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y separately published work icon If the Moon Smiled single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 If the Moon Smiled
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'I go down to the river, unheeding my mother’s disapproval. I dip into the lazily flowing water. Here, at least, nothing has changed.The bath-cloth balloons around my body and I press it down. I loosen my hair and let it spread where it will. I open my hands upwards on the water’s surface, languidly remembering. All, that is familiar. The promise. The promise of life. As a young woman in Sri Lanka, Manthri marvels at the promise of life and yearns for a future of fulfilled dreams. Years on, she finds herself in a loveless marriage, in a foreign land, and estranged from her two Australian children. Torn between an idyllic past to which she cannot return and a present that breaks her heart, she never loses touch with those dreams, nor abandons her passionate enchantment with life. As a young woman in Sri Lanka, Manthri marvels at the promise of life and years for a future of fulfilled dreams. Years on, she finds herself in a loveless marriage, in a foreign land, and estranged from her two Australian children. Torn between an idyllic past to which she cannot return and a present that breaks her heart, she never loses touch with those dreams, nor abandons her passionate enchantment with life.' (Synopsis)

Notes

  • Dedication: For Alex, Shaamini, Amaali and Lachlan.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: New Delhi,
      c
      India,
      c
      South Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Penguin ; Penguin Books India ,
      2000 .
      image of person or book cover 8794581995070758020.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: [viii], 225 p.p.
      Description: illus., port.
      Note/s:
      • Published simultaneously in Australia and India.
      ISBN: 0140284729
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Penguin Books ,
      2000 .
      image of person or book cover 4911101596047217412.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 224p.
      ISBN: 9780140284720
    • North Melbourne, Flemington - North Melbourne area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Arcadia , 2017 .
      image of person or book cover 1248877929232398392.jpg
      This image has been sourced from publisher's website
      Extent: 227p.
      ISBN: 9781925588231
Language: Greek

Works about this Work

The Making of the Asian Australian Novel Emily Yu Zong , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;

'The making of the Asian Australian novel is the unmaking of oppressive notions of history, subjectivity and literary form. Locating ethnic representational politics within power structures of race and nation, this chapter contends that Asian Australian identity is a site of hybrid instability realised through nonlinear forms of storytelling. The chapter examines national and diasporic paradigms across historical and contemporary trajectories of this literature: earlier Chinese Australian novels that blur boundaries between fictional and factual claims; Bildungsroman novels that trouble ethnocentric narratives of either assimilation or return; multicultural novels that unveil ongoing racism in liberal-pluralist ideals; and transnational novels that reimagine the Australian relationship with postcolonial and globalising Asian modernity. Reflecting on the limits of a critical humanist agenda, the chapter identifies an alternative paradigm of Asian Australian storytelling that employs speculative tactics to depict the land, species, climate change and Asian–Indigenous connections. This ecocritical paradigm challenges a normative ideal of the modern, autonomous and sovereign individual as one the migrant subject should integrate into, while pointing to an under-explored terrain for Asian Australian writers whose focus on diversity and justice would offer important insights into the shifting human condition.'

Source: Author's summary.

Transnation and Feminine Fluidity : New Horizon in the Fiction of Chandani Lokugé Sharon Rundle , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 323-336)

'Sri Lankan-Australian women writers have left their stamp on Australian fiction, from the ground-breaking first novel, A Change of Skies by Yasmine Gooneratne, in 1992, to the narratives of 2014 Miles Franklin Award recipient Michelle de Kretser. Among these novels that address the migrant’s cultural dilemma and accommodation, the novels by Chandani Lokugé demand attention. Lokugé has published three novels. This chapter examines the aspects of water and music flowing through Lokugé’s fiction to transformative new horizons and how these validate the concept of the transnation. Diversity of voices in literature is important in the contemporary public sphere in Australia and the chapter contributes towards addressing an elision in Australian discourse.'

Source: Abstract.

