The Village in the Jungle (Oxford paperbacks)

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Summary: The Village in the Jungle
Review: The Village in the Jungle, a fictional novel by Leonard Woolf, associates a series of catastrophic stories with one another. The predominant figures are Silindu (a hunter) and his two daughters Punchi Menika and Hinnihami. This story itself is based upon several different significant themes, including fate, love and tragedy. Personally, I found the book an absolute delight to read, being both suspenseful and interesting. Although the book cover jacket will most likely lack appeal to many people, this is most definitely a situation where one should not "judge a book by its cover". The title, The Village in the Jungle is nothing short of appropriate to the theme and plot of the novel. The plot, in a nutshell, is about a man named Silindu, who lives in the jungle and resists fate at every turn. He is an excellent hunter with cunning eyes, hunched-up shoulders and a small dark face all pinched. His ability of traveling around the jungle exceeds those of the animals. The incredible descriptions Woolf utilizes in the story allows the reader to clearly picture Silindu and his quest. The climax of the story is about Silindu's journey, having caught an "eccentric" disease. He didn't allow his daughter Hinnihami to marry a man from Vederala in the first place. Thus it was said that the disease he has is actually an evil spell. No matter how much effort he tries to cure himself it won't happen unless he willingly lets his daughter marry the man. The plot itself is really exciting throughout the entire book, with a few parts that are fairly slower in pace. "Leafless trees, hot humid air, rigid branches, and spider leg stems" is a portion of Leonard's description of the Jungle. All of his descriptions are perfectly arranged throughout the story, in which it makes the readers fall into the fabricated jungle described in his plot. "The air is heavy with the heat beating up from the earth. There is a fear everywhere: in the silence and in the shrill calls and the wild cries, in the stir of the scattered leaves and the grating of branches, in the gloom, in the startled, slinking, and peering beasts." (Pg 6, Woolf) This is one of the best lines taken out of the novel, because it gives the reader a full picture of the setting in the story. I highly recommend this novel to anyone looking for a hero's novel, although copies are exceedingly rare to locate as there were initially only a limited amount of copies printed. Through this story we can evidently see Silindu's courage in facing problems in unfavorable circumstances. I personally believe he is a true hero, because he really did have the spirit in surviving and staying alive no matter what happened. Overall, this novel is definitely an extraordinary thrilling book for anyone, providing hours of entertainment for people of all ages.