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Excerpt | Buy On the surface Rih Isfel tells the story of a young boy, Jonathan, who goes missing, and the subsequent mobilisation of all echelons of village society (police, church, mayor, village bar, the media) to search for him and bring him back home safely. At the same time, a group of teenagers are spending the hot, sticky Maltese summer following unfolding events while attempting to up their 'babe-catch' quotient. Melanie, arguably the village's sexiest girl, becomes Jason's obsession, and the suncream-spreading beach scene in the book is already a cult scene online. On a first reading, some might have mistaken Rih Isfel for a teenage mystery. Yet on reading and savouring the intoxicating language Mejlak uses throughout his novel, layers and sublayers of story, of meaning, and of satire start to become visible. Mejlak's Rih Isfel is a deceptively simple novel, amazingly easy to read through in one sitting, where the quaint Maltese village is examined in all its idiosyncracies. And laid bare in all its realities, including the vernacular choice of swear-words daily employed in the novel's 'kazin' (which is why Rih Isfel comes with an 'explicit words' warning on the cover). The main character in Rih Isfel is not the missing boy Jonathan, not Jason and his friends, not sexy Melanie, not Albert the journalist from the daily newspaper covering the mysterious abduction, but the village itself. This is perhaps what makes Rih Isfel so unique among its contemporaries - the quaint Maltese village is the protagonist of the novel. Gambling - on anything - is the driving force of the village. Residents bet money on everything and everyone, and of course, a village disappearance is perfect fodder to fuel this obsession. Mejlak plays with this, creating moments of subtle humour that will have all readers recognising some part of themselves or their friends in the goings on. Indeed, Mejlak's humour is unique in its understatement. Nowhere to be found are the classic Maltese humorous situations, and the village Gahan is conspicuous by his/her absence. Instead, Mejlak gives us arsenic-laced fragments of humour, be it a nun's panic on having to share her 'perlini' during a 'fiaccolata' to pray for missing Jonathan, or be it the mayor's wife finding a clue to the abduction on her doorstep in the middle of the night. These seemingly light moments are sprinkled throughout the novel, as are casual asides on Maltese realities that - arguably - only a Maltese 'in exile' can write about. (from Manic Magazine, July
2007)
"Mejlak writes in a simple, lucid style
reminiscent of Mark Haddon. Like Haddon's The Curious Incident of
the Dog in the Night Time, Rih Isfel belongs to the cross-over genre
appealing to teenagers and adults alike. I'd recommend Rih Isfel
to anyone wanting to exorcise the mind-numbing Maltese study texts
of past school days. Actually I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys
a good read."
"I'd wholeheartedly recommend Rih Isfel
to anyone who can read Maltese. If for no other reason, just because
it is a rare offering: a highly original, carefully thought out
piece of writing in the Maltese language. I'm mighty glad I found
the time to read it."
"Rih Isfel strikes one as innovative
both in its narrative technique as in the issues and themes it evokes.
The story presents itself as a psychological novel with a Maltese
village, endowed with a mythical and universal significance, as
its setting."
"I read Rih Isfel with a feeling of relaxed
contentment that could only be had by the pleasure of a revival
of multiple memories and familiar landscapes safely entwined within
a fertile vocabulary that immediately brings the reader close to
home." |
