My bookshelf merrily houses ‘Sam’s Story’ by Captain Elmo Jayawardena. The book is Captain Jayawardena’s Gratiaen Prize-winning masterpiece that is peerless in many distinctive ways.
Captain Jayawardena makes Sam, a young illiterate boy who originally comes from a poverty-stricken village in Southwestern Sri Lanka, his protagonist. Sam relocates himself to a nearby town as a house attendant in a townhouse called River House where he finds his new boss and his spouse being a charitable couple who are consistently motivated by a degree of equal feeling, generosity and understanding.
Comprehensible language
While ‘Sam’s Story’ is relatively a short narrative presented in the first-person account, its solidity and robustness remain in its capacity and potentiality to give birth to catchy and indelible persona and circumstances where the author employs a comprehensible language that makes his societal analysis efficacious and engaging.
As the most profound aspect of Captain Jayawardena’s style of writing in ‘Sam’s Story’ is excavated, the minimalist writing style in Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ is reflected: Capt. Jayawardena pays attention to the economy of language where he enhances the lucidity of his narrative whilst making sure that the potential for a possible misunderstanding is comparatively less.
I am hugely drawn to the point of view upheld by Sam for a frequent question asked by some strangers whom he meets in a new setup where they become rather curious about his age.
“How would I know when I was born? I was too young to remember. And, then again, nobody told me about how and when I came into this world. Even if they did, I would soon forget,” Sam tells himself.
Albeit, Sam’s opinion on the matter seems to be a trivial matter that even as a matter of fact looks to be a casual question that you may hear quite frequently, the satirical thought that Sam generates on the other hand is an indirect, humourous and constructive criticism on people whose inquisitiveness may make the affected party embarrassed.
In that light, you may even find the fact that Captain Jayawardena’s book may have been slightly influenced by critical sarcasm that runs across the celebrated masterpieces of Nikolai Gogol: ‘The Nose’, ‘The Overcoat’ and ‘The Government Inspector’ are the most notable.
Social commentary
‘Sam’s Story’ is adept at retaining the interest of its reader right throughout the story: the reader is intrigued by the literary devices that Captain Jayawardena uses to convey the emotions that are naturally intricate and knotty.
The approach that the author takes in painting a picture on some sensitive issues that disturb the peaceful cohabitation in society is noteworthy: with a simple yet heartfelt narrative, ‘Sam’s Story’ takes the position of a social commentary which gives an insight into some grieving and burning issues that may bring havoc, unless otherwise they are farsightedly handled.
Captain Jayawardena’s simple but subtle and weighty language magnifies the legibility and comprehension of ‘Sam’s Story’, permitting its reader for an absorbing and exciting experience in reading.
He transforms his story into a more approachable space where the reader is undoubtedly able to have a personal connection with the plot and characters without being discouraged by a heavily complex language that makes a distance between the story and the reader: the smooth flow of words also facilitates a continuous intense emotional connection with the story and characters where they may find themselves infiltrating into the hearts of their readers that makes an absolutely stronger and wider readership. ‘Sam’s Story’ is a synonym for clear, concise, and direct writing style.
Emotional harmony
Captain Jayawardena’s compelling story, eloquently written, invites its readers for an encounter that would keep their time occupied: an appealing plot with bated breath, twists, and turns as well as that of the emotional harmony that ‘Sam’s Story’ create have got a tremendous knack of attracting readers.
With no struggle whatsoever, readers connect with each and every character, notably Sam himself living within ‘Sam’s Story’ either through their shared experiences or laudable qualities: such characteristics are able to stimulate a sense of both sympathy and empathy all together where ‘Sam’s Story’ retains its impactfulness.
Captain Jayawardena’s distinctive voice and unique perspective have magically made ‘Sam’s Story’, his award-winning masterpiece that shines in the sky of the Island’s literary sphere.
