A review by mediaevalmuse
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

I learned of this book while watching a "best books of 2024" YouTube video, and the premise was appealing. I love a bit of supernatural fiction, and I don't think I've read anything with Sri Lankan characters and folklore before. Upon reading, I can definitely see why this book was on that "best reads" list. It's funny, it's heart-wrenching, it's weird... basically everything I enjoy in my literary fiction.

WRITING: Karunatilaka's prose is interesting in that it creates very vivid pictures of the afterlife (called the "in between") while also feeling kind of hazy by using second person. Normally, second person is a huge turn off for me, but I think it did interesting things here. Still, I think second person did make it harder to connect with characters, but that might just be my personal bias.

I really enjoyed the mix of humor, horror, and magic throughout the book, and how easily Karunatilaka moves between them and juxtaposes them. There are parts of the narration that feel heavy and bleak, but then it will be met with humor or something absurd. Some of this reinforces the theme in this book that some lives are insignificant or meaningless - almost nihilistic. But some of it is also full of meaning in itself, causing the reader to look at things a new way.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Maali Almeida, a photographer who is killed during the Sri Lankan Civil War in 1989. Upon "awakening" in the waiting room of the afterlife, Maali finds that he has no idea who killed him and that he has only 7 moons (nights) before he loses his chance to pass on. Maali has taken some photographs that could anger a lot of people, so the list of suspects is long. Meanwhile, his photos have put his still-living best friend and his lover in the line of danger.

The description of this book makes the plot out to be a thriller or mystery, and while there is a mystery element, the focus is less on who-dun-it and more on reflecting on war and bloodshed. Maali has seen a lot of horrifying things and there are a lot of players in the ongoing conflict, and a huge part of this book is devoted to thinking through allegiances, power, justice, revenge, and so on.

Because I know very little about the history of the Sri Lankan Civil War, I found it difficult to keep track of all the players and motivations. But to be clear: that's my own failure, and I don't think it would be fair for Karunatilaka to hold my hand and explain everything to me. I think this book will feel more weighty once I am more familiar with the history, and I am grateful that I have the opportunity to read outside my comfort zone and be motivated to learn new things.

CHARACTERS: Maali, our protagonist, is interesting but also a little hard to get to know due to the second person narration. That may be my own bias talking, so take that with a grain of salt. Still, I liked following a character who was doing something arguably noble and important yet also was kind of spiraling in his personal life. I loved Maali's relationships with Jaki and DD, and how he constantly reflected on both his love for them and how he failed them. It made me think of Maali less as this brave journalistic and more of a person who struggles to maintain relationships during a time of chaos.

Jaki, Maali's roommate and best friend, is admirable in that she does everything she can to learn what happened to Maali. I loved her bravery and how she seemed to be the person who was most invested in finding the truth. I was rooting for her the whole time.

DD, Maali's lover, was sympathetic in that he wanted to make his own life and struggled to openly accept his queerness. I liked that he had a connection to politics and that put some pressure on Maali's activities, and I enjoyed the parts where he and Jaki teamed up to get answers
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There are a lot of other characters in this book - too many to name. But broadly, I do think all were as simple or complex as they needed to be. Personally, I think I wanted a little more depth from the supernatural characters, but I also could have been missing something that's obvious to people who know about the folklore.

TL;DR: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a stunning portrait of the Sri Lankan Civil War and three people at the heart of it. My criticisms are mostly to do with my own preferences and lack of familiarity with history, but those aside, this is a very moving, very bleak, and yet very funny book that tackles horror and humor with skill. 
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