The title of Manil Suri's first novel gets right to the point. His protagonist, having purchased the right to sleep on the ground-floor landing of a Bombay apartment house, slips slowly from a coma into death. As this aging alcoholic takes leave of the earth, his neighbors surround him, arguing over who gave Vishnu a few dried chapatis, who called the doctor for him, and who will pay for the ambulance to cart him away. Meanwhile, the hero of The Death of Vishnu is lost in memories. Drifting through increasingly vivid scenes from his past, he recalls his relatively rare snatches of love and joy--and especially his romance with Padmini, a self-involved prostitute. On one particular day, it seems, he stole one of his employer's cars and drove his love interest to the honeymoon town of Lonavala, where he showered her with gifts and finally lifted her veil to kiss her like a bride: Then the absurdity of the situation strikes him. The preposterousness of his images, the foolishness of his feelings, the comicality of chasing currents that skim across Padmini's face. He thinks how absurd this whole trip has been, how absurd is the presence of the two of them in Lonavala, how absurd is the scenery itself that stretches before them. He thinks of poor, ridiculous Mr. Jalal, waiting back in Bombay for his Fiat, and of how Padmini will react when he asks her to buy them petrol so they can get back. Vishnu also recalls his secret passion for Kavita Asrani, the beautiful teenage daughter of one of the families for whom he works. Given the protagonist's focus on his hapless love life, the scope of Suri's dazzling debut may appear narrow. However, the apartment house upon whose floor Vishnu spends his final hours functions as a microcosm of Indian society. It helps to know even a smattering about Hindu mythology or India's religious conflicts. But even if you don't, there is plenty to relish in The Death of Vishnu, with its comical, richly drawn characters, loving attention to the details of everyday life, and provocative exploration of destiny and free will. --Regina Marler


From Publishers Weekly
This is a remarkable first novel, whose lyric prose is further enhanced by Lee's soft, mesmerizing reading. The story hinges on the comatose alcoholic Vishnu, who lays dying on the first floor landing of the Bombay apartment building for which he is the houseboy. Suri has fashioned Vishnu as the conduit to each and all of the book's vibrant characters and their intertwined comic, tragic and melodramatic stories. Vishnu enables listeners to move easily through the real, the mystical, the metaphoric; as he gradually slips down into death, he crawls slowly up the stairs, recalling fine and funny scenes of his youth and early manhood. Even listeners unfamiliar with India's religions and the Hindu trinity of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer will marvel at Suri's ability to reveal the tapestry and nuances of Indian culture through the activity contained in one small apartment building, to which Lee's rich and myriad Indian accents add atmosphere and humor. Simultaneous release with the Norton hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 6, 2000). Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this debut, mathematics professor Suri introduces us to the varied denizens of an apartment building where Vishnu lies dyingAas neighbors argue about paying for the ambulance. Expect big promotion. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


New York Times Book Review, Michael Gorra, 28 January 2001
[A] deft and confident first novel.... finely burnished plots, oblique irony and understated prose; above all, the sense of equipoise.


Los Angeles Times, Shashi Tharoor, 4 February 2001
[S]lendid....an exceptionally good novel.


Washington Post Book World, Lee Siegel, 14 January 2001
[A] full, sweet-scented novel.... Juxtaposing the mundane with the comic, Suri evokes these characters with intelligence, compassion and humor.


USA Today, Carol Memmott, 25 January 2001
[F]resh, original....[T]here is exquisite beauty in Suri's prose.


From AudioFile
This bestselling debut novel is an allegory set in an apartment building in modern Bombay. Named after the Hindu "Preserver," Vishnu is a dying vagrant whose only home is the stairwell of the building. His waning health presents numerous problems for the other residents, giving the author the chance to juxtapose the petty, the sensual, and the eternal in imaginative, perceptive, and distinctively Indian ways. In the mouth of John Lee, the tale has wonderful charm and character. His gentle, musical cadences enhance the beauty, pathos, and humor of the writing. He deftly contributes a mythic proportion that complements the Verismo atmosphere, reminiscent of such Kurasawa films as Do Des Kaden and Ran. He seems always in the moment, yet every incident, every conversation, presages something momentous, so that the suspense never flags. The production concludes with an enlightening interview with the author. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Suri, a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, has entered the realm of literature with assurance, agile humor, and an impressive breadth of social and religious concerns. His first novel, set in Bombay, the city of his birth, conjures a beehive-busy microcosm within the walls of an apartment building. Two Hindu families bicker about water and ghee; a Muslim household is pitched into confusion when its mild-mannered patriarch turns fanatic in his pursuit of enlightenment; a Hindu girl and Muslim boy imagine that they're in love; and Vishnu, the drunk who sleeps on the first-floor landing, drifts peacefully toward death. As he lies dreaming about love, his childhood, and his divine namesake, his neighbors fret over their tired marriages, knotty questions of status and faith, and responsibility for Vishnu. The gospel of the movies is just as influential as the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita in Suri's tenderly comic, wryly metaphysical, and hugely entertaining tale, in which profound longings for romance and deliverance shape even the most modest (perhaps the most precious) of lives. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Boston Globe
“Enchanting…Masterfully created…No telling detail or private vanity escapes the author’s comic yet infinitely compassionate scrutiny.”


