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Serious Men

by Manu Joseph (Goodreads Author)

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 668 ratings · 109 reviews

A poignant, bitingly funny Indian satire and love story set in a scientific institute and in Mumbai’s humid tenements.

Ayyan Mani, one of the thousands of dalit (untouchable caste) men trapped in Mumbai’s slums, works in the Institute of Theory and Research as the lowly assistant to the director, a brilliant self-assured astronomer. Ever wily and ambitious, Ayyan weaves tw...more

Paperback, 310 pages

Published August 2nd 2010 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published January 1st 2010)

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Community Reviews

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Apr 24, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: indian-novels

Comic and sharply witty novel which has so many targets in its sight that it can be rather confusing. Joseph does however hit many of the targets rather well.
Joseph targets the layering of Indian society; Brahmins and Dalits, education, marital relations, political corruption, particularly deliciously the scientific community and the search for extra-terrestial life (along with the future of physics)and the nature of love.
Ayyan Mani works in administration in a scientific institute where there a...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Mal Warwick rated it 5 of 5 stars

In his debut novel, Indian magazine editor Manu Joseph takes on the caste system, Big Science, love, marriage, and sex, corruption in government, the news media, office politics, loyalty and betrayal, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the fate of the Universe — yet it all hangs together somehow. This is Black Comedy, Indian-style.

Serious Men — the book’s satyrical title — refers to Aravind Acharya, the world-famous cosmologist who directs the Institute of Theory and Research in M...more In his debut novel, Indian magazine editor Manu Joseph takes on the caste system, Big Science, love, marriage, and sex, corruption in government, the news media, office politics, loyalty and betrayal, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the fate of the Universe — yet it all hangs together somehow. This is Black Comedy, Indian-style.

Serious Men — the book’s satyrical title — refers to Aravind Acharya, the world-famous cosmologist who directs the Institute of Theory and Research in Mumbai with its numerous minions. All are high-caste Brahmins. Acharya’s deputy and most of the other scientists in the Institute seethe under the dictatorial and dismissive director, who sequesters all available funds for his project to prove that extraterrestrials “seeded” life on earth as microbes arriving on meteorites — and continue to do this to this very day! Acharya is, of course, quite mad, and apparently has been so throughout his very long life. As he gradually loses control and lets slip the mask of sanity that has shielded him for decades, the Institute’s deputy director and the cadres of radio astronomers who follow him stage a coup and seize the directorship once Acharya has fallen desperately in love with a beautiful young astrobiologist, the Institute’s first female researcher.

However, it is Acharya’s secretary, a Dalit (“Untouchable”) named Ayyan Mani, who is the protagonist of this richly woven novel. Ayyan, we learn, has an IQ of 148, clearly higher than that of most of the Institute’s researchers, and boils with resentment toward high-caste Brahmins with a consistency worthy of a revolutionary. As the drama unfolds in the Institute, with Ayyan recording every revealing conversation through a phone line left open into Acharya’s office, the secretary applies himself to a clever plot to convince the world that his half-deaf 10-year-old son is a scientific genius. The principal action shifts among three sets: the Institute, the adjoining Professors’ Quarters, and the filthy, run-down “chawl” (high-rise slum) where Ayyan ekes out a bitter existence with his son and his fearful and superstitious wife.

Humor aside, Serious Men abounds with insight about India today in all its dynamism, its contradictions, its promise, and its sad, pervasive poverty. Manu Joseph is a writer worth watching.

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)(less)

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Apr 04, 2011 A. S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Manu Joseph knows how to spin a story from the most mundane and boring professions in his debut novel Serious Men. The title can be taken to mean the Brahmin scientists for whom the "protagonist" (and I use that term loosely here) labors as a lowly assistant or the two major male characters, Ayyan and his boss the brilliant Arvind Acharya.

