Winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize and shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
Ayyan Mani is a man born to greater things, which wouldn't surprise his neighbours in the vast tenement building in which he lives, where to be sober and employed practically makes a man a legend.
He works as an assistant at the
Manu Joseph's archly comic debut is a tale of a man's attempt to elevate himself and his family above the banality of ordinary existence.
Serious Men
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Funny, diverting and original
(Guardian )Manu Joseph's first novel elegantly describes collisions with an unyielding status quo, ably counterpointing the frustrations of the powerless with the unfulfilling realities of power. With this astute comedy of manners he makes a convincing bid for his own recognition as a novelist of serious talent, the latest addition to a roster of Indian writers who are creating fine literary art from their country's fearsome contradictions
(Peter Carty, Independent )Manu Joseph's satirical tale of an ostensibly new India still in thrall to its caste-ridden and sexist traditions is so much more than a mere comic caper . . . Sophisticated entertainment
The finest comic novelists know that a small world can illuminate a culture and an age...with this sad-funny debut Joseph does just that
(Boyd Tonkin, Books to light up lazy days, Independent )He has written a debut novel that skewers a society where new ambitions and older class divisions co-exist. From the contrasts of contemporary India, he extracts pointed, often bitter comedy
(Sunday Times )The writing is exuberant
(TLS )A charming debut novel
(Guardian )One of the strongest debuts of 2010, this bittersweet Mumbai tale of high minds and low plots never quite won the plaudits it deserves. Now it has a second chance . . . More Lucky Jim than White Tiger . . . Touching, hilarious, this collision between the Mumbai of stars and of mud rediscovers a deep Indian vein of humane and sophisticated comedy
(Independent )About the Author
Manu Joseph is editor of OPEN magazine. Previously he was national features editor of the largest newspaper in India, The Times of India, writer-at-large for Wired's website wired.com, and has written for the Independent. In 2007 he became a Chevening Scholar, an annual British government award for twelve journalists who will shape opinions in the future. This is his first novel.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have been hearing about this book for some time now and I am so glad I finally got down to reading it. It is one of the funniest books I have read but it is not funny in a flippant way. There is something about it that still lingers in me. In the beginning I could not make up my mind about whether I liked Ayyan Mani, the cunning anti-hero who promotes his 10-year-old son as a child-genius, but without my knowing I began to like him. Right from the start, I loved Acharya because Acharya is exactly what my father is. I found Oparna very recognisable among my friends. I am still not sure if I entirely liked her portrayal but I can see she is very believable. I know I will re-read this book a few times.
7 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By S. Shroff
Format:Hardcover
The plot is interesting and there were some good observations about life in general and Indian middle class life in particular. I was, however, confused and put off several times by what appears to me to be grammatical errors in this book. The novel is the place where some of the most considered writing resides - and readers choose to turn away from the rubbish of daily life (social networking, reality TV shows) and in my view it is important for a novel to be more discriminating, more worthy of a reader's time than an article in a newspaper.
I'm no grammatical pedant and am young enough to understand that the way we use English changes over time. My grammar is certainly not very good either. However these errors in a novel - such as treating a common noun as a proper noun - grated with me. I grew up in India and this is a typical Hinglish way of using common nouns in conversation, although I find it alarming in a novel, especially as part of the narration (and not as a piece of dialogue from a character, which is fine of course, because a character can speak how a character needs to speak). "It was seven when he reached office," is one sentence halfway through the novel. The lack of a "the" before the word office, is one small example of the grammatical errors littered throughout the book.
English newspapers seem to fall over themselves to praise every so-so book from India, each one hailed as a "new generation" and as a "satire on the caste system." Perhaps England is still in love with the romance of Empire, and sometimes fetishises Indian fiction, whether is is good or not. Although I do like it that England has an appetite for Indian fiction. Tired cliches abound - a woman whose husband has admitted to an affair thinks to herself, "It felt as if someone had died." Much later, as a couple are going through a confrontation, the rain "grows violent" outside, matching the weather to the mood.
