‘The City of Devi’, by Manil Suri – review

Manil Suri’s novel is like a ‘masala movie’ — a Bombay mix of genres, spicy, often subtle, often corny, and distinctly addictive. It is difficult to pin down its overriding flavour. A reviewer on the back cover notes that ‘Manil Suri has been likened to Narayan, Coetzee, Chekhov and Flaubert’; but there are twinkly sprinklings of Armistead Maupin and Frank L. Baum, and a strong dash of apocalyptic thriller.

The City of Devi is the third and most flamboyant of a trilogy, each volume named after a Hindu deity. After The Death of Vishnu and The Age of Shiva, readers who know the Hindu trimurti might have expected Brahma the Creator to complete the trinity. As one of the characters in the novel argues, however, ‘creation comes from the womb’ (though surely birth via a lotus flower from the male navel has distinct advantages over a method I have found to be painful, messy and dangerously inefficient); and the proposed substitute is ‘the mother goddess, Devi.’