reading Manu Joseph's book Serious Men, I must admit at surprise at the almost unanimously positive reviews it got. Prize winning books aren't of a universally smooth flavor,of course. But one does expect the standard of writing to be uniformly high. most of Serious Men is well written and acute, the rest of it, however, somehow spoils the impact of the book. Manu doesn't get the Indian scientific establishment exactly right -its squabbles and posturing are too overt (and while caste based politics are rampant in all Indian institutions,most people are careful about expressing their views in the open,fearing a backlash from 'the other' clique). And how does the godawful Oparna Goshamulik end up as the only woman in the institute? Science is, in fact, an eminently 'respectable' and 'marriageable' profession for an educated girl to follow in our society-Joseph could have underlined her alienation from the institute in another,more authentic way. Her character seems so invented,a femme fatale in a labcoat , luring Arvind Acharya to his downfall and disappearing. The women (except Acharya's wife) get short shrift,existing only as marginal characters in the men's lives. But then the book's title does demonstrate its focus.
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