All in all it's a good, light, urban plot and touches on the Indian IIT (India's Harvard)graduate's typical obsession with science above everything else. It's a first novel and that's obvious too. It's also not sentimental and it's intelligent, which is great (unlike the un-literary 'gap year' fiction that was Shantaram). I'd just like British critics to judge Indian fiction in the same way as fiction from England. If a book of this quality was written in England, in my view, it would certainly get none of these inane, undeserved pieces of praise it has received. Sloppy praise damages the faith of the reader in reviews and ultimately in the novel itself. If you want an intelligent recent urban Indian novel, I'd recommend Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals.
I'm no grammatical pedant and am young enough to understand that the way we use English changes over time. My grammar is certainly not very good either. However these errors in a novel - such as treating a common noun as a proper noun - grated with me. I grew up in India and this is a typical Hinglish way of using common nouns in conversation, although I find it alarming in a novel, especially as part of the narration (and not as a piece of dialogue from a character, which is fine of course, because a character can speak how a character needs to speak). "It was seven when he reached office," is one sentence halfway through the novel. The lack of a "the" before the word office, is one small example of the grammatical errors littered throughout the book.
English newspapers seem to fall over themselves to praise every so-so book from India, each one hailed as a "new generation" and as a "satire on the caste system." Perhaps England is still in love with the romance of Empire, and sometimes fetishises Indian fiction, whether is is good or not. Although I do like it that England has an appetite for Indian fiction. Tired cliches abound - a woman whose husband has admitted to an affair thinks to herself, "It felt as if someone had died." Much later, as a couple are going through a confrontation, the rain "grows violent" outside, matching the weather to the mood.
All in all it's a good, light, urban plot and touches on the Indian IIT (India's Harvard)graduate's typical obsession with science above everything else. It's a first novel and that's obvious too. It's also not sentimental and it's intelligent, which is great (unlike the un-literary 'gap year' fiction that was Shantaram). I'd just like British critics to judge Indian fiction in the same way as fiction from England. If a book of this quality was written in England, in my view, it would certainly get none of these inane, undeserved pieces of praise it has received. Sloppy praise damages the faith of the reader in reviews and ultimately in the novel itself. If you want an intelligent recent urban Indian novel, I'd recommend Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
20 reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Astounding!
25 Aug 2010
By Dick Johnson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I cannot remember the last time a book was so relaxingly enjoyable. Though I've honestly used the words in other reviews; I truly did not want this one to end.
While the story is a satire of the social conventions of India, the real appeal of the novel is in the characters. There are two groups: Ayyan Mani and his family; and the scientists at the Institute of Theory and Research.
Though some of the scientists are stereotyped, they are portrayed so amusingly that I didn't care. Seeing them go about their 'work' was a hoot. The academic jealousy and fighting for funds showed that this is a constant in academia the world over.
Ayyan, his wife Oja, and their son Adi are marvelously portrayed and anything but stereotyped. Their lives and their place in the plot are handled in a manner that draws us to them. They became people I wanted to spend much more time with.
There are two plot lines running through the book. The main line revolves around that universal world of the academics and the social issues related to sex, castes and opportunities. The second, but even more enjoyable, line is about Ayyan and Oja's son, the 'genius' Adi - and especially Adi's relationship with Ayyan.
This is a book to be savored. I rarely read a novel a second time; but this is going to remain on my 'to be read' shelves. Even if I don't read it a second time, just seeing it will remind me of the enjoyable time I had and remind me to watch for Manu Joseph's next book. I hope it will come soon!
While the story is a satire of the social conventions of India, the real appeal of the novel is in the characters. There are two groups: Ayyan Mani and his family; and the scientists at the Institute of Theory and Research.
Though some of the scientists are stereotyped, they are portrayed so amusingly that I didn't care. Seeing them go about their 'work' was a hoot. The academic jealousy and fighting for funds showed that this is a constant in academia the world over.
Ayyan, his wife Oja, and their son Adi are marvelously portrayed and anything but stereotyped. Their lives and their place in the plot are handled in a manner that draws us to them. They became people I wanted to spend much more time with.
There are two plot lines running through the book. The main line revolves around that universal world of the academics and the social issues related to sex, castes and opportunities. The second, but even more enjoyable, line is about Ayyan and Oja's son, the 'genius' Adi - and especially Adi's relationship with Ayyan.
