‘The City of Devi’ offers glib entertainment

As a book, The City of Devi offers glib entertainment rather than profound insights into life or human nature. Its trinity of characters (the sanguine Sarita, the intrepid Jaz, the timorous and largely absent Karun) is sufficiently interesting, the plot is far-fetched but nevertheless holds up till the end and the prose is polished. Fortunately, Suri’s interest in revisiting mythology turns out to be cursory, more a matter of a catchy title for the novel (and the triptych) rather than anything more devout. Apart from a persuasive argument on why the trinity is better represented by Devi rather than Brahma in the creator’s role, there is little reason for mythology buffs to add the book to their shelves.