Manu Joseph won the 2010 Hindu Best Fiction prize for his debut novel, Serious Men, "a groundbreaking examination of caste in contemporary India," the Guardian
reported. While the reception of the novel within India has been
generally positive, Joseph said that some readers "tell me they hate it.
Indian writers in English usually take a very sympathetic and
compassionate view of the poor, and I find that fake and
condescending.... It's a class thing. Most Indians readers of literary
fiction written in English are of a certain class, and one of the
recreations of the Indian upper class is compassion for the poor. I
think the poor in India are increasingly very empowered, and the time
has come when the novel can portray them in a more realistic way."