Manu does an excellent job of making the characters funny, flawed, and relatable, even in the midst of a setting foreign to many Goodreads users. Those who are...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Kaustubh Kaluskar rated it 3 of 5 stars

Book is fun to read. You will not find something expressed beautifully in a page or two. What you will find is a sentence here and there rich in wisdom/satire and crafted in perfect way.
Author has succeeded in not giving any extra space to any sentiment than it needs. This is perhaps one of the few books of which I have read every printed word.
There are many instances in the novel where one thing is compared to other for example brahmins vs dalits. In most of the books/stories I have read, when...more

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Dec 20, 2010 Srinidhi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Thank you, Manu Joseph, for this gem.

What tickled me the most about Manu Joseph's 'Serious Men' (apart from the humour of his witty and observant sarcasm), are two retrospective qualities (that i felt the book has after i finished it) - the amazing simplicity of the story and its complete plausibility. It is a powerfully written tale of a man (and a few serious men) that is not entirely impossible, and i almost secretly wished these men and that man existed already, that the story were true. Man...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Manu Joseph’s debut book is seriously good – a wickedly funny, surprisingly warm and stunningly stylish satire that strikes its target over and over again, taking the reader along for a rollicking ride.

The book introduces us to two equally willful men with runaway egos: Arvind Acharya, a bigger-than-life astrophysicist at the prestigious Institute of Theory and Research, a would-be Nobel candidate who is rumored to have been banned from the Vatican for whispering something untoward in the pope’s...more Manu Joseph’s debut book is seriously good – a wickedly funny, surprisingly warm and stunningly stylish satire that strikes its target over and over again, taking the reader along for a rollicking ride.

The book introduces us to two equally willful men with runaway egos: Arvind Acharya, a bigger-than-life astrophysicist at the prestigious Institute of Theory and Research, a would-be Nobel candidate who is rumored to have been banned from the Vatican for whispering something untoward in the pope’s ear. The other is his personal assistant, Ayyan Mani, a Dalit (or “untouchable”) who is “smarter than the average bear” (in this case, the average Dalit) with an IQ of 148.

Ayyan, his wife Oja, and their rather geeky son Adi live in a large gray tenement teeming with humanity, “born into poverty that no human should have to endure” but Ayyan has his dreams and the wiles to achieve them. He and his half-deaf son play a secret little game: Ayyan feeds Adi some high-level math and physics answers to amaze and astound his teachers. At the same time, he spins flattering stories about his son that he pays a reporter to run. The result: 10-year-old Adi is soon hailed as a boy-genius throughout the community…and indeed, the nation.

Meanwhile, his boss Arvind is engrossed in his own quixotic project: an attempt to prove that extraterrestrial life is raining down on Earth through a “Balloon Project.” By doing so, he sets himself at odds with underlings, jealous scientists who are far more interested in searching for life in outer space with a “Giant Ear.” And to make matters more complicated, an incredibly attractive astrobiologist – the Institute’s first female scientist – has her cap set for the much-older Arvind and is ready, willing and able to betray him.

Both Ayyan and Arvan are involved in high-stake games: Ayyan is embroiled in the “bewitching life of creating a whole myth” with his son to save himself from “the tired face of Oja, the despondence of Adi, the thousand eyes that gaped vacantly in the grey corridors…” At the same time, the egotistical Arvind is aspiring beyond his capabilities with his belief in a souped-up theory.

As these two egos meet – as this “odd couple” becomes more symbiotic – Manu Joseph weaves an amazingly compelling story. We laugh as Ayann Mani writes his daily “quote of the day”, falsified sayings from the likes of Einstein or Newton that tweak the narcissistic Brahmins. Or when Arvind sets himself up against the “Big Bang” theory, which he considers a Western plot because “the Vatican wanted a beginning.”