The Diasporic Slide : Representations of Second-generation Diasporas in Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies (1991) and in Chandani Lokugé’s If the Moon Smiled (2000) and Softly as I Leave You (2011) Alexandra Watkins , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , December vol. 52 no. 5 2016; (p. 581-594) Mediating Literary Borders : Asian Australian Writing 2018; (p. 55-68)
'The novels by Yasmine Gooneratne, A Change of Skies (1991), and Chandani Lokugé, If the Moon Smiled (2000) and Softly as I Leave You (2011), show the challenge of diaspora as sliding from parents to children. These fictions portray second-generation immigrants as “caught between two cultures”: the Sri Lankan culture of their parents and the Australian culture with which they engage at school and university. In Gooneratne’s comedy this cultural negotiation creates comic ambivalence in the second-generation character Veena, who is set to repeat the actions of her forebears. Gooneratne’s playful outcome contrasts with Lokugé’s tragic vision in her novels If the Moon Smiled and Softly as I Leave You, which position the “model minority” stereotype and racism in Australia, respectively, as significant challenges for second-generation characters. This article aims to counterbalance the dominant critical focus on first-generation diaspora in fiction. It examines relationships between parent and child characters in the novels in the context of social studies on second-generation diaspora, the South Asian diaspora, and multiculturalism in Australia.' (Introduction)
Chandani Lokugé's If the Moon Smiled : Female Subjectivity and Trauma at the South Asian/Australian Cultural Crossroads M. Dolores Herrero , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Emerging South Asian Women Writers : Essays and Interviews (From Antiquity to Modernity) 2015; (p. 23-41)
Reconfiguring 'Asian Australian' Writing : Australia, India and Inez Baranay Paul Sharrad , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 70 no. 3 2010; (p. 11-29) Mapping South Asian Diasporas 2018; (p. 250-267)
Untitled 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Asia Society AustralAsia Centre Newsletter , Winter 2000; (p. 6)

— Review of Swallowing Clouds Lillian Ng , 1997 single work novel ; On the Goddess Rock Arlene J. Chai , 1998 single work novel ; The Australian Fiance Simone Lazaroo , 2000 single work novel ; If the Moon Smiled Chandani Lokuge , 2000 single work novel ; Wind and Water Ang Chin Geok , 1997 single work novel ; Representing the Other: Chinese in Australian Fiction: 1888-1988 Yu Ouyang , 2000 single work criticism
[Untitled] Luisa Percopo , 1999-2000 single work review
— Appears in: Il Tolomeo , vol. 5 no. 1999-2000; (p. 65-66)

— Review of If the Moon Smiled Chandani Lokuge , 2000 single work novel
Remembrance of Crimes Past Sally Blakeney , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 22 February vol. 118 no. 6212 2000; (p. 96-97)

— Review of Stormy Weather Michael Meehan , 2000 single work novel ; The Twelfth Dialogue Tom Petsinis , 2000 single work novel ; If the Moon Smiled Chandani Lokuge , 2000 single work novel
Sights and Scents of a Sunlit Childhood Katharine England , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 12 February 2000; (p. 21)

— Review of If the Moon Smiled Chandani Lokuge , 2000 single work novel
Trapped in the Light Susan Kurosawa , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 February 2000; (p. 12)

— Review of If the Moon Smiled Chandani Lokuge , 2000 single work novel
Mirroring Ambivalence : Resistance and Reconciliation in South Asian Australia Makarand Paranjape , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Resistance and Reconciliation : Writing in the Commonwealth 2003; (p. 288-307)
Chandani Lokuge's If the Moon Smiled and Arun Joshi's The Foreigner : A Comparative Study R. K. Dhawan , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Austral-Asian Encounters : From Literature and Women's Studies to Politics and Tourism 2003; (p. 171-178)
The Woman Question : The Fiction of Chitra Fernando and Chandani Lokuge Suman Bala , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Austral-Asian Encounters : From Literature and Women's Studies to Politics and Tourism 2003; (p. 179-185)
Waters of Desire Chandani Lokuge , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 66 no. 2 2007; (p. 25-34)
'For those who have left the island of Sri Lanka as well as those who have stayed, water retains a powerfully ambiguous force in their lives..'(Meanjin)
Reconfiguring 'Asian Australian' Writing : Australia, India and Inez Baranay Paul Sharrad , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 70 no. 3 2010; (p. 11-29) Mapping South Asian Diasporas 2018; (p. 250-267)
Last amended 1 Sep 2017 07:22:13
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