QUESTIONS

1. This novel is made up of different versions of one story. As you read, pay attention to who is telling each version. How do the different versions affect you, the reader? Do the different points of view eventually clarify the events of the story?
   

2. Why does Sam, a dark-skinned man, revere a society that disdains him and people of his race?
   

3. Who is the author of the note on page 92? If Sam is the author of the first part of the book, who tells the rest of the story?
   

4. What is unusual about Sam’s relationship with his mother? With his sister?
   

5. What in her life made Maud so temperamental?
   

6. Sam and Jaya both grow up in privileged circumstances. Why do they take such different paths?
   

7. When Maud returns to Colombo and is taken ill, why does Sam “pray for her to be spared”? Why does the narrator say “he (Sam) wanted her to live a long time.” (p. 132)?
   

8. Who and what are the ghosts that haunt the characters?
   

9. What are some of the opportunities where people miss a chance to connect with another person? What holds them back? (An example: I am thinking of the scene when Sam sees his wife looking at the bright fabric in the shop window on pages 216-217)
   

10. There is a lot of anger, expressed and repressed, in this novel. Which characters are angry and what causes their anger?
    

11. Several characters have quirky sexual needs. How does this aspect of the person’s life mirror his or her personality in general?
    

12. Three people suggest different solutions to the Hamilton murder. Which solution do you think is correct and why?
    

13. In his narrative, Sam reveals himself as crusty, judgmental and generally unlikable. Do you feel differently about him by the end of the book? What made you change your opinion?
    

14. Many of the characters desire someone or something they can’t have. What do these desires represent?
    

Consider also the following questions (#7, 9 and 10) from the reading guide in the back of the book:

The Ceylonese jungle is a powerful physical presence in this novel, especially as it slowly takes over the estate to which Maud is exiled at Lokugama. What kind of metaphorical presence does it have? How does it complement Maud’s decline?

How does the use of different points of view in each of the four parts of The Hamilton Case enlarge our understanding of the characters and their country?

At the end of The Hamilton Case, Shivanathan writes that “history, like any other verdict, is not a matter of fact but a point of view.” Do you agree?