Yet throughout, Ayyan, Arvan and the others who inhabit the world of Serious Men are not treated merely with humor, but with compassion – from status-crazy youngsters to pushy nuns, from May-December romances to predictable bureaucrats. The result is a pitch-perfect look at two evenly-matched compatriots who define their lives on their own terms and play for the highest stakes. If this is Mr. Joseph’s debut, I can only imagine how fabulous his next book will be. Bravo!
(less)

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Nov 14, 2010 Raghu rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 Insti...more 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.(less)

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Jan 10, 2013 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm sad. I wanted to like this book, because I LOVED the author, Manu Joseph's, second book, "The Illicit Happiness of Other People." But like one of the three Amazon reviewers of the latter work, I too felt like the character development in this first novel paled in comparison to the brilliant development in the second one. And the plot -- though perhaps intricate (I didn't get far enough to fully judge -- felt staler.

"Serious Men" is told from the point of view of Ayyan Mani, a slum-dwelling m...more

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Feb 26, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 4 of 5 stars

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...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Manu Prasad rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: review

"All a man really wants is to be greater than his friends"- Ayyan Mani's belief is indeed the theme that runs through 'Serious Men' though it manifests in different ways across classes. The jacket pitches the plot as the ramifications of Mani's efforts to raise himself above his peers by creating the myth of his son's genius, but the story belongs as much to the scientist Arvind Acharya as well - an eccentric genius heading the Institute where Mani works, and whose contempt for his peers and vie...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Joshua Bennett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Manu Joseph writes a good book that reads fairly quick. While being a fast read, he also does a great job at not missing anything. It could be that I thought it was fast because I was pulled along so well.
It could have been called Desperate Men just as well. He captures the most basic human traits and his characters come to life in the details that are not said.
There were some parts towards the end that I was really interested in the character/author further developing that did not happen, and...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Trilok rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Trilok by: Newspaper

The beautiful way in which Manu Joseph has mopped up the painfully funny reality of life into his canvas of words is uniquely brilliant. I had to slow my pace really down to drown deep into the truth called life that by now has gotten used to passing unnoticed. He just put a mirror out there and showed me the true color of life - shades of white, grey and some colors here and there !

As the story moves from the lead protagonist Ayyan Mani to Arvind Acharya and back to Ayyan Mani, Manu Joseph wond...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Ted added it

Another story set in India, this novel is like-able right from the star, with a sharp eyed narrator hungry to climb the steep caste/class staircase, with echoes of my Adiga and Mistry.

Midway though now, I'm starting to love this book. I'm starting to think I have a literary brown fever. Joseph writes with ease and grace. Consider these two sentences I"ve earmarked, from different pages:

"The success of an old man lies in not wishing for company." p.61
"He saw in her the unmistakable insanity of...more

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Sep 24, 2010 Jennyreadsexcessively rated it 4 of 5 stars

Serious Men is an interesting novel of the contradictions of 2 lives in modern India. Ayaan, of the untouchable caste, is an assistant to Arvind, a Brahmin, upper-caste scientist at the (I assume fictional) Institute of Theory and Research. Ayaan --often comically--seeks to undermine the Brahmins, while, at the same time, further the cause of his young son, a purported genius. Arvind works to fulfil his lifelong quest for extra-terrestrial life. He trusts the wrong person and makes a terrible li...more

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Apr 29, 2011 tina added it

the book started off nicely. but the story went flat for awhile after that. the two plots (1.reputable astronomer has affair that ruins his career; 2.assistant scams the country into thinking his kid is a genious) only intertwine in the last twenty pages or so. not that they have to, but it's the only time the reader feels in a heightened state of alert.
i did enjoy some of the social commentary. Brahmins, the ruthlessness of scientists.
however, i'm not quite convinced that the dialogue between...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Ken Vaughan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary

This was a selection for my book club, and to be honest I was not optimistic. The whole premise sounded a bit hokey - not my thang. But I was VERY pleasantly surprised. The story centers around a research institute in Mumbai, run by a man who believes that microscopic aliens populated the earth, and is willing to spend big bucks to prove it. His personal assistant, Ayyan Mani, is a brilliant man in his own right, but is hampered by his fate - birth in the slums. However, he sees a means to furth...more

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May 08, 2013 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars

“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 two hostile neighbours.”

