Rating: 
Summary: A Journey Into the Drama of Life
Review: From the very opening of the story to its end, I found myself entering the life of not only the main character but of everyone he encounters. We meet a young boy and his playmates, his family and other relatives, his schoolmates, friends of family, friends of friends, etc., each real and compelling enough to be able to spawn a whole story of his own. That is the magic of this book, which makes the reader desperately desire to know the fate of each and every character and follow the trail of each unfolding episode beyond the bounds of the printed page. If there is one fault in this book it is that it doesn't somehow enable us to follow the life of each character to its final outcome. Sri Lanka, which was to me a distant and unfamiliar place before reading the story, became a familiar and intimate part of my consciousness. More than the story of a boy who struggles to discover his sexual identity, it is a story of how human beings integrate with one another and their time and place in the world, to create a gripping and moving episode in the drama of life. My suggestion to Mr. Selvadurai is that he give us a sequel to this book by picking up any one of the other wonderful characters he introduces and give us their story.
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Summary: The Personal is Political...even in Sri Lanka.
Review: Funny Boy is an exquisite debut novel of unnatural and amazing grace, clarity, and subtlety. Arjie's familiar and awkward coming of age and coming out as well as making sense of the world is set against the senseless backdrop of hate and prejudice in the Sri Lankan civil war between the Tamil and Sinhalese factions. Rich with engrossing situations...I found myself learning about a new place and political background while drawn into the lives of these characters. In that respect it reminded me of the more recent novel The Kite Runner. Evocative, unique, and ultimately very rewarding.
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Summary: Gay coming-of-age a natural
Review: Funny Boy tells a universal story -- of boys who discover their sexual difference -- with clarity and simplicity. The gay aspect of the main character's life is treated as it should be: as a matter of fact. It is no more surprising than any sexual awakening should be, and its normalcy is clarified by contrast to the shocking racism and violence between the Sinhalese and Tamils. That background makes the concluding story of first love especially poignant.
Rating:
Summary: captivating
Review: I hardly knew anything about Sri Lanka and its people until I read this book. I've heard about Tamil Tigers and the troubles that Sri Lanka is having on news, but they are sort of eclipsed by the Middle East conflicts, and I never really paid serious attention to the Sri Lankan problems. Now I see it is very serious. The story tells about the conflicts between two peoples, Sinhalese the majority and Tamils the minority, and how deep the problem is.
Some of the younger characters in this stories are more open to the opposite people, Tamils and Sinhalese children fall in love and stuff, and they try to prove love can solve the problems. But they soon learn that the reality is tougher than they thought.
Growing up as a different child, the narrator seems to have an access to the disclosed world of adults, and observes the lives of people with keen, sensitive, kindly eyes.
There are many places I find a bit overnarrative and wordy, but it really doesn't stop you from turning the pages. The story is vivid, characters are real and well-developed, each episode is alive and throbbing, the turn out of the story is compelling.
As I read the story, TV was showing the devastation in Sri Lanka that was caused by the huge Tsunami that hit many Asian countries(1/05). I really hope that the disaster will help bring these two peoples (Tamils and Sinhalese) together to make a new, peaceful nation.
In any case, you will not get bored of this story. It's a page turner, and it's full of culture, full of life, which will open up your eyes.
Rating:
Summary: A big fan
Review: I just finished reading this book and I thought it was simply fantastic. Being a Sri Lankan myself, I had heard so much about it, as well as Cinnamon Gardens which is also by Shyam Selvadurai. I decided to start reading this one first and once I started, I just couldn't stop. There is no doubt that Selvadurai writes "with a profound understanding of the human heart", as the back cover of the book mentions. His use of language is so elegant and graceful. Well, it's time to start the next novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny Boy By Shyam Selvadurai
Review: Ive only read half the book so far in my 9/10 literature class at Bayswater Secondary College, Australia. At the start it was boring, but then I got into the book and found it quite interesting. I found it a bit hard to understand because it's set in Sri Lanka. One bit I found interesting was finding out he is a bit gay even though he is a little boy.
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Summary: A Deftly Observed Tale
Review: Story refreshed my childhood memories of the sad incident of 1983 Sri Lanka.Though I did not see any of those nasty things happening still I can remember the destroied and burnt down houses. As a child of 11 I could not understand the real reson behind that.But I was very sentitive and cried for days.
After few years when I knew what was actually happend in 83',I become more sadder. I cried again with Argie when he cried inside his burnt house before leaving Sri Lanka. What I was really wept for is the human resource we, Sri Lanka, lost from the deaths and migration.
We lost the service, and friendship of so many Arjies.
We are sorry Arjie and we missed you a lot.
Rating:
Summary: a boy's story
Review: The boy's awakening to sexuality, the hostility of his family towards his being "funny", the shock of his first sexual experience with another boy.
All these themes seem to be dear to many authors, but Mr. Selvadurai deals with the coming of age of a Sri-Lanka boy with a great share of poetry.
Terrible political events capsize the boy's life; he and his family are eventually compelled to emigrate to Canada, a curtain drops, the boy's life will never be the same, but, in spite of everything, he will be happy again, This seems to be the message of the author.
An engrossing story, beautifully written and touching.
A highily recommendable book.
Rating:
Summary: a boy's life
Review: The boy's awakening to sexuality, the hostility of his family towards his"being funny", the shock of his first sexual experience with a school friend. All these themes seem to be dear to many authors. But Mr.Selvadurai deals with the coming-of-age of a Sri Lanka boy with a great share of poetry. Terrible political events capsize the boy's life; he and his family are eventually compelled to emigrate to Canada, a curtain drops, the boy's life will never be the same, but, in spite of everything, he wiil be happy again. This seems to be the message of the author. An engrossing story which becomes your own story.Beautifully written and touching, a highily recommendable book that you will never forget.
Rating:
Summary: A Deftly Observed Tale
Review: This book has both passion and humor. It stays with you long after you have finished reading Shyam Selvadurai's poignant and humorous novel "Funny Boy." The novel is set around the outbreak of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It is told through the eyes of a young Tamil boy who encounters the stigma of his growing homosexuality and the increasing violence that his family faces from the Sinhalese. The fault-lines in relations between the Tamils and the Sinhalese are explored through of the romantic vignettes in the novel. But the brutal reality of Sinhalese violence, and its impact on Tamil families, is never far from the surface. The protagonists favorite aunt is attacked on a train by two drunk Sinhalese and there is a reference to the murder of some elderly relatives in an earlier riot. All these stories will ring true for the vast Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. The writer conveys the sense of helpless fear that gripped many Tamils families as they prepared to flee Sri Lanka. July 1983 was a watershed event in Tamil history and "Funny Boy" is one of the first mainstream novels to emerge from the people who suffered through the violence of that time. Shyam Selvadurai is a rare talent as a novelist. He confirmed that with his follow-up novel "The Cinnamon Gardens."
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