COINMAN, An Untold Conspiracy

The author sent me a copy of his novel to review:

Pawan Mishra has written a humorous and tormenting story... all at the same time. The funny side reminded me of the American version of the TV show The Office. Coinman prompted me to think of the quirky Dwight played by Rainn Wilson. The bullying side reminded me of a adult office version of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but a more civil edition. Coinman’s office was ruled by a gang of four, while the stranded boys were ruled by a gang of three with Piggy playing the counterpart of Pawan Mishra’s Coinman. Why was Coinman an outcast in his office? Because he loved “the joy of coin jingling!” What? Yes, that’s the hypothesis of the story. I’m going to email the author to find out how he thought of the idea. Anyway he took that zany habit and built a delightful tale around it. Coinman fell in love with coins when, as a baby, his father spilled coins on the floor. Baby Coinman found the one coin his father didn’t pick up and did what any baby would do...he put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Somehow his digestive system dissolved the coin, and he was forever hooked on coins. He had to have coins at all times in the left pocket of his trousers unless he had to use his left hand, then the coins would be moved into his right pocket. “Jangle jingle! Clink clatter! Ding-a-ling! Ring-a-ding!” Is that funny, or what? And if he had to hold a chart with both hands for a colleague at a office presentation, he would make the excuse that he had to go to the bathroom.

The venue for the story is a office building in Northern India. The managers are on the second floor, and the regular office workers are on the first floor sitting in individual desks. By the way, the reader never really finds out what the company actually does. It seems like they spend the whole shuffling papers and scheming against Coinman. According to Coinman, it looks like all the desks on the floor inch away from him on a daily basis. Coinman knows it’s true because he measures the distance from his desk to his neighbors desks as a daily routine. Nobody wanted to hear the constant jingling of coins in his pocket. “The coin-stricken souls at the office used as pain-killers some fabricated tales about Coinman’s buffoonery, yet these pain-killers were not good enough to make even a dent in the constant trauma the coins caused. The mind-paralyzing sound of the coins, mixed with the hatred against him, evolved to a stubborn assessment in their minds that Coinman was perpetrating the most unbearable experience they’d ever known.” The group’s attitude was simple, “They wanted independence from coins at any cost!” Coinman’s real name was Kesar, but somehow it changed to Coinman when his office mail, office newsletter, and official records started to be addressed to Coinman instead of Kesar. He went to the second floor to protest, but they said Its always been Coinman...so it stuck, go figure!

I have to say that I thought the author’s prose was excellent, mainly because I’m a fan of descriptive writing. Pawan Mishra took two pages (pages nine & ten) to describe Coinman’s appearance...that’s what I’m talking about! Getting back to the story, we learn about Coinman’s personal life such as, how he lives jam-packed with his mother, Kasturi, father, Daulat, his wife, Imli and a distant cousin, Shimla. Coinman’s wife is an actor who has the habit of adopting the personality of whoever she is currently playing on stage. For instance when she played a doctor on stage, she would come home as a doctor with a medical bag. She even gave Coinman a needle in the butt while he was sleeping (Haha). Okay, let’s get back to the conniving office gang of four: Hukum (the leader), Daya, Sevak and Panna. They are now joined by co-conspirators, Ratiram and the lovely office female, Tulsi, who has decided enough is enough. All the office workers have a meeting in the building’s cafeteria. Tulsi takes the leadership role, “Let us strip him of his coins, let’s rob the filthy insect of its wings, let’s snatch his happiness and share it equally among us.” Then she dropped her voice to almost a whisper. “Let’s do it in a way that lets us kill the snake without breaking the stick.” Okay, I told you enough of the story, the best is yet to come. What plan did the office gang finally come up with? What will Coinman do if he can’t jingle his coins? The author came up with a strange but simple story that somehow captivated me. Pick up your own copy, indulge yourself with this duck soup novel.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: This is the first novel I’ve read pertaining to bullying, however co-contributor, Pat Koelmel wrote a review on R.J. Palacio’s Wonder (see her review of 8/25/2014). It’s the story of a ten year old boy named Auggie, who has a rare medical facial deformity. His parent’s enroll him into a private school after years of home schooling. There, he faces bullying for the way he looks, not because he jingles coins in his pocket.