OK fiction on how death of a homeless man in India affects people. ( )

Human and rich, funny and tragic--never been to India but somehow this seems like India distilled. The heroism of the character who can't bear pain is so noble and funny and true! Beautiful book. ( )

A wonderful tale that revolves around Vishnu, who sleeps on the staircase landing of a Bombay apartment block and does odd-jobs for the residents. He is dying and we begin to meet the residents as they argue about who will pay for an ambulance to take Vishnu away. There are two Hindu families, the Pathaks and Asranis, who have petty arguments about sharing a kitchen, there is Mr Taneja, whose wife has died and who has become a recluse and there is the unfortunate Mr and Mrs Jalal and Mr Jalal's search for enlightenment in different religions and their son who is secretly meeting Kavita, the Asrani's daughter. All of this is intertwined with Indian myths and religion. There is humour as the residents deal with each other. Vishnu looks back on his life as he dies and we read the back story of many of the residents but it is the flats and the staircase where the novel happens. ( )

I'm just a couple of chapters into this but I've decided to put it away because it just hasn't appealed to me like I thought it would. I may pick it up later, but right now I have too many things I really want to read to plug away at something that doesn't engage me.

My friend Roger selected this one for samizdat. My friend Mark looked a forsymbolism in the myriad floors occupied by characters; all went swimmingly until Roger flet weird about his father and sort of freaked out. I didn't freak out as I had been freaked out for a while at that particular juncture. The novel didn't really surprise in any way. ( )