This is a book to be savored. I rarely read a novel a second time; but this is going to remain on my 'to be read' shelves. Even if I don't read it a second time, just seeing it will remind me of the enjoyable time I had and remind me to watch for Manu Joseph's next book. I hope it will come soon!
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seriously satirical comedy of manners
24 Dec 2010
By switterbug
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
SERIOUS MEN combines serious charm, salacious wit, and combative, scientific cogitations that will appeal to lovers of subversive drollery. It is a comedy of manners, spotlighting the age-old caste consciousness of Brahmins vs. Dalits (formerly Untouchables), taking place primarily in a Scientific Research Institute and also in a Maharashtran chawl, an Indian tenement housing for the poor and lowly.
Two aging, eccentric Brahmin scientists at the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai vie for funds and advancement for their dueling theories of alien life. Meanwhile, younger Dalit clerk Ayyan Mani weaves his Machiavellian mischief with the insurgent dexterity of a snake in the grass, but a snake you want to root for. Manu Joseph allows the reader to perceive each character from several viewpoints, and in ever more dicey situations.
Ayyan wants more for his eleven-year-old son, Adi, than a fixed and dismal future typically available for a Dalit. His still-young wife has slipped into a cheerless existence of watching soap operas and automatic functioning, and he longs to inspire her passion again. Achieving these aims requires a cunning treachery and a fierce devotion, one that rivals the outrageous ambitions of the wizards he works for and nimbly intrudes on daily.
Filled with counterpoints and contradictions, as well as a sly merriment on every page, debut author Joseph spins a provocative yarn that builds slowly in the first half, and progresses with an ineluctable immediacy in the latter part of the story, luring the reader into a tight symmetry of scandalous adventure.
"Man is not searching for aliens. Man is searching for man. It's called loneliness. Not science."
Wry, intelligent observations fuel this delicious satire about the search for meaningful existence and the power to find it. Joseph blends an edgy morality tale with a soulful examination of family and love.
Two aging, eccentric Brahmin scientists at the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai vie for funds and advancement for their dueling theories of alien life. Meanwhile, younger Dalit clerk Ayyan Mani weaves his Machiavellian mischief with the insurgent dexterity of a snake in the grass, but a snake you want to root for. Manu Joseph allows the reader to perceive each character from several viewpoints, and in ever more dicey situations.
Ayyan wants more for his eleven-year-old son, Adi, than a fixed and dismal future typically available for a Dalit. His still-young wife has slipped into a cheerless existence of watching soap operas and automatic functioning, and he longs to inspire her passion again. Achieving these aims requires a cunning treachery and a fierce devotion, one that rivals the outrageous ambitions of the wizards he works for and nimbly intrudes on daily.
Filled with counterpoints and contradictions, as well as a sly merriment on every page, debut author Joseph spins a provocative yarn that builds slowly in the first half, and progresses with an ineluctable immediacy in the latter part of the story, luring the reader into a tight symmetry of scandalous adventure.
"Man is not searching for aliens. Man is searching for man. It's called loneliness. Not science."
Wry, intelligent observations fuel this delicious satire about the search for meaningful existence and the power to find it. Joseph blends an edgy morality tale with a soulful examination of family and love.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent first book
14 Nov 2010
By Raghu Nathan
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Manu Joseph's 'Serious Men' has an engaging starting line - 'Ayyan Mani's thick black hair was combed sideways and parted by a careless broken line, like the borders the British used to draw between hostile neighbours'. It is not as great as Tolstoy's first line in 'Anna Karinina' or Camus' 'Outsider' but it makes you want to read on. Joseph has a great ability to observe and write as shown by many gems of one or two-liners in the book. The book is predominantly about the scientists of the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai and the life of a clerk who works for the Director of the Institute. There are two story lines and they run in parallel without major interactions. The scientists are predominantly Brahmins and - you guessed it - the clerk is Untouchable! The scientist side of the story deals with career politics under the garb of pursuing 'truth', the ensuing scramble for power and associated vicious conspiracies and a bit of sex thrown in between the aged Director and a young Bengali woman scientist. The Untouchable side of the story deals with Ayyan Mani, the clerk, planning and pulling off an elaborate con in passing his ten-year old son as a child genius. Though the story lines wander a bit on their own, the author brings them together to get a good ending.
The book is basically a satirical look at many aspects of the contemporary life in India. The author pokes fun at both the Brahmins and the Untouchables, though he is naturally more merciless on the Brahmins. From the descriptions, it is quite obvious that the author means the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) of Mumbai when he writes 'Institute of Theory and Research'. Since I worked there for four years in the 1970s, I read the book with even greater interest. However, I must say that I experienced the atmosphere and environment in TIFR as very liberating and free of the pettiness and bureaucracy that I experienced later in other govt institutions in Delhi. My memory of the many scientists then was not one of the small-minded and bigoted ones portrayed in the book. Though it is true that what the author has portrayed is true of life in India, one feels that the author probably had his overseas audience in mind as one reads the usual stereotyping in representing the Brahmin scientists and the Untouchable clerk.
In spite of all this, the quality of writing is of a high standard and the author has many gems of a line sprayed all over the book. Some examples are as below:
'yes sir, yes sir' said Basu many more times on the phone to the Minister. It was a private dialect of the Indian bureaucracy and it has no other words'.
'A man cannot be exactly the way he wants to be and also dream of keeping his wife' said Ayyan Mani to the Director.
After meeting Michael Jackson, the Minister told the press, 'He is a polite man. There is no trace of arrogance in him. You didn't get the feeling at all that you are talking to a white man'
'Of all human deformities', said the Director, 'genius is the most useful'
'Ayyan Mani, after learning that his sperm count was only half that of a normal man his age, told his wife that she is duty bound to sleep with him twice as many times as normal men do.....'
The book is strewn with many passages of savage satire on caste, class and also on modern society's blind reverence for science even though many scientists themselves do not understand it all. In this regard, the author rightly has a go at the bizarre claims of String Theory and its concept of the Universe.
I enjoyed reading the book even though I felt that he is unfair to TIFR and its scientists. Manu Joseph is a promising writer and I look forward to his next book.
The book is basically a satirical look at many aspects of the contemporary life in India. The author pokes fun at both the Brahmins and the Untouchables, though he is naturally more merciless on the Brahmins. From the descriptions, it is quite obvious that the author means the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) of Mumbai when he writes 'Institute of Theory and Research'. Since I worked there for four years in the 1970s, I read the book with even greater interest. However, I must say that I experienced the atmosphere and environment in TIFR as very liberating and free of the pettiness and bureaucracy that I experienced later in other govt institutions in Delhi. My memory of the many scientists then was not one of the small-minded and bigoted ones portrayed in the book. Though it is true that what the author has portrayed is true of life in India, one feels that the author probably had his overseas audience in mind as one reads the usual stereotyping in representing the Brahmin scientists and the Untouchable clerk.
In spite of all this, the quality of writing is of a high standard and the author has many gems of a line sprayed all over the book. Some examples are as below:
'yes sir, yes sir' said Basu many more times on the phone to the Minister. It was a private dialect of the Indian bureaucracy and it has no other words'.
'A man cannot be exactly the way he wants to be and also dream of keeping his wife' said Ayyan Mani to the Director.
After meeting Michael Jackson, the Minister told the press, 'He is a polite man. There is no trace of arrogance in him. You didn't get the feeling at all that you are talking to a white man'
'Of all human deformities', said the Director, 'genius is the most useful'
'Ayyan Mani, after learning that his sperm count was only half that of a normal man his age, told his wife that she is duty bound to sleep with him twice as many times as normal men do.....'
The book is strewn with many passages of savage satire on caste, class and also on modern society's blind reverence for science even though many scientists themselves do not understand it all. In this regard, the author rightly has a go at the bizarre claims of String Theory and its concept of the Universe.
I enjoyed reading the book even though I felt that he is unfair to TIFR and its scientists. Manu Joseph is a promising writer and I look forward to his next book.
›
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4.2 out of 5 stars
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