I love the style. Even more Gonzo than Chinaman and this in the afterlife too. Very very clever of Karunatilaka to set it there. Can one sue a ghost? My first impression was, this alienates him from the general non-Sri Lankan reader, then, after some discussion in my family, I realised that I've read books that retold the histories of other people without ever having set foot there, and loved what I learned. It was up to me to do the research and clarify what I wanted to know more about. This book is so saucy that I'm sure readers from Norway to Nicaragua will do just that! Or take it at face value! Well worth it! All this praise and I'm not even a hundred pages into it!

Having finished it I'll say this. It is a fascinating premise to start with but can get confusing. It evoked memories of those late 80s and early 90s days. For many Sri Lankan's '83 was a watershed.

The second book by Karunatilaka definitely does not disappoint. Its much more serious in its subject matter, and its humor is more gory, brutal and explosive. Tightly linked with war, politics and everything in between in Sri Lanka, he manages to create a decent whodunnit.

Its not the murder that engaged me the most, honestly. At times I found it meandering and dealing with too many subjects that it left behind on its wake - quite like ghosts who don't reach The Light.

But its funny and philosophical in the right amounts. Definitely shocking.