This book is a curious blend of literary biography, travel memoir, and geographical history. Christopher Ondaatje, himself an expatriate Sri Lankan, sets out to rediscover the Ceylon of Leonard Woolf’s day. Leonard Woolf served as government agent for the Ceylon Civil Service from 1904-1911, a time of decline for the British empire. Witness to the decline even while being himself an agent of imperialism, Leonard Woolf sought to understand the country and its citizens. Ever the literary man, Woolf kept abundant notes about his time in the country in diaries, autobiographies, stories, and a novel.
Ondaatje begins his book by following the path of Woolf’s career through the country, starting with Woolf’s arrival in Colombo. Along with two knowledgeable friends, Lakshman Senatilleke and Rajpal de Silva, Ondaatje traces Woolf’s sojourn from Colombo to his first appointment in Jaffna and its environs—Woolf was among other things, the sole government agent overseeing the pearl fishery in Marichchukkadi on the northwestern coast. From there, they follow his movements to Kandy, and then on to the southern coast of Hambantota. Woolf spent two and a half years in Hambantota and the particular jungle-like conditions there left a deep impression on him. Hambantota became the setting for Woolf’s well-known novel The Village in the Jungle. The book is considered a classic for Sri Lankans.
Along with his own observations of the man and his country, Ondaatje has done considerable biographical research on Woolf and his writings. Although a minor literary figure in the world of English letters, Woolf’s writings on Ceylon have made him a celebrity in Sri Lanka. In 1960, when he returned to the country for a short visit, he was afraid of being vilified as a former agent of imperialism, but found to his surprise that he was warmly welcomed, and indeed praised for the work he had done in Ceylon and later in England for Ceylon’s independence.
After following in the steps of Woolf’s career in Ceylon, Ondaatje ends his book by trying to solve a literary mystery. Ondaatje wonders whether or not there was a real village in the jungle that formed the basis of The Village in the Jungle. The village in the novel is called Beddagama. During Ondaatje’s time in Hambantota, several people assured him there was such a village, but not under that name, of course. While expressing some reservation at trying to prove the “reality” of a piece of “fiction,” Ondaatje nonetheless pursues the idea because of Woolf’s particular attention to details in all his other writings of the place. Sure enough, Ondaatje discovers that the real village of Malasnegwala is likely the corresponding village to the fictional Beddagama. The evidence is rather striking and for literary mystery buffs makes for satisfying sleuthing.
Woolf in Ceylon is a fine book. Combining the different elements of genre as it does, it could have gone seriously awry, but Ondaatje’s focus is lucid and clear. When he goes on a tangent, for example, to talk about the ruins in Anuradhapura, he tells you so, and the diversion never feels intrusive. There are occasional references to Ondaatje’s own upbringing in Ceylon but these are seamlessly embedded. The photos in the book also add to the story and contribute to the feel Ceylon must have given to a young, intelligent, and impressionable Woolf. The epilogue with its mystery adds a nice touch to the end of a very engaging biography.
Reviewed by Sally Ito