With this brilliant opening line, Manu Joseph introduces the protagonist of “Serious Men”, a book that highlights the seemingly unbridgeable gulfs in Indian society and then shows how one man bridges them by outfoxing the world.

It’s about chance, probability, certainty, caste, sex, colour, office politics, hot air balloons, the univers...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Catherine Siemann rated it 3 of 5 stars

The social satire of life in contemporary Mumbai, Dalits vs. Brahmins, is beautifully handled, but the gender politics feel retrogressive. I loved the protagonist, Ayaan Mani, a Dalit trickster figure with a genius-level IQ, constrained by a poverty-stricken background to rise no higher than secretary to a science institute. His manipulations of the scientists he works for, as well as the schemes he concocts with his young son, are delightful. Both his wife Oja, and the one female scientist at t...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Krittika Sharma rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: india

The way Joseph builds his characters through the story is amazing. His keen observation and projection of India through an average Indian's view was what kept me going through till the end. Though the book might not be very strong with its storyline; it was his paradoxical writing that builds unreal character with fiercely real observations, which was the most entertaining.

Though there was a time somewhere in the middle when Acharya breaks down the dynamics of time that I lost interest and was...more

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Jun 11, 2013 Biogeek rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-from-india

“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 two hostile neighbours.” These are the first lines of Manu Joseph's novel Serious Men and by simply reading these lines I think you can decide if you will be among the readers who feel they must recommend it or among those who feel they can barely get through it. I was among the latter.

The whole book struck me as the self-conscious effort of an award-chasing...more

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Jun 05, 2013 TLM Mhlongo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dark-comedy

I had been looking for some time, for a book set in the context of Indian culture that wasn't a drama. On a visit to the local library, I spotted this edition of Serious Men and was convinced by its smart cover. I judged this book by its cover and it did not disappoint. Its everything that it should have been and more. Giving insight on Indian culture, a discourse on chaste and class systems, all the while telling a tale of a father and son, in the most witty way. The pace never bores as it crui...more

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May 11, 2011 Virginia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011books, library, faves

I picked this up because I read several pieces by the author in the NYT, and I liked his writing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/wor...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/wor...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/wor...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/wor...

This book is very very funny. Also accurate, and sad. Characters are GREAT. Even minor & incidental characters are so well fleshed out that they could be real people, it didn't feel as though anyone was included only to drive the plot f...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Neil rated it 2 of 5 stars

Manu Joseph tries. I wish I could say he succeeds a little bit, but he doesn't. This book was supposed to be humorous, and maybe it even was in parts, but it lacked any sense of urgency or anticipation. I just never felt like picking it up to read further. In parts it was condescending, in parts humorous, in parts it was poorly written and generally it wasn't well edited. What does it have going for it? Well, not much for the reader. But given that it's Joseph's first book, I wouldn't be surpris...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Khairul H. rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

Judging from the reviews here, many loved it. I am in the minority. This book bored me. It started well but somewhere in the middle, it veered off into an extra marital affair which was important to the plot but perhaps revealed too much of the author's patronising views on women, especially educated ones. The main plot of the book is a person from the lower caste seeks to humiliate the elite Brahmins at his workplace any way he can. He succeeds but by the end of the book, he is still in the sam...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Sridatta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, india

I wouldn't have read this if it wasn't selected for Hindu Literary Award. And I’m not sure how to respond after reading it. It sure is an interesting take on the Indian poverty and caste system which are often depicted in a polarizing manner. Manu Joseph does manage to avoid some common problems found with Indian fiction especially that of dalits, but he too ends up disappointing in the end refusing to cross the realm of predictability and never bothering about eloquence.

The protagonist (Ayyan)...more I wouldn't have read this if it wasn't selected for Hindu Literary Award. And I’m not sure how to respond after reading it. It sure is an interesting take on the Indian poverty and caste system which are often depicted in a polarizing manner. Manu Joseph does manage to avoid some common problems found with Indian fiction especially that of dalits, but he too ends up disappointing in the end refusing to cross the realm of predictability and never bothering about eloquence.

The protagonist (Ayyan) is an interesting character, and through him I allowed myself to hope for brilliance from the writer. He is a decent portrayal of suppressed anger caused due to years of unfairness that an intelligent dalit would be expected to experience. The anger which results from the evaluation which he is constantly forced to make on stark contrasts between the classes was not glorified or subjugated. It was given its due picture. The constant ridicule that he exerts upon the Brahmins is witty and clever (although there is hint of sadness to it). And aspects of his characters are revealed but slowly as the novel progress forcing the reader to view him in new light. But as far I'm concerned the depiction of the other lead character (Acharya) is totally in shambles. Although, the author has justifiable motives, he failed to bring believability to that character which ultimately ends up taking away the appeal. The remaining characters didn't have much to do apart from dancing to the tunes of Indian preconceptions.

Ultimately, the book failed to punch in the guts which is what I expected after the honor it received. It just turned out to be another sham in the course of Indian literature and I'm afraid if it's reputation means a whole lot of sad things for other books on current Indian market.

P.S. I am quite saddened by some Manu Joseph's comments on why few readers do not like the book. After reading the book, you expect the author to have a sense of humor about the way the Indian caste system influences people but he apparently is just another desperate poor guy who gets overtly defensive on the first sign of criticism. It's funny how much a book can be different from the author.(less)

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May 13, 2013 Sanjay rated it 3 of 5 stars

An interesting story about bright people who work together at a prestigious research institute in India. I think the author explored the characters well, though the situations they get into are a little too unbelievable. Also, like many other Indian writers, the comments on society are always bleak, and distraught always win out in the end. I think the overall writing was good and it flowed well. It wasn't a book I just couldn't put down, but I did enjoy reading it though I didn't get attached t...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Shilpi Jain rated it 5 of 5 stars

Thank you Manu Joseph for writing such a complex yet gripping novel. I can't stop to marvel at the sheer brilliance of the plot, the strong narrative, and the spontaneity of it all. Story of Ayyan and Oja Mani and their 'prodigy' son- Adi. Ayyan is not your typical run-of-the-mill hero, he has shades of grey, in fact, he's purely a grey character. He works as a personal assistant at the prestigious Institute of Theory and Research to the renowned physicist and the director Acharya who is equally...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Lilyrose rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads, everything-india

I've been waiting to read Serious Men for ages. I saw nothing but good reviews, and judging from his articles, I knew I would like to read Manu Joseph's book. This is a book that does not get bogged down because of the hype. Serious Men is a fantastic satirical tale of two men: Ayyan Mani, a Dalit who has had enough of being looked down upon and leading an unremarkable life, and his Brahmin boss Arvind Acharya, a remarkable scientist whose power and authority receives a severe blow after a scand...more I've been waiting to read Serious Men for ages. I saw nothing but good reviews, and judging from his articles, I knew I would like to read Manu Joseph's book. This is a book that does not get bogged down because of the hype. Serious Men is a fantastic satirical tale of two men: Ayyan Mani, a Dalit who has had enough of being looked down upon and leading an unremarkable life, and his Brahmin boss Arvind Acharya, a remarkable scientist whose power and authority receives a severe blow after a scandal.

Through them, Joseph sketches a shatteringly realistic portrayal of modern day India, her people and the idiosyncrasies of science. The book is also a blunt reality check of the influence of the 'c' word - caste - on the minds and politics of the people. The two characters upon whom this novel rests are incredibly three dimensional and are developed with several shades of grey.

Ayyan Mani wants the glory that he feels was denied by the upper caste Brahmins to his ancestors, who were treated as Untouchables. He starts playing a dangerously exciting game by building a web of lies to present his son as a celebrated 'genius'. The more popular his son becomes, the more dangerous the game is. Ayyan Mani is definitely one of the most complex, memorable characters I've ever read. He's an underdog who can stoop to any level to achieve what he wants. There are sudden flashes of sympathy, affection, even compassion, but all of these emotions are secondary to Mani's ambitions of giving his family a good future, no matter what.

Arvind Acharya isn't as original a character as Mani, but is constructed with such skill that you can picturise Acharya sitting across you and pondering about the big questions of the Universe. In the hands of a less talented writer, this book could have been boring. But Joseph is, quite simply, a treat to read. His dark sarcasm, even darker humour and dispassionate assessment of Indian society are bound to stay with the reader for long. Joseph is an amazing observer who describes the little things that we often shrug away, to make the larger point.

I would read just about anything he writes because he possesses the rare talent of recreating harsh realities, stripped of the fluff, and doing so without being pretentious. To the very sensitive reader, many parts of this tragic satire could be controversial or shocking. This is not a perfect book - some of the final portions of the book were a little too convenient, there weren't many fully-fleshed female characters. But this is a far too important book to ignore.

Joseph's treatment of Ayyan Mani did remind me of Booker winning writer Aravind Adiga's characterisation of his protagonist Balram Halwai. Both of these characters are underdogs who have been the recipients of the worst of what India has to offer. But Ayyan Mani is more complex, entirely too fascinating - sometimes scary, sometimes saddening.

There are whole passages of sheer brilliance. I started marking the good quotes and stopped after a while, because I didn't want a book full of dogears. Joseph's exquisite turn of phrase and easy yet vivid writing style makes him an author who is a joy to read.

Serious Men is a remarkable book. It's not the kind of book that you read, review and forget. It's the kind of book that you yearn to discuss, debate, analyze and always remember. Indian literature will be proud of another amazing new entrant to its ranks, an author who can rip apart the double standards of society to provide the raw and very real picture. (less)

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Sep 15, 2010 Bibliophile rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, fiction, india-south-asia

Ayyan Mani, an intelligent but lowly peon, is condemned to a life of serving the "serious men" (research scientists at an institute that sounds like it's modeled on a real place) who consider themselves his betters, while he is stuck living in a tiny slum apartment and trying to give his son every advantage in life. Because Ayyan is a Dalit (Untouchable) in India and the serious men are all Brahmins who've had all the advantages of education that Ayyan lacks, Ayyan decides that all is fair in lo...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Kevin Tharayil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Illicit Happiness happened to me before this and I covered this half knowing that i would be entertained and would get my wit cells polished more than the usual. The serious men are realistic men yet when seen at a distance from the so called real people do they behave like this? Perhaps, only the comic insights allow this to hold true. Although, some of the sits seemed contrived, overall the book is gripping and highly observant, as The Guardian reportedly reviewed - 'Sophisticated Entertainmen...more

1 like · like · see review

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Cultural > India

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Humor

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Asian Literature > Indian Literature

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Humor > Comedy

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Quotes from Serious Men

“Scientists want to search for alien signals because that's what gets them publicity. They are like Jesus Christ."

"Jesus Christ?" Nambodri asked, with a faintly derogatory chuckle.

"Yes. They are exactly like Jesus Christ. You know that he turned water into wine."

"I've heard that story."

"From the point of view of pure chemistry, it is more miraculous to make wine into water than water into wine. But he did not do that. Because if he had gone to someone's house and converted their wine into water, they would have crucified him much earlier. He knew, Jana. He knew making water into wine was a more popular thing to do.” — 12 people liked it

“The fate of every love story, he knew very well, is in the rot of togetherness, or in the misery of separation. Lovers often choose the first with the same illusory wisdom that makes people choose to die later than now.” — 8 people liked it

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Serious Men

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