The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri

Onions... I was chopping onions for omelets the other day during my short reading break when I stumbled upon a linkage... a revelation so to speak.
Plot of this book entitled “The Death of Vishnu” by Manil Suri is so similar to onions. Why onions right? Well, let me explain :-) (I love explaining you know :-))

Like most of the Asian writers, the storyline and characters grow in tandem with each other, thoroughly entwined and there is no way to review the book either from generic or holistic point of view. It is therefore really hard to review these books without losing the essence itself.

As such, I have no choice but to revert to the tried and tested method of reviewing only the main characters of the book as initially done in this blog for “Evening Is The whole Day by Preeta Samarasan”.

To put it mildly, I will “peel” the characters apart akin to peeling onions one layer at a time :-) see the linkage now? Brilliant eh? Hehehehe… Okok... basket case here... :-P

Main character is Vishnu, as the title suggests and as we read on, we’re introduced to the rest of the families staying in one particular apartment in the midst of Mumbai city.
These families are then brought into focus one after another and how they are linked to the others. Without further ado, here are the characters/families in the book and their interactions:

Main character; Vishnu:
A runner or odd job man hired to serve the families staying in the apartment. His “home” is at the ground floor landing of the apartment.
He is despised but tolerated by the families there. He lays dead/dying on the floor landing but is ignored by the rest of the families. In this novel, his ethereal body “walks” up from floor to floor passing (or rather bypassing) all the events surrounding his mortal life.
This book is basically the recollection of Vishnu’s life experiences with respect to his mother, the Pathaks, the Jalals, the Asranis, the Tanejas, Padmini and other “ikan bilis” (anchovies) characters.
Padmani; the whore/lover, in my opinion, is the most interesting part of the book… so much so that I’ve allocated a slot just for her :-D)

The Pathaks and The Asranis:
Not on friendly term with each other. Both strives to outdo each other; even to the extent of claiming who took care of Vishnu the most (in truth, both have this love-hate relationship with Vishnu instead). Wife of both families often argued (amongst themselves and with their husband) over trivial matters.

The Jalals:
A dysfunctional Muslim family, in which the husband is actively seeking explanation for everything and ended up disillusioned over his alleged revelation that Vishnu is a God reincarnate. The son, Salim who fell in love with Kavita (The Asrani's daughter) and eloped though Kavita dropped the idea midway and returned to the family.

The Tanejas:
Their relationship is the epitome of an arranged marriage. The story follows on the way they were introduced to each other, how they moved onwards until the shocking news when Sheetal was diagnosed with incurable cancer. When she finally succumbed to her disease, Vinod became a recluse, shutting himself from all the cares of the world.

Padmani:
The whore who managed to twist Vishnu to spend his every cent on her (I kept wondering how Vishnu managed to get the dough to seek Padmani out on regular basis :-P). Her grip on Vishnu is so strong that Vishnu "borrowed" one of the tenants' car just to drive her around and Vishnu nearly went crazy when he discovered that Padmini has gone without a trace on one fine day.

Personal rating: 7 out of 10

Cons:
1) Too many layers within the storyline. Perhaps a good thing but I grew weary of such a complicated read :-S
2) Hard to review this book without dropping most of the details.

Pros:
1) Manil is able to portray the interaction between different layers of the society via the make-believe apartment dwellers.
2) Not only that, he managed to compress the complexities surrounding the touchy issue of religion in such a nice and presentable "package".