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A review by archytas
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I can absolutely see why this book has been optioned for the screen: it is a taut thriller at its best, with a social conscience but not one strong enough to get in the way of the story. Kapoor writes visually, with strong imagery around the various locales, from the forest migrant camps to the mountains tourist retreats to the lazy beaches and Dehli's pulsing streets.
The book also has a slowly expanding cast of characters and a story which teases you and slowly shifts your perspective as you follow familiar scenes from a new perspective (one of my favourite aspects of the writing is the subtle contradictions in the way scenes play out from the focus of a different character, reminding us of how fragile memory is and how influenced by what matters to us, and how we see ourselves). The complex, sprawling plot and switching points of view would all translate well into a television series.
I liked the ways that Kapoor weaves caste, class, colourism, gender and regional tensions into her plot, reflecting the natural ways in which these impact people's lives. I particularly appreciated how some prison stories were handled for nuance and empathy.
However, I just didn't love it that much. After a strong, tightly focused start, the latter part of the book focuses increasingly on the dynamics and secrets within the ultra-wealthy, dirty Wadia family, which was simply not that interesting. I slowly realised that the book (intended as the first in a trilogy) would require us to care about the vacuous Sunny Wadia, and his rich-boy problems, and I simply wasn't going to do that. Honestly, I found it hard to care about Nada, whose character was rich, simply because she was so invested in Sunny's struggles. Nada's struggle between her values and her attraction to Sunny's world was engaging but fell down when it came to the pouting, drug-addled playboy himself. It isn't that Sunny seems unrealistic (although there are some Dues Ex Machina moments) but mostly just that he isn't interesting. It is hard