Wall Street Journal
“A delightful and rich first novel…lyrical.”


Washington Post Book World
"[A] literary accomplishment… eloquent, refined and tasteful.


New York Times Book Review
"Deft and confident ."


Seattle Times
"The reader is swept away by Suri's fresh, witty observations and tender comic moments."


Boston Sunday Globe "New and Recommended", 4 February 2001
An enchanting first novel...this tale of modern Bombay will delight readers who have had enough of skinny postmodernist fiction.


Salon.com Books, Suzy Hansen, 11 January 2001
[D]ynamic...elegant, clever prose and emotional and philosophical probing carry the action of the novel entirely.


Book, Padma Viswanathan, January 2001
Suri misses no comic beat, and makes delicate and inspired use of passages from Hindu myth and indian religious life.


Marie Clare "Read It" column, January 2001
Suri makes a striking debut with The Death of Vishnu, his lyrical novel of death and life...


Arizona Republic, Anne Stephenson, 7 January 2001
[W]onderfully comedic... .all of it filtered through the imagination of a very talented storyteller.


Book Description

Vishnu, the odd-job man in a Bombay apartment block, lies dying on the staircase landing: Around him the lives of the apartment dwellers unfold: the warring housewives on the first floor, lovesick teenagers on the second, and the widower, alone and quietly grieving on the top floor of the building. In a fevered state Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmim and wonders if he might actually be the god Vishnu, guardian of the entire universe.

Blending incisive comedy with Hindu mythology and a dash of Bollywood sparkle, The Death of Vishnu is an intimate and compelling view of an unforgettable world.


From the Publisher
7 1.5-hour cassettes

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
Manil Suri's comic prose and imaginative language transport readers to the petty squabbles and unrelenting conflicts of modern-day India. At the center of the narrative is the character of Vishnu, an aging alcoholic houseboy on the precipice of death, who lies, penniless, on the bottom step of a middle-class Bombay apartment house. While Vishnu appears to face his impending death placidly and philosophically, a maelstrom swirls around him. The residents of the building include a reclusive widower mourning the untimely death of his young wife, a Moslem family coping with the daily prejudices of their Hindu neighbors, and two families who unhappily share a kitchen. Worlds collide when the Moslem family's son elopes with the Hindu family's daughter, and Mr. Jalal, the Moslem family patriarch, apparently flips his wig, recognizing Vishnu not as their dying houseboy but as the deity whose name he bears, with the power to save. And when Mr. Jalal is found sleeping on the stairs beside Vishnu, he becomes the scapegoat for the building's many ills. In its frenetic and hilarious conclusion, The Death of Vishnu trumpets the arrival of an extremely gifted Indian writer, bringing to spectacular life the tempestuous chaos that is life in India today. (Winter 2001 Selection)

"Vibrantly alive...full of wonderfully rich and deeply human characters." --Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours

ANNOTATION

Winner of Barnes & Noble's 2001 Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A compelling spiritual quest viewed through the color and tumult of life in a Bombay apartment block.

At the opening of this masterful debut novel, Vishnu, the resident odd-job man, lies dying on the apartment building staircase he inhabits, while his neighbors, the Pathaks and the Asranis, argue over who will pay for an ambulance. As the action spirals up through the floors of the building, the dramas of the residents' lives unfold: Mr. Jalal's obsessive search for higher meaning; Vinod Taneja's longing for the wife he has lost; the comic elopement of Kavita Asrani, who fancies herself the heroine of a Hindi movie.

Suffused with Hindu mythology, this story of one apartment building becomes a metaphor for the social and religious division of contemporary India, and Vishnu's ascent of the staircase parallels the sours progress through the various stages of existence. As Vishnu closes in on the riddle of his own mortality, he begins to wonder whether he might not be the god Vishnu, guardian not only of the fate of the building and its occupants, but of the entire universe.

FROM THE CRITICS

Time Magazine

As this spirit looks back on the life just ending, on the mother who named him after a Hindu god, on the prostitute whom he truly loved, Suri's novel achieves an eerie and memorable transcendence.

Paper

Suri's mix of religious mysticism and quirky realism makes for a deeply impressive debut.

Time

[An] enchanting novel....acheives an eerie and memorable transcendence.

Jim Crace

The Death of Vishnu finds the Universe in a block of Bombay flats; it is tender, caustic, witty and inspired.

Amy Tan

A wonder of a book. From the first page I could tell that this is an astonishing debut, sure to win readers and prizes. Read all 55 "From The Critics" >

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