Dhananjaya Rajaraham (Danny) - a Tamil - was lured to Australia when reps from a 'vocational college' came to Sri Lanka to recruit students. Danny's father helped him pony up the airfare and tuition, and Danny entered Australia on a student visa. The 'college' turned out to be an old warehouse, and the administrators put him to work in a shabby food store. Danny concluded that the school was a scam, so he quit and became an undocumented immigrant.
After Danny left school he got a job in the Sunburst Grocery Store in Glebe, owned by Tommo Tsavdaridis.
Tommo paid Danny a pittance, let him sleep in the storeroom, and held his illegal status over his head. To make extra money Danny became a cleaner, vacuuming the floors and scrubbing the bathrooms of his clients for 60 dollars a pop.....of which Tommo took half.
*****
As the story opens Danny has been in Australia for four years and is still working at Sunburst Grocery and cleaning homes. Danny lives in constant fear of being nabbed by immigration authorities and deported, so he's very careful and secretive.
To maintain a low profile Danny tries to appear as 'Australian' as possible. Thus Danny 'mimics a man with an Australian spine' (stands up straight); wears shorts in public; keeps himself immaculately groomed; and throws around phrases like G'day mate.
Danny is doing a good job of staying under the radar until one of his former clients, a woman named Rhadha Thomas, is murdered. Until six months ago Danny had been cleaning two apartments for Rhadha: the one where she lives with her husband Mark; and the one occupied by her lover Prakash Wadhwa. Rhadha and Prakash, both Indian-Australians.....
…..had taken a liking to Danny, and would sometimes buy him meals and take him along to gambling casinos (pokies) - where they spent most of their time.
When Danny learns that Rhadha has been found dead in a creek, he's pretty sure he knows who killed her. This puts Danny on the horns of a dilemma: keep mum and let the murderer go free; or call the police and expose himself as an illegal alien. (Danny apparently doesn't think the police can solve the case themselves.)
As the story unfurls we follow Danny for an entire day (almost minute by minute) as he phones acquaintances; crisscrosses town on trains and buses;
Has flashbacks to his life in Sri Lanka;
Recalls his outings with Rhadha and Prakash;
Tries to 'feel out' the suspect; wishes he could get refugee status; worries about what to do;
.....and so on. Almost the whole time Danny carries a little cactus, a gift for his Vietnamese-Australian girlfriend Sonja, who works as a nurse. As it turns out the cactus comes in handy at one point. 😊
The book is essentially a treatise on what it's like to be an illegal immigrant in Australia. Australia's undocumented community is composed largely of Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Malaysians, Nepalis, Chinese, and other Asians.
These 'brown people' can make themselves almost invisible to white Australians but have a kind of radar for each other when they pass in the street. The immigrants are desperate to stay in Australia, and - if they're caught - sometimes commit suicide rather than be sent home.
The story is told almost entirely from the perspective of immigrant Danny, who thinks of 'white Australians' as either rich entitled natives whose lifestyle is out of his reach.....
......or bogeymen who catch and deport illegals.
Danny is terribly worried, and it's hard to watch him cringe and kowtow and apologize again and again to keep 'the suspect' from dobbing him (turning him in). Danny's behavior highlights his determination to stay in the country.
Danny's tale is compelling but the story is too detailed and too slow. It's a chore to follow Danny through his harrowing day, but it's interesting to see what he does in the end.
The author, Aravind Adiga, is a talented Indian-Australian writer and journalist whose novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
Author Aravind Adiga
'Amnesty', however, would have benefited from tighter editing and more action. Still, the story is worth reading to gain insight into the lives and feelings of undocumented people.
Rating: 3 stars
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