Remember ME - You Me and Dementia

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Age of Shiva: A Novel by Manil Suri

Following his debut novel The Death of Vishnu — a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award — Manil Suri returns with The Age of Shiva.

The Age of Shiva is at once a powerful story of a country in turmoil and an extraordinary portrait of maternal love.

"The second novel from Suri (The Death of Vishnu) follows Meera Sawhney from her unhappy 1950s marriage to aspiring singer Dev Arora through to her own son's coming-of-age. After an impulsive act forces Meera's marriage at 17, her complex, controlling father decries her tying herself (and, by extension, her family) to the provincial, lower-class Aroras. Meera soon finds herself pulled in different directions by her in-laws' religious orthodoxy, her father's progressivism (which doesn't run deep), her husband's self-pitying alcoholism and her own resentment. She finds salvation in the birth of a son, Ashvin; mother love, which Suri describes in intensely physical terms, gives her life passion and purpose, and overwhelms her adult relationships. But as India modernizes, Meera senses that Ashvin, and she herself, must live their own lives. Suri renders Meera's perspective marvelously, especially in small particulars (such as Meera's deliberations around the cutting of Ashvin's hair) and in the perils and conflicts Meera faces in her relationships with men. He also takes a close look at Hindu practices and charts the rise of religious nationalism in the years following Gandhi's death. Suri's vivid portrait of a woman in post-independence India engages timeless themes of self-determination."


Order this book here:
http://www.amazon.com/Age-Shiva-Novel-Manil-Suri/dp/0393065693

All the Best Manil,now awaiting your third book on Brahma !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

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