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A review by whats_margaret_reading
On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman
4.0
On Sal Mal Lane is a well constructed novel that chronicles the lives of a street of diverse neighbors through the early 1980s in Sri Lanka.
It is also utterly captivating.
The inhabitants of Sal Mal Lane are from all ethnic groups, but how they raise children, how those children relate to their parents, and their enthusiasm about cricket brings them together. There is the aspirational middle class family, the low class family, the family with an adult child who lives at home, and all of the fates of these characters are bound together by their location and by the tumultuous time in which they live.
I had to read slowly to unpack each sentence and let the atmosphere of Sal Mal Lane to sink it.
Just stop reading this review and read it already. It's more than worth the time and the investment in sorting out the families for the beautiful creation of a community in Sri Lanka.
It is also utterly captivating.
The inhabitants of Sal Mal Lane are from all ethnic groups, but how they raise children, how those children relate to their parents, and their enthusiasm about cricket brings them together. There is the aspirational middle class family, the low class family, the family with an adult child who lives at home, and all of the fates of these characters are bound together by their location and by the tumultuous time in which they live.
I had to read slowly to unpack each sentence and let the atmosphere of Sal Mal Lane to sink it.
Just stop reading this review and read it already. It's more than worth the time and the investment in sorting out the families for the beautiful creation of a community in Sri Lanka.