In Hanuman's Hands: A Memoir
Starred Review. 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&mdash;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&mdash;criminal acts to support the growing habit, pushing away one's closest friends and so on&mdash;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 &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.