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Overview
"I CAN DO NOTHING MORE FOR YOU. YOU ARE NOW IN HANUMAN'S HANDS." These are the words author Cheeni Rao hears his Indian immigrant mother sob as he stands locked outside his family home. A brilliant, promising young man who is the product of a devout Hindu family from a long time Brahmin priests, Rao has been reduced to the life of a homeless drug addict and petty criminal on the back streets of Chicago's Southside.
The freedoms and temptations of life on an elite American college campus send Rao spiraling down into a hedonistic nightmare of drugs, sex, and crime. Desparate and alone, he is visited by Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god his mother evoked, and comes to realize that this unlikely guide may be his last resort. On his long journey to recovery, Rao is guided by visions of this clever, divine monkey, best know from the Indian epic poem, the Ramayana.
In Hanuman's Hands is a gritty, hauntingly beautiful memoir. Bringing India whole-heartedly into America, Rao weaves his own story of Western culture clash with mythic tales of his Hindu ancestors who served in the ancestral temples of Kali. With Hanuman as his loyal companion, the author finds his way back to recovery at a halfway house run by a mug named Tats and shared by an unforgettable gang of streetwise characters. In Hanuman's Hands is a striking debut from a new literary voice.
Synopsis
"I CAN DO NOTHING MORE FOR YOU. YOU ARE NOW IN HANUMAN'S HANDS." These are the words author Cheeni Rao hears his Indian immigrant mother sob as he stands locked outside his family home. A brilliant, promising young man who is the product of a devout Hindu family from a long time Brahmin priests, Rao has been reduced to the life of a homeless drug addict and petty criminal on the back streets of Chicago's Southside.
The freedoms and temptations of life on an elite American college campus send Rao spiraling down into a hedonistic nightmare of drugs, sex, and crime. Desparate and alone, he is visited by Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god his mother evoked, and comes to realize that this unlikely guide may be his last resort. On his long journey to recovery, Rao is guided by visions of this clever, divine monkey, best know from the Indian epic poem, the Ramayana.
In Hanuman's Hands is a gritty, hauntingly beautiful memoir. Bringing India whole-heartedly into America, Rao weaves his own story of Western culture clash with mythic tales of his Hindu ancestors who served in the ancestral temples of Kali. With Hanuman as his loyal companion, the author finds his way back to recovery at a halfway house run by a mug named Tats and shared by an unforgettable gang of streetwise characters. In Hanuman's Hands is a striking debut from a new literary voice.
Publishers Weekly
When Rao describes his experiences as a homeless drug addict on the streets of Chicago as a battle for his soul between the Hindu gods Hanuman and Kali, it's easy to dismiss his assertions as evidence of a mental breakdown-even he entertains that possibility. But it's this divine intervention, the culmination of a family mythology handed down over generations, that gives Rao the strength to tackle his recovery: "I'll be straight because that's what Hanuman wants," he tells a therapist. "He'll kick my ass if I fuck up again." The multilayered narrative skillfully shifts between Rao's downward spiral that kicked into high gear during his freshman year of college, his first months at a no-nonsense halfway house and stories from his Indian ancestors. Even readers who have become jaded to the generic conventions of the addiction memoir-criminal acts to support the growing habit, pushing away one's closest friends and so on-will find themselves engrossed in Rao's spiritual journey, from the descent into a very personal hell to the slow climb back. (Rao returned to college and eventually graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.) Wherever his writing goes from here, this powerful debut is a signal to pay attention. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New WritersThough he was born in America, Rao learned many lessons the summers he visited India -- among them, that he was born into a family of Brahmin priests and was blessed with divine blood. Not quite ready for the unique responsibilities attached to his inheritance, Rao turned his attention elsewhere. Better the new world of intoxication and petty crime than the old one of Kashmiri ancestors and ancient mythology; better an elite American college than a crumbling temple.
Better, you ask? Jettisoned from that elite college, a no-show at drug treatment, Rao stands outside his family home, howling. "I can do nothing for you," his immigrant mother cries. "You are now in Hanuman's hands." Sick, addicted, more familiar with a crack pipe than with the old ways, he begins an arduous journey to wholeness. Along the way, he's accompanied by Hanuman, the Hindu trickster monkey his mother invoked, and realizes with a sickening dread that his newest companion may be his best -- or his last -- hope.
Guided by surreal visions from the epic poem the Ramayana, Rao weaves a story of Western culture at war with his Hindu blood. Placing the mythic stories of ancient India flush with a life of hedonism, Rao navigates seemingly impossible terrain. But with the help of Hanuman, a strange man named Tats, and a halfway house in Chicago, Rao might just have found his way back. (Summer 2009 Selection)
Booklist (starred review)
It is the rapture of [Rao’s] language; his hallucinatory, world-bridging storytelling;and his high-wire variations on the timeless struggles between truth and deception, good and evil, that make this journey to hell and back all-consuming and profound.Boston Sunday Globe
[A] harrowing, skillfully written account of a young man’s descent into drug addiction, crime, and homelessness and the difficult, uncertain path toward recovery.Chicago Sun-Times
A drug-related memoir that contains any original material whatsoever will stand out, all the more so if eloquent, socially insightful, and laced with self-deprecating humor. Such is the case with In Hanuman’s Hands, by Chicago native Cheeni Rao.Creative Loafing
Just when you thought the memoir genre had been exhausted, here comes In Hanuman’s Hands, an ingenious book by an exciting new writer.New York Daily News
The son of a long line of Brahmin nobility finds a path to hell with drugs and sex. In Hanuman’s Hands is a recovery story enriched by the culture Rao draws on for strength.Read the Spirit
“A gripping new book by a hot young Indian-American writer.”The Brooklyn Rail
“A skillfully written memoir...entertaining and well-wrought.”USA Today (Recommended Summer Books Issue)
Writer tells of his spiral into drug addiction and how his ‘visions’ of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman helped him find the path to a cure.Wall Street Journal
In Hanuman’s Hands beguiles.Washington Post
A descendant of generations of Brahmin priests, Cheeni Rao chose a tragic path to enlightenment. His powerful memoir, “In Hanuman’s Hands,” describes in harrowing detail Rao’s troubles with crack addiction and the spiritual awakening that led to his recovery.Publishers Weekly
When Rao describes his experiences as a homeless drug addict on the streets of Chicago as a battle for his soul between the Hindu gods Hanuman and Kali, it's easy to dismiss his assertions as evidence of a mental breakdown-even he entertains that possibility. But it's this divine intervention, the culmination of a family mythology handed down over generations, that gives Rao the strength to tackle his recovery: "I'll be straight because that's what Hanuman wants," he tells a therapist. "He'll kick my ass if I fuck up again." The multilayered narrative skillfully shifts between Rao's downward spiral that kicked into high gear during his freshman year of college, his first months at a no-nonsense halfway house and stories from his Indian ancestors. Even readers who have become jaded to the generic conventions of the addiction memoir-criminal acts to support the growing habit, pushing away one's closest friends and so on-will find themselves engrossed in Rao's spiritual journey, from the descent into a very personal hell to the slow climb back. (Rao returned to college and eventually graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.) Wherever his writing goes from here, this powerful debut is a signal to pay attention. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
Rao became addicted to drugs at his prestigious college; his father, a gifted doctor from India, could only stand by helplessly as his youngest son took up a life of crack cocaine, petty crime, and violence. Highs, overdoses, and the struggle to recover opened Rao's mind to visions of Hanuman, a deified monkey of the Ramayana (the Indian Iliad), who, despite Rao's resistance, showed him a new way of living. Rich material overcomes the occasional missed beat in this haunting debut.
—Elizabeth Brinkley