The Review of Contemporary Fiction
The Death of Vishnu by Manil SuriBrian Budzynski
Manil Suri. The Death of Vishnu. Norton, 2001. 295 pp. $24.95.
This devastating novel opens on the staircase of a slum apartment building where a man lies dying. The inhabitants of the building—families Vishnu has served, if somewhat dishonestly, for many years—bicker over whose responsibility his death is to become. From this simple premise, Manil Suri launches a journey deep into the intimate relationships of contemporary Indian society. The building is a specimen of domestic misery–damp walls, rotten fruit, insects lining the floorboards. This misery exists likewise in its residents. Vishnu alone, crippled and malodorous, recognizes the evil that permeates the house: “It springs up from inside the hearts of people, it needs no external source to appear.” The novel juxtaposes small but searing human foibles with the attempt to find higher religious meaning and, in turn, being: a young girl struggles with an arranged marriage by imagining herself a film star; an old man mediates on the early death of his wife; a husband abandons his wife’s bed to sleep on the staircase next to Vishnu, convinced he is a newly found prophet. But is Vishnu, Vishnu the Sun God? (He believes himself to be “keeper of the universe, keeper of the sun.”) The play on this question breathes tremendous life into what could have been a predictable, dismissible yarn about a building full of people who don’t like each other much. Suri’s deft, precise prose yields both lyric intensity and compelling emotional impact. This debut is a truly surprising and enlightening accomplishment, one that foreshadows an illustrious career for this strong new literary voice. [Brian Budzynski]