The Seelawathi Syndrome

With a title reminiscent of Simone de Beauvoir’s Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome this most recent collection of short stories by Chandrarathna Bandara contains seven narratives which contain a sense of impending doom and loss, balanced with an ounce of hope.

- Author: Chandrarathna Bandara Reviewed by Ashanthi Ekanayake

Simone de Beauvoir’s work was a scathing critique of the femininity and the essence of womanhood which was thought to be promoted at a time in France and indeed the western world when Brigitte Bardot was the ideal women were thought to aspire to. As a feminist de Beauvoir skillfully appropriated the title of Nabakov’s novel Lolita to drive home the point of her damning critique. Though the title is reminiscent of this well-known feminist work, it is only a coincidence and Bandara’s collection deals with the broader notions of aging, youth, mortality, sexuality, societal norms, as relevant to class and gender as well as broader notions of ethics of war and the brutal truth behind our notions of nationalism. In conversation with him he reveals the reason behind the choice of title.

Bandara’s most recent novel Piyasara Samaya recently received the Swarna Pusthaka Award and the State Literary Award and came to be nominated for the Vidyodaya Literary Award for the best novel published in the 2024 as well. He is accepted as a writer who has a unique and versatile style of language and chooses to write about societal issues which are immediate and of current relevance.

“The Seelawathi Syndrome” contains seven thought-provoking short stories which deal with certain important aspects of the human experience. The writer examines the complicated nuances of human relationships, the allowed and accepted legal and ethical frameworks within with we negotiate them and how individual liberties and societal norms turn out to be at odds. Though some of these stories are hopeful in their explorations of the politics of sexuality and sexual freedom and expression, some bring on a bleak sense of loss and a melancholy sense of hopelessness while bitterly questioning and challenging our accepted notions of what is fair and just.