http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Not-So-Serious/638516Not So Serious
Sanjay Sipahimalani Posted online: Sat Jun 26 2010, 23:06 hrs
In his debut novel Serious Men, Manu Joseph attempts a biting take on
Indian class distinctions as well as the respect accorded to
practitioners of science by the rest of us. What emerges is a less
than satisfactory novel, one that is not so much a comedy of manners
as a mannered comedy.
Serious Men features the conniving Ayyan Mani, a clerk at Mumbai's
Institute of Theory and Research, who lives with his wife and
10-year-old son in a crowded chawl. As a Dalit, Mani sees the world as
being unfairly in the grasp of Brahmins, and is determined that his
son, at least, escape the drudgery and relative poverty that is his
lot. To further this end, Mani engages in a series of machinations
designed to prove to the world that his son is a prodigy, a genius
clever beyond his years.
The other leg of the book's plot revolves around the irascible, woolly
Arvind Acharya, head of the scientific institute. When we first meet
him, Acharya is busy pooh-poohing other scientists' hunt for
extra-terrestrial intelligence, firmly believing instead that
"microscopic extraterrestrials" are falling to earth every day — that
is, microbes from space, responsible for life arising on the planet.
He's known for his bluntness and all-too-direct views of life, the
universe and everything: "This was what modern physics itself had
become. Time reversal, black holes, dark matter, dark energy,
invisibility, intelligent civilisations. Exciting rubbish. The money
was in that."
The problem is that the arcs of both these characters fall and rise
almost independently for most of the book, giving it a
compartmentalised air. Ayyan's underhand antics and Acharya's downfall
— hastened by his affair with Oparna, the head of one of the
institute's sections — have little to do with each other and it's only
close to the book's end that they mesh satisfactorily. Though there
may be parts of the book that one can relish, such as Ayyan's
fabricating quotations to chalk up as the Institute's Thought For The
Day, there are others that disappoint, such as Oparna's
all-too-convenient vanishing act once her part is played out.
Joseph delights in skewering the pretensions of the pompous, and there
are many satirical asides and observations to this effect, especially
when it comes to the way different classes of society view each other.
On occasion, though, the tone is decidedly sour, putting one in mind
of the later novels of Upamanyu Chatterjee. An added perturbation is
that many times, one can't discern whether such interventions are
authorial or belong to the characters.
The sentences, however, are layered, on occasion with spot-on
observations about the way we see ourselves: "He was a trim, tidy man
who suspected he was good looking"; "A girl who was preoccupied with
her own glamour arrived at the podium". Unfortunately, on many other
occasions, they get carried away by mellifluousness: "The beast of
genius inside him was now fatally infected by what he diagnosed as
common infatuation, but through a minute crack in the fog of misery
his mind could still see the beauty in the conviction that alien
microbes were always falling from the heavens and they had once seeded
life on earth".
Serious Men, then, has a distinctive take on the world around us, but
despite its knowing, barbed tone there is facileness in treatment that
lets the wind out of its sails.
------------------------------------
----
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/
PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com
TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/
Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
ZESTCaste-digest@yahoogroups.com
ZESTCaste-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ZESTCaste-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
