Funny Boy

First published in 1994, Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai won critical acclaim for its portrayal of a young man’s coming of age as a gay Sri Lankan during the civil war crisis. It won a Lambda Literary Award and the Books in Canada First Novel Award and tackles navigating sexuality, class partisanship, and emigration.

Plot Summary

Funny Boy narrates the tale of young Arjie (Arjun) Chelvaratnam, a “funny” boy growing up in an upper-middle-class Sri Lankan home at the cusp of the country’s bloody civil war in the 1980s. “Funny” is a coded word that the adults use to describe Arjie, who stands out from his male peers because he likes traditionally feminine activities like playing dress-up and reading books like Little Women; he also scorns stereotypically masculine activities like cricket.

The tension between Arjie as a gay young adult and the conservative society that does not accept him unfolds throughout the course of the book. His sibling, Diggy, and the other boys mock him for being too feminine, and his father forces him into a harsh new school to toughen him up. The school’s principal cruelly metes out punishments for minor infractions, and Arjie must make an impossible choice as a result.