The Water Diviner and Other Stories

Good stories. Well-written and really interesting. A bit depressing, though. Not a light holiday read for sure. But paints a vivid portrait of Sri Lanka and that's a definite value here.

Makes a fantastic research material.

I received this copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Don't miss this collection if you love short stories, especially if you love people stories. The Sri Lankan immigrants in these stories experience cultural differences (sometimes a clash, sometimes a joy), colorism, classism, cultural appropriation, the lingering effects of colonialism, and the realities of the "American Dream". Vilhauer sure knows how to craft a short story and keep readers interested in her characters' lives - I had trouble putting this down!

Yet another case of me absolutely loving a short story collection.

The book's summary:

"In this thought-provoking collection, Sri Lankan immigrants grapple with events that challenge perspectives and alter lives. A volunteer faces memories of wartime violence when she meets a cantankerous old lady on a Meals on Wheels route. A lonely widow obsessed with an impending apocalypse meets an oddly inspiring man. A maidservant challenges class divisions when she becomes an American professor’s wife. An angry tenant fights suspicion when her landlord is burgled. Hardened inmates challenge a young jail psychiatrist’s competence. A father wonders whether to expose his young son’s bully at a basketball game. A student facing poverty courts a benefactor. And in the depths of an isolated Wyoming winter, a woman tries to resist a con artist. These and other tales explore the immigrant experience with a piercing authenticity. "

Everything that this summary promises, you will get. The stories are thought provoking, and, for someone who didn't know zilch about Sri Lankan culture (that someone isn't proud of that fact, but it had to be mentioned), VERY educational. I absolutely adored every single bit of information I got from the stories, it definitely put some things into perspective for me. Like I said: thought provoking. The stories deal with racism, sexism, mental illness, all that good stuff that won't leave your head after reading. Not only that, of course, but these subjects are tackled masterfully and carefully woven into the stories so that nothing feels preachy.

There are many stories in the collection, and the single reason why my rating is 4 and not 5 stars is because some of the stories were rather anticlimactic. For example, I rather liked "The Fellowship", but it ended very suddenly and left me wanting more. Same went for "Leisure" as well.

My favourite stories were the titular "The Water Diviner" (I really love stories about hope and despair), "Beauty Queen" (also, I love stories about envy), and "The Rat Tree" (the descriptions were incredibly vivid in this one, I could picture everything that was happening and put myself in Rashmini's position easily). "A Burglary on Quarry Lane" and "Security" were also highlights.

I really think that you should give this wonderful short story collection a try. You won't regret it.

Interesting and varied collection of short stories. Admittedly, my knowledge of Sri Lankan culture is very limited so this was quite an eye opener of sorts for me, and very enjoyable.

Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer is a talented writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work on the back of this.

I read this book free and early thanks to Net Galley and University of Iowa Press. This distinctive collection is for sale now.

All told there are fifteen stories, all of them featuring Sinhalese Sri Lankans, most of them expatriates that have moved to the United States. Before commencing I knew very little about the culture of this small island country, apart from its having been colonized by Britain earlier in its history. I still know very little, but this collection is an approachable way to introduce oneself, in addition to being well crafted fiction.

Several of the stories are dark, dealing with the racism and ignorance with which immigrants are often greeted. The angriest of the stories is “A Burglary On Quarry,” in which a student is accused of burglary by her well-to-do, bigoted landlord who doesn’t want to face the obvious perpetrator: her own son. It reads like a manifesto, and it makes me want to pump my fist and yell, “Tell it!”

This, however, is something none of the characters in these stories would do, apart from the privileged Caucasian American in “Accident.” David nearly comes to great harm while visiting his new wife’s homeland, largely due to his own obliviousness; it hasn’t occurred to him that he himself might be deemed unacceptable for his race and nation of origin, having lived all of his life as an affluent member of the dominant culture. He is from Texas, and he’s drunk, and he doesn’t even try to understand discretion or subtext. As his wife’s neighbors ogle him suspiciously and the police consider that he may have caused an auto accident for which he is not responsible, he continues to assure his wife—in English—that everything is just fine. He says nothing quietly, ever, and it takes a political connection on the part of his wife’s relatives to extricate him from the hard place he doesn’t know he’s in.

Other entries are also bittersweet, and “Sonny’s Last Game” stands out as one of these. However, “Leisure” literally made me laugh out loud. Well, guffaw, actually: “Cutex! Who does she think she is!” The last entry, “Hello My Dear”, is both funny and bittersweet, as Prema is faced with the question of whether an email from a stranger is a scam or the real deal.

I enjoyed this collection tremendously and would read Vilhauer again in a heartbeat.