Review of serious men by manu jospeh
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Manu Jospeh's 'Serious Men' presents a caricaturised sketch of the world of the geniuses as seen through the eyes of an ordinary man, at times a nobody, at other times the main protagonist of the story. As this man walks in and out of his day job, he cleverly observes these people, hating them for their superciliousness, leaving not a chance to poke fun at them (albeit most of this happens from the confines of his den). However, secretly, he also aspires to be like them for that is the only way he thinks he can 'elevate himself above the banality of his everyday life'. Will he, won't he? And how would he?
Ayyan Mani is an underpaid clerk who works at a top institute of India with some of the best brains of the country (somehow all brahmins!). He lives in a dingy Mumbai chawal (the meanest of the places to live, I hear) and has no more than a tiny room to call his own which he shares with his wife and one child. His life revolves around his job and his family, which is how he fears it will end unless he does something about it. Desperate to get out of the rat hole where he lives and make his life better than everybody else he knows, he concocts an ingenious plan, one that involves his half deaf son (who everybody thinks is a genius). And from there, starts this story. How will Ayyan use his son's proclaimed genius to achieve his dreams? Will he be successful in fooling the brahmin clique at the institute where he works? How will he pull the farce?
Manu Joseph's characters are lively and his plot imaginative. His is a piquant wit, evident in the way he has peppered this story with voyeurism, conmanship and illicit liasions. 'Serious Men' is an award winning novel and I had high expectations from it. It fulfilled all of those. Loved this novel and look forward to many more from this author.