many villages were burnt and bombed on both sides. Villagers became homeless,children went hungry,people died and no one bothered… Life went on. The war was far away in the North and we were here in the towns. In everyones mind that was all there was to it. As long as nobody they knew died,they didnt care.

Jayawardena,who works as a pilot with an international airline,is the founder of AFLAC International,an organisation working to alleviate poverty in Sri Lanka. Sams Story,his debut novel,won the Gratiaen Prize for the best book in Sri Lanka in 2001. This is a simple and uncomplicated novel that manages,nevertheless,to ask some troubling questions.