Once Upon an Elephant

When the remains of a man's head and an elephant's body are found, police detectives Simpson and Delilah are called to investigate. It seems like a strange, yet straight-forward, homicide. Until Vighnesvara appears, and he's a version of the Hindu god Ganesh who appears with the body of a man and the head of an elephant. He, along with the suspected murderer who has a tendency to grow extra arms and some witnesses who testify in random languages, create havoc in the courtroom of Judge McEchern, who just wants to go back home. With the help of Simpson's boyfriend Sandip, maybe they all can figure out what's going on. "Once upon an Elephant" is a brilliant and whimsical retelling of Ganesh's creation from Hindu mythology. Flittering among the viewpoints of the characters, the story charms the reader, enlightening and delighting as it progresses.

Author Ashok Mathur revisits the mythology surrounding the birth of Ganesh, the Hindu God portrayed as a human with an elephant head. The story is told in the guise of a contemporary mystery with Ganesh himself as both murderer and victim. As the tale unravels, the reader is continuously transported between the mythology and the current events that have lead to the investigation. Mathur's induction of the tale into contemporary time is what makes the story both fascinating and hilarious. His clever use of recent past events, namely the miracle of the milk-drinking Ganesh statues amongst indian communities all over the world, brings the reader even closer to the story than if we had not already been given a taste of such phenomena. The investigation of the alleged crime is a self-reflexive comical romp in which neither traditional social mores or cultural differences are spared. I enjoyed the author's manipulation of the tale immensely, laughed uproariously, and would recommend it to all readers.