What am I? Who am I?

A walk on the wild side; an identity crisis

Ashok Ferrey's latest book of short stories, "The Good Little Ceylonese Girl", has just hit the bookshops, a guaranteed belly-laugh for anyone feeling low in the run-up to Christmas. In it, as the blurb on the back cover says, he takes us once more for a walk on the wild side of the Sri Lankan psyche, exploring situations of Sri Lankans both at home and abroad, who continue to ask, Who am I? What am I?

This question of lost identity is one that seems to haunt the author in various stories throughout the book. In the title story, there is a character who inherits a medicine chest of twenty or so miniature drawers from her veda mahattaya father, and in a way, the various stories and characters of the book are like the different portions contained in each of those drawers.

Ferrey opens each one, and with the precision of a laboratory chemist, analyses the contents within, gently pushing the drawer shut when he finishes. In doing so, he seems to celebrate the individuality inherent in each of us, and rejoices in our differences. If we can only admit to our weaknesses and be able to laugh at each other, he says, it will go a long way towards the understanding and harmony so lacking in our society today. At a time when we seem to be seeking outside help to solve our problems, Ferrey would seem to pose the notion that the answers lie within, and not without.

We caught up with this curious writer at his charming, rather run-down residence in Colombo, which he describes in the new book as being "infested with rats, bats, cats and kids. Also a wife."

Q: How do you feel, now the new book is out?

Exhausted, relieved! It's taken two years, and you can't imagine how painful. Like giving birth, really. Though I'd better not say that too loud, the Wife might be listening.

Q: Your last book, Colpetty People, was quite a hit. How difficult was it to follow up?

A writer's second book is the most difficult one he'll ever write, especially if the first is unexpectedly successful. Everyone is watching. Is he a flash in the pan? Is he a one hit wonder? There's a lot of pressure, and there'll always be people ready to say, I told you so! You just have to keep your head down, and keep working. Only time will tell if it's any good.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the new book?

Well, it's just been launched at Odel, and it's a collection of short stories like the last lot, on subjects close to my heart. Some are layered, slightly complex, with a fragment of meaning glimmering somewhere there, down at the bottom. Of course what you gain in depth you often lose in power. Frequently the best stories are ones that go from a to b to c, bang, bang, bang, and you're lucky when you get to write those. Then again there are the funny ones - like those bits of stuff they serve you in between courses at posh dinners - to refresh the palate.

Q: Do you think of your stories primarily as entertainment?

Any author has to be entertaining, otherwise nobody would read his stuff! You can't be reading textbooks all the time. At the same time, your writing has to work on at least one other level if it is to have any lasting value. In today's throwaway culture we're obsessed with capturing the moment, the here and the now. Perhaps there's nothing wrong with that, but it means that once the moment is past, your work ceases to have any relevance. So it's good to keep the there and the then in mind too. Somebody once described these stories as modern day parables. I can live with that!

Q: In what way are the new stories different from the old?

As the wise old Greek said, you never step into the same river twice. To my mind at least, these stories are different. I would say they are darker, more personal. Not that many are about me. . . they are about characters into whose heads I've climbed, characters I've known fairly well over the years, that I feel strongly for. They're not real people, of course. Every character is made up of bits and pieces of real people. The humour is darker too, much more savage. I've already upset a few people who've read them! I can only say I'm sorry - the only apology I can offer is that I am as savage about myself in these stories as I am about my protagonists, and nobody should make the mistake of identifying too closely with them.

Q: What about other writers? Do you consider your writing any different from theirs?

Not particularly. But I think all of us have an absolute duty to be honest and tell it like we see it, and resist the temptation to prettify and sanitize, or worse still, sacrifice truth on the high altar of political correctness.

This is what I call the Hollywood Syndrome. Too many stories are written nowadays about black and blind left-handers. (Since I am black, left-handed and virtually blind, you can imagine how persecuted I feel.)

Q: Is there any common theme running through this new book?

Well, the stories were written over a period of two years, sporadically, so I didn't expect there to be any theme. But just the other day, looking over them, it occurred to me that one theme that seems to crop up quite often is this one of exploitation. Not only the exploitation of the poor by the rich, the young by the old, the East by the West. Quite frequently the other way around!

Q: As a writer do you write for yourself, or do you feel writing is a sort of dialogue between you and your readers?

I suppose I am really writing for myself alone, in a selfish sort of way, to get it out of my system. It's a real surprise therefore when you find that what you write seems to strike a chord with other people, complete strangers! It's very gratifying. But I do love to get feedback from readers. There's a website now (www.ashokferrey.com) where you can email comments, both good and bad! It's very interesting for a writer to know which stories have resonance and which don't.

Q: I am told you do your own illustrations?

Well, sort of! For the last book, my publisher had this crazy idea that I do a sketch of a house for each story. The book was just about to go into print and I had to dash them off in five or six days. It was a real laugh! This time round I've done a full page drawing for each story, though I'm ashamed to say they're just as slapdash. Q: Would you like to see your stories translated?

Gosh, I'd love to see the books translated into Sinhala and Tamil. When I first enquired, they said the problem was in the humour and wordplay, which apparently are virtually untranslatable. I guess if a joke doesn't translate, you have to find an equivalent joke in the other language. So the person doing it must definitely have a sense of humour, as well as a literary turn of mind, to say nothing of being entirely bilingual! Not easy to find such a person. But if anyone out there thinks he can do it I'd love for them to have a go.

Q: So what next, after this?

I remember Nihal de Silva telling me- it must have been about a week before he died - that what I really need to do is write a comic novel. So maybe that's what I'll do. There's certainly more than enough madness here in Colombo -

I would never be short of material!

Q: And finally, any word of advice for young writers just starting off?

I've told this story before. Just before the last book was published I remember going to the publishers and begging them, really begging them, to print only two hundred books.

I had visions of stacks and stacks of books left unsold, heaped up in piles, used to wrap fish at Colpetty Market. Anyway, thankfully, they didn't listen. So what I would tell any new writer is, Go on, don't be afraid, put it out there. You'll never know till you try!

Pix by Ranga Chandrarathne