Interview with Manil Suri, Author of The Age of Shiva

Manil Suri has written two remarkable novels. The Death of Vishnu (2001) debuted to universal and well-deserved critical acclaim. The Age of Shiva (2008) is also receiving comparable praise. While the first was a microscopic view of one day in the life and death of one man in India, the second spreads across three decades of Indian independence and one woman's rebellion against tradition. Suri has created these two masterpieces while holding a full-time position as a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He earned his Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University in applied math. He does not plan to quit his day job! I had an opportunity to sit down with him recently in Raleigh, NC prior to a reading at Quail Ridge Books, the leading independent bookstore in the Triangle.

John M. Formy-Duval: What was your expectation of the kind of reception The Death of Vishnu might receive given Americans' general ignorance of other countries?

Manil Suri: I think when I was writing it I didn't really think about questions like that because I had never been published before. So, that was one of the luxuries with that book, not having to worry about which audience you are writing for. What happened then was that I went to an agent and there was a lot of interest in the book when she had an auction and everyone was bidding on it. At that point I knew that there would be potential even in the US, even though it is a book set outside the country. What happened was even there were a lot of cultural references and even words that people here might not be familiar with, I thought that I had tried to put everything in context so I didn't think that would be a big stumbling block. And, I think that is the way it worked out. I think that what attracts people to fiction are universal themes that involve people-to-people interaction. That's what people - I look for - in fiction.

JMF: And, then when you published The Age of Shiva did you have a different set of expectations given the success of Vishnu?

MS: I tried not to. What I tried was first of all not to worry about the audience again, but it was much harder. Now, I had the faces of all my readers staring at me and telling me things. We want a funny book. We want the same characters, a continuation of the story and so on. I had to really shut all that out. Because I wanted to flex my muscles as a writer and I wanted to write something different, completely different. As different as I could make it. That was always a guiding principle. Again, I did not try to think of expectations how it would be seen or how it would be experienced here or elsewhere. I think that is the best thing for a writer especially if you are just starting out. This is just my second book. I think it is dangerous to start worrying about how it will be perceived.

JMF: An Indian friend told me Dev is a very common name. Does that reflect that he seems a very common person in the sense of his morals?

MS: No. the name actually means "a god," so I was playing with this notion. I tried to change the name, because it was too unsubtle almost, this old notion that a woman's husband was supposed to be her god. Once I started with Dev I actually wanted to change it to something else, but he was Dev in my mind and I couldn't change it. But I don't consider him to be exactly what you describe. I think there is a slightly romantic streak that runs through him and a slightly tragic streak also. He does have his faults but he also has his good points. He does have some sort of feeling for Meera, and he especially is very close to his son. So you get to see his humanity as well. In terms of morals, he might have been an opportunist; that is certainly true. But, he was doing it for his art more than anything else.

JMF: Is there going to be a third book?

MS: Yes. The working title is The Birth of Rama. Rama, of course, is the creator, just like Vishnu is the caretaker of the universe and Shiva is the destroyer. The last part has to have Rama in some way, but this trilogy was originally supposed to be on mythology. When you say The Death of Vishnu that means he subsided, then comes the rise of Shiva who ends the world or universe. Brahma recreates it. It was that arc that I was trying to capture. But now it's really a trilogy that is more about India. The first book was a snapshot in contemporary times of India where you see this building, a microcosm of the 80s or 90s. And this book really shows how we evolved to that state from Independence. How did we get there? How did India get to a position where it is poised to be a big player on the world stage? And now the next book I'm thinking will somehow project into the future. How will the story end? That's the way I'm looking at the three books now.