Man Manqué

Man Manqué is a memoir and social commentary detailing the life of a Parsi-American man who grew up in post-independence Bombay and migrated to the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century. In the opening scene, the protagonist begins his ascent up Lone Mountain in Las Vegas, Nevada, contemplating the lifetime of disabling mishaps and toxic relationships that have driven him to undertake his solitary climb to the top of the mountain where he is resolved to answer what Camus deemed the “only one really serious philosophical question.” In the chapters that follow, he recounts a series of vivid stories about his childhood in the Parsi colony of Homiyar Baug, an adolescence rife with sexual angst, and, finally, an adulthood in which he faces the perfect storm of personal and professional betrayal, financial ruin, disillusionment with Parsi culture and Zoroastrian religion, and unresolved trauma from the past. The memoir is characterized by ironic overtones, and, at times, unfiltered dialogue that captures the raw human emotion of the characters. What sets this book apart from other written accounts of everyday Parsi life—and what sets the man, himself, apart from quite possibly all of Parsi society—is an unapologetic disregard bordering on intellectual contempt for all people and institutions that shroud malicious intention with social prudence. As author and storyteller, Lakdavala wields his dual cultural identity as a unique vantage point from which to adroitly paint an unapologetic and bitingly cynical picture of both Parsi and American culture and politics. And much else.