Want a NOOK? Explore Now
A poignant, bitingly funny Indian satire and love story set in a scientific institute and in Mumbai’s humid tenements.
Ayyan Mani will not be constrained by Indian traditions. Despite working at the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai as the lowly personal assistant to a brilliant but insufferable astronomer, he dreams of more for himself and his family.
Ever wily and ambitious, Ayyan weaves two plots: the first to cheer up his weary, soap-opera-addicted wife by creating outrageous fictions around their ten-year-old son; the other to sabotage the married director by using his boss’s seeming romance with the institute’s first female—and very attractive—researcher. Meanwhile, as the institute’s Brahmins wage a vicious war over theories about alien life, Ayyan sees his deceptions intertwining and setting in motion a series of extraordinary events he cannot stop. Unfailingly funny and irreverent, Serious Men is at once a hilarious portrayal of runaway egos and ambitions and a moving portrait of love and its strange workings.
One of 2010’s “First Novels to Savor.” —Sunday Telegraph
Winner of the 2011 PEN/Open Book Award
In Serious Men, Manu Joseph weaves together to plots. One concerns physicists at an Indian science institute; the second involves a clerk who works at the institute and his family. More than job title separates--and joins--these plots, as all the scientists are Brahmins and the clerk and his family are untouchables. Joseph is willing to show both groups in a satirical light, but he definitely aims his wit more at the Brahmins. Despite his seeming ire toward the Brahmins, it is the plot concerning the physicists that takes over in the middle of the book. Unfortunately, it also pushes the book off its equilibrium. After a strong opening section, Joseph wanders in the middle, only to have to try to pull everything together in the final 25 pages. His effort falls a bit short. Nevertheless, it's worth reading the book, if only for his presentation of how the untouchable class lives in India. For me, this was the most eye-opening part of the book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 26, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
A poignant, bitingly funny Indian satire and love story set in a scientific institute and in Mumbai’s humid tenements.
Ayyan Mani will not be constrained by Indian traditions. Despite working at the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai as the lowly personal assistant to a brilliant but insufferable astronomer, he dreams of more for himself and his family.
Ever wily and ambitious, Ayyan weaves two plots: the first to cheer up his weary, ...