Friday, April 29, 2011

Serious Men - Manu Joseph.

Bought this book after The Hindu Literary Prize was announced. (So awards do have an impact on book sales.) Was a little apprehensive, since Hindu is not exactly a masthead for cutting edge style or big on experimentation etc. I was pleasantly surprised. The book is bitter, but funny bitter. The characters, you have met. The story plausible but imaginative and with backgrounds that you can almost taste and smell. Nothing is left out, science, relationships, poverty,class, ambitions and love is split open, turned inside out for inspection with a jaded, pessimistic attitude. But somehow it works.

Ayyan Mani works for Arvind Acharya an eminent scientist. He is married and has a kid Adi for whom he has astronomical ambitions. In the backdrop of Ayyan's bleak, barely held together apartment complex and the hypocritical lives of squabbling, scheming scientists, he comes up with an ingenious plan to ensure his rather average son has a bright future. Is it class revenge or a father ambition, we oscillate through the plot that reveals itself in careful layers.

7/10

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