The price of decency

Yuddhaya Hamaraya
Author: Senaratne Weerasinghe
Prabha Publishers, Veyangoda

Reviewed by R. S. Karunaratne

Senaratne Weerasinghe's latest book Yuddhaya Hamaraya is the authentic Sinhala translation of the controversial Greek author Vassilis Vassilikos's path-breaking novel Z.

Vassilikos shot to fame with his novel Z because of its political intrigue set in modern day Greece. The novel has been translated into more than 40 languages and a film has been made based on its story.

Being a left-of-centrre novelist, Vassilikos follows the Marxist tradition and produces caricatures losing sight of artistic goals. However, he remembers that he is first of all a novelist. He accepts experimental techniques as compatible with his didactic purpose as by no means an intrusion of form into content.

Lyrical powers

In Z, Vassilikos demonstrates his storytelling and lyrical powers. He weaves facts with poetic fantasy and produces a texture peopled with different characters. The pages of the novel are replete with images. Then there are other wordly spirits, voices from the dead and great birds with human souls. All of them hark back to Olympian gods. He is a novelist with a rich imagination. That is perhaps the chief attraction of his novel.

Vassilikos’ writings expose his philosophy of life. He makes the point that man chooses his own destiny and he is not at the mercy of any outside force.

He is perhaps echoing some aspects of Greek philosophy. Although there is a death wish in everyone of us, we can choose not to yeied to it and opt for life and freedom.

Murder

The novel is based on the murder of the Greek socialist deputy Lambrakis in Salonika before the advent of the regime of the colonels in 1967. Its strength was based on a shrewd understanding of the dynamics of cold-blooded behind-the-scene political manipulations. At the end of the novel, the fates of those involved are told.

As is evidenced today, evil is handsomely rewarded and decency carries a heavy price. One price is exile. This seems to be the Greek solution to political problems. Vassilikos lived in exile when his novel Z was banned in his own country.

Weerasinghe's translation of the novel Z will help Sinhala readers to come to grips with a leading Greek novelist and his novel. This will open new vistas for local novelists and critics.