Surath de Mel’s debut novel, Thee Ha Tha, was a shocker because of the blunt, unsentimental way in which it portrayed young love – not as homage to a shrine of romanticism but as a roller coaster ride of sex and endless betrayals.
His second novel ‘C +’ takes off from where Thee Ha Tha left off – but it’s more about contemporary youth culture rather than love; rather, bedroom terrorism disguised as young love. In fact, it’s about characters capable of just about anything but love.

Written in the author’s characteristic in-your-face style (if QuentinTarantino wrote novels, he could write in a similar idiom), the story takes us to the gossip column world behind TV reality shows. The narrator is a young campus girl and she writes about her fellow student friend Dil who overnight becomes a reality show star.
Sleeping one’s way into success maybe a story as old as making fire by rubbing two stones together. The trick is to tell it in a convincing manner. To separate artful story telling from gossip column writing is a tightrope walk. Surath de Mel is an exciting new talent in Sinhala fiction, but he is obviously at a crucial point creatively, walking the very fine line between literary fiction and the popular.

To which category does his second novel fall? Only time will tell. It’s entertaining stuff. Few of us are privileged enough to have an insider view of TV reality shows. All we know is the gossip. On the other hand, one does not have to assume that every successful female reality show singer has slept her way to the top. That is where this book’s credibility may be at stake. That depends entirely on the reader’s degree of cynicism and credulousness. All we can assume is that the author knows what he’s talking about. In a telephone interview, the author confirmed my worst fears, and said he knows what he’s talking about. But creating art out of clichés is a Herculean task.

More than the content, it’s the style that needs to be considered. I think it’s time for Surath de Mel to outgrow this 20 something jargon, look ahead and plunge into the unknown. Who knows, he might be capable of surprising those who think they have seen and heard it all before. Reality shows, campus sex and campus politics can be entertaining stuff, but when it comes to the daunting task of creating writing of lasting value, what goes into the writer’s coffee grinder could fall short of being the finest blend.