Monkey-Man

by Usha K.R.

After her stunning last book, A Girl And A River that won Usha K R the Vodafone Crossword Award, 2007, the author has just come out with her second book. Much like A Girl..., her new book, Monkey man is a pleasure to read ---rich as it in characterisation and situational drama. Usha demonstrates her love for her favourite author, Jane Austen in the manner in which she slowly goes about unraveling her numerous characters, presenting them with unmistakable irony and subtle humour. But where Usha perhaps resembles Austen less and George Eliot more is in her grim understanding of the human condition. A Girl... was both historically and socio-culturally rooted. In Monkey-man, the author attempts to portray the changing Indian urban scape at the turn of the century through the lives of different characters.

Usha bases her story in her own city, Bangalore - one whose complexion has drastically altered in the last two decades. From being a breezy city of gardens, a Pensioner's Paradise, Bangalore has gone on to become one of the country's leading IT hubs. Today, it's a highly commercialised city, one of the prime metros of the country with soaring real estate prices and crazy traffic, among other things.

Usha's choice of location for both A Girl.. and Monkey Man - Southern India - is welcome. For a change, it's not Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata. Quite instantly, the world Usha creates feels fresh. Besides, Usha is acutely conscious of the socio-political landscape that her characters inhabit.

The novel is about four characters residing in Bangalore - they could of course be from anywhere in India. There is Shrinivas Moorthy, a senior professor, forever falling back on the virtues of Gandhian passivity, even as the world around him has changed in ways he cannot recogonise anymore. He stubbornly sticks to the tried and tested ways, looking with suspicion and unease at any new plan that his dynamic friend-turned-superior Jairam suggests.

For more
http://sandyi.blogspot.com/2010/04/mo...

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Dr Kashmira Gohil · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was about few interwoven characters working in diverse careers spanning from College to call center. Shrinivas moorty, a history lecturer his friend & rival gang, Jairam, Geeta & other staff in National Trust college & their life in college, then Neela the secretary at center of sociology economic studies, Pushpa Rani at call center & Bali Brum, a RJ, all are described interestingly with minute details. All the characters as described are interesting with almost literally flair but their life runs on parellel tracks, they occasionally meeting or bumping in to each other as friends, rivals or collegues, with no one cohesive story. The book tried to weave the news of a strange creature sighted as 'monkey man' in various parts of India, at that time in January 2000, making All these character's individual brush with this creature in darkness in rain laden 'electricity out' evening, which they were called to describe at Radio station by RJ Bali. But it all doesn't make any sense as this creature was mentioned only in first chapter & the last chapter of the book. All in between sections were devoted to lifestory of all these individual characters & their family & career. How this brush with this strange character change their life,as mentioned on back cover of the book, is not very clear or any noteworthy. Even the book title 'monkey man' even doesn't make any solid sense except unless author wanted to make use of the phenomenon of sighting of this strange creature & making it a pseudonym for mundane life lead by human. 3 stars only for the life described for each characters in this strange amalgamation of book.

[Sandhya · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://sandyi.blogspot.com/2010/04/mo...

After her stunning last book, A Girl And A River that won Usha K R the Vodafone Crossword Award, 2007, the author has just come out with her second book. Much like A Girl..., her new book, Monkey man is a pleasure to read ---rich as it in characterisation and situational drama. Usha demonstrates her love for her favourite author, Jane Austen in the manner in which she slowly goes about unraveling her numerous characters, presenting them with unmistakable irony and subtle humour. But where Usha perhaps resembles Austen less and George Eliot more is in her grim understanding of the human condition. A Girl... was both historically and socio-culturally rooted. In Monkey-man, the author attempts to portray the changing Indian urban scape at the turn of the century through the lives of different characters.

Usha bases her story in her own city, Bangalore - one whose complexion has drastically altered in the last two decades. From being a breezy city of gardens, a Pensioner's Paradise, Bangalore has gone on to become one of the country's leading IT hubs. Today, it's a highly commercialised city, one of the prime metros of the country with soaring real estate prices and crazy traffic, among other things.

Usha's choice of location for both A Girl.. and Monkey Man - Southern India - is welcome. For a change, it's not Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata. Quite instantly, the world Usha creates feels fresh. Besides, Usha is acutely conscious of the socio-political landscape that her characters inhabit.

The novel is about four characters residing in Bangalore - they could of course be from anywhere in India. There is Shrinivas Moorthy, a senior professor, forever falling back on the virtues of Gandhian passivity, even as the world around him has changed in ways he cannot recogonise anymore. He stubbornly sticks to the tried and tested ways, looking with suspicion and unease at any new plan that his dynamic friend-turned-superior Jairam suggests.


For the rest: http://sandyi.blogspot.com/2010/04/mo...