Not Quite Paradise

Barker’s academic year passes quickly and she leaves with gihin ennam, a Sinhalese parting used “‘when you are saying good-bye but know you’ll be back.’” While her first trip was marked by 9/11, her second, three years later in October 2005, follows the devastating Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that claimed 30,000 Sri Lankan lives: “I needed to see things for myself.” As she travels through refugee camps, Barker witnesses the disturbing results of “competitive charity,” a term coined by a foreign aid worker, referring to international organizations with too much funding, working without enough understanding of local needs. While Barker’s first trip focused on the experiences of the southern Sri Lankans, Barker is determined to “find the balance” in the Tamil north, home of the Tamil Tigers, a group labeled by the United States as a terrorist organization. “Suicide missions are part of the ethos of this organization,” Barker learns, and near-daily violence is simply unavoidable. Resigned survival is the only goal.

Eight months of violence and devastation eventually send Barker home. “Differences had been deeply etched since the first Europeans set foot on these shores....” No matter what she did, she “would never be part of [her friends] Velu, Latha, and Loku Menike’s world. Nor they of [hers].” Her departure this time is not gihin ennam: Instead, she is resolutely “just going.”

A hybrid of memoir, travelogue, and history lessons, “Not Quite Paradise” is not quite a success. As a memoir, it’s missing answers to basic questions, such as why Barker chose a year in Sri Lanka in the first place. As a history lesson, the overall effect proves meandering and unfocused. “I had a book to finish,” Barker mentions as she prepares for her second trip, “one that was going to be very different than the one I had envisioned.” Perhaps that shift midway caused a less cohesive text.

The 1982 memoir “Running in the Family” by Michael Ondaatje (whom Barker mentions as a Dutch Burgher), or Shyam Selvadurai’s coming-of-age novels, “Funny Boy” (1997) and “Swimming in the Monsoon Sea” (2007), or Ru Freeman’s recent debut “A Disobedient Girl” (2009), are all readily available alternatives set in Sri Lanka and ultimately offer more rewarding literary experiences.

Terry Hong is media arts consultant at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program. Her Smithsonian book blog, BookDragon, can be found at bookdragon.si.edu.

(CORRECTION: The original review incorrectly stated that "Not Quite Paradise" does not include a map of Sri Lanka. The reviewer worked from the advance galley, which did not originally include a map; a map was added to the final version. )

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