Rating: 
Summary: Good start, falls flat.
Review: I just finished "The Death of Vishnu" and I was disappointed from the middle on. The characters are very quirky, which I like, and the premise is very inviting. The comic scenes are great, and the darker ones are very moving as well. We meet a gallery of folks living in this apartment building, and they are likable. What lacks is a sense of cohesiveness. I'm trying to come up with themes that pull everything together. Also, story of Taneja is good, but it falls flat at the end. We don't even see him in the present when Jalal is hanging on his balcony. I would liked to have seen more of Pdmini, as well, but she gets cut off as well. A strong start, but I lost interest after the middle. I simply started to not care.
Rating: 
Summary: a rare find
Review: A profound, often laugh-provoking look at others, this masterpiece can take you beyond yourself and ready to move on.
"The Death of Vishnu" belongs on the shelf with the classics - timeless and universal, it also very much represents its own specific time and place, which happens to be our own time, in urban India.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: I'm not sure what it is about this book, but I can't even bring myself to finish it. It's not that it's not well-written; the writing is at times witty and often beautiful. And I enjoy Indian fiction, so it's not that I don't have an affinity for the characters or setting. It may be that there are too many characters, and you don't really get to know any of them or care about them. I can't tell Mrs. Arsani and Mrs. Pathak apart, and have to keep flipping back to see which one was the one who stole the other one's ghee from the kitchen, but their characters are so alike in their unlikability that ultimately it doesn't matter. I could have gotten interested in the Hindu/Muslim Romeo & Juliet story if it were fleshed out a bit more, but as it is, Kavita just comes off as a flaky teenager and not a sympathetic character. And as for Vishnu's sexual exploits with his prostitute girlfriend, I barely know where to begin. Yuck.
I wanted to like this book, and it is very rare for me not to finish a book once I start it, but I would rather move on to something else and cut my losses after reading about two thirds of it. I must confess I'm a bit baffled by the rave reviews.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This book was amazing......it's all about drama. The charcaters seem impossible, like no one truly lives their lives like this when in truth everyone does. It's about finding youself, who you are, what's your identity. This book is actually sort of funny (in a dark sort of way).
Many have said it started out good and fell short but I personally cannot wait for his next book simply because his charcters, outrageous as they are, touch very close to home.
Rating:
Summary: Great beginning, tedious ending
Review: The story started with pop and sizzle, and then just fizzled. It seemed to lose focus halfway through, and then just dawdled and meandered to the finish. I can't recommend it, unless you have a particular interest in this genre.
Rating:
Summary: A novel that shows the beauty and the ugly in humanity
Review: From the moment I started reading Manil Suri's novel The Death of Vishnu, I was immediately sucked into this world of a Bombay apartment flat..the cramped conditions, the luscious smells of pani-puri coming from the sidewalk, and the numerous squabbles over missing ghee and water. Suri's prose in this novel is superb, and while reading the novel I felt as if I was poor, homeless, and sick Vishnu, wandering alone on the landing on the apartment flat, observing those around me with an almost onmiscient presence...observing without being observed. The tenants in the flat are all well developed characters, and in their wants and desires for greatness they become so wrapped up in their own selfish purposes that they lose sight of what really matters in life...and religion, or death for that matter. They capriciously offer shallow assistance to Vishnu, a man who is in fact already dead (or is he?) throughout most of the novel. This novel is also a great human comedy of errors, where rumors, hearsay and speculation about your neighbor lead to mistrust, suspicion, anger, and a crowd mentality that serves as a warning to the reader. The end of the novel serves as the last laugh however, when the one person who seemed to do so little gains so much. A great novel and a wonderful debut from Manil Suri!
Rating: 
Summary: Not a waste of time
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book, but I have to admit that I skipped over the seemingly lofty stories of Vishnu and the avatars. I prefer reading about those straightforwardly. It was clear that this was a set of short stories bound into one story. My favorite story was that of Vinod and Sheetal. The way that Suri portrayed the first tender, awkward, sweet moments of their marriage, and following them as the love grew was so solid, yet delicate and beautiful. It is one of my favorite love stories. Give it a try!
Rating:
Summary: Full of real people. Mr. Suri makes the mundane exotic.
Review: Though there is a lot of sadness in the book, I found it to be a wonderful read. To hear an Indian voice and to learn about those cultural sensibilities is like taking an exotic trip. Not as a tourist, but into the apartments of real human beings in an apartment building in Bombay. The Vishnu of the title is an alcoholic who does odd jobs for a bit of money and food. He lives on a landing and as the book opens he lies dying there. It is strange for an American to think about people walking around a dying person and debating what to do with him. To even work up enough emotion to call an ambulance, but then to not take him away because no one wants to sign for the hospital bill is foreign to us. I have no idea if this is the way it is in India, but why would you make it up if it were not?There book involves the interactions of some of the tenants in the building and their all too ordinary lives with their hopes and dreams. There are religious visions in the book and the tensions between Hindus and Muslims also plays a role. I particularly love the way the Romeo and Juliet story between Salim and Kavita plays out without an overly dramatic or noble resolution. Kavita's subsequent dream is true to her character and what led to all the hubbub in the first place. The way the ordinary and the petty is juxtaposed with the mythical is handled very well. The author does show how religion can be a living presence that brings life, light, and hope. But he also shows the way it is demeaned and used as cover for petty and vindictive behavior. Mr. Suri can write. His characters come across as real people and I look forward to reading more of his work.
Rating:
Summary: Top Indian Writer
Review: This is one the best books I have read by an Indian-American writer. The tragic/comic juxtapositions, the irony, the subtle layers of meaning, the overall structure (note how the stories "rise" from the first floor inhabitants to the final floor as Vishnu lays dying), the vivid character descriptions make it go beyond a novel to a true piece of literature. I think to really "get" some of the passages, you have to Indian or pretty familiar with things-Indian. The references to Indian movies, the class structure etc.
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