The Death of Vishnu: A Novel
Harper Perennial - Harper Perennial
Release date: 2002-01-08
Paperback
Author: Manil Suri
Fiction, Fiction - General, Fiction / General, Fiction / Literary, Literary, Reading Group Guide, General, Apartment houses, Bombay (India), Death, Domestics
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The Death of Vishnu: A Novel
Date undefinedThis book begins with an amusing conflict between two housewives who must share a kitchen. Several classes of people are featured from the very poor to the lower middle class, their interactions and influences upon each other. Very well written, tragedy is inevitable, particularly with the young lovers of different religions and of course, the dying Krishna, the lowest of servants who sleeps under the stairs. A good read.
The Death of Vishnu: A Novel
Date undefinedVishnu lies dying on the staircase, which has been his home, and his neighbors, families Pathak and Asrani, argue, who should pay for the ambulance. This is the beginning of the chain, which transports the reader to the higher and higher floors of the building in Bombay and reveals the drama behind the closed doors of its dwellers. We follow Mr Jalal through his obsessive search for the sense of life, we see the widower Vinod Taneja, who is missing his wife so much he renounces life altogether, and young Kavita Asrani, who imagines herself as a heroine of a Bollywood romance movie and runs away from home.
The story, infused with Indian mythology, is a metaphor of a social and political division in the contemporary Indian society, shown here as a building, inhabited by people of different social status and religious beliefs. The Pathaks and the Asranis are very similar Hindu families, who live in constant competition and jealousy, uniting only against those who are much different, like the Jalals, who are respectful Muslims (and whose son elopes with Kavita Asrani), or like Vishnu, a poor drunk who is allowed to live on the stairs of the building in exchange for favors. The stairs provide shelter for many people, nearly as many, as those who live in the flats, and equally diverse. There is Ganga, who is assigned the task of bringing the milk to the flats, and the radiowalla, whose only pride is his small transistor radio. The building sparks with life, everyone is going about their business, and in the middle of the staircase there lies Vishnu in a coma.
The story of the few days before Vishnu dies is interrupted by Vishnu's visions of his past and afterlife, his prostitute lover, Padmini, his dreams of a better life and his misery and happiness in life. These fragments bring spiritual depth into the witty novel, giving it perspective and rounding it up as a thoroughly Indian story. The author, Manil Suri, is a mathematician, and maybe because of this he managed to give his debut novel exceptionally good structure. The ending is open and leaves room for imagination (at the same time, it was a bit unclear and blurred to me, the only flaw I could find in this amazing debut). The language is light and clear. The book reads fast and absorbs the reader. I will start reading the next novels of the other two of the Indian divine trinity, Shiva (the novel appeared at the beginning of 2008) and Brahma, with a lot of anticipation - with "The Death of Vishnu" Suri has set the bar very high.
The Death of Vishnu: A Novel
Date undefinedThis book follows the lives of several families in a Bombay apartment building as a homeless man in the stairwell dies. This book has few good points. There are several sexually explicit scenes. I do not recommend it.
