Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★★ (4.6/5)
Genre: Literary Fiction, Family Saga, Sri Lankan Literature, Autobiographical Fiction

Book Review:
Carl Muller's ''The Jam Fruit Tree'' is a landmark in Sri Lankan English literature—a novel that broke new ground in its subject matter, its style, and its unflinching honesty. Winner of the Gratiaen Memorial Prize in 1993, it launched a trilogy that would become essential reading for anyone interested in the island's complex cultural mosaic.

The novel tells the story of the Burgher community in Sri Lanka. Who are the Burghers? As Muller explains, they are the descendants of Dutch, Portuguese, British, and other foreigners who arrived in the island and ''mingled'' with the local inhabitants. The result is a people with ''curiously mixed features—grey eyes in an otherwise Dravid face.'' They are, Muller writes, ''a handsome and guileless people'' who ''have always lived it up, forever willing to put a party.''

Through the semi-fictionalized lives of the von Bloss family, Muller captures the essence of Burgher life: the language (a distinctive English peppered with Dutch and Portuguese words), the customs, the parties, the loves and quarrels, the births and deaths. The jam fruit tree of the title is a perfect metaphor: like that hardy, resilient tree that refuses to be contained or destroyed, the Burghers have survived and thrived despite everything.

Muller's prose is a revelation. He writes with a vitality and irreverence that was new to Sri Lankan English literature. The dialogue crackles with energy, capturing the rhythms of Burgher speech. The sex scenes are frank and funny. The family dynamics are rendered with warmth and honesty. Muller doesn't idealize his people; he shows their flaws, their absurdities, their moments of pettiness and generosity. But he loves them, and that love shines through on every page.

The novel is also a valuable historical document. Muller captures a world that has largely vanished—the railway colonies, the street life, the social hierarchies, the casual racism and classism, the ways different communities interacted. It's a portrait of a particular time and place, but it speaks to universal themes: family, identity, belonging, the tension between tradition and change.

The cover blurb describes the book as ''hilarious, affectionate, candid and moving.'' That's exactly right. It's a novel that will make you laugh out loud one moment and wipe away a tear the next. It's also deeply thought-provoking, raising questions about identity, culture, and what it means to belong to a community.

For readers new to Sri Lankan literature, ''The Jam Fruit Tree'' is the perfect introduction. It's accessible, entertaining, and deeply human. For those already familiar with Muller's work, it's a pleasure to return to the book where it all began.

Highly recommended. This is a novel that deserves to be read far beyond Sri Lanka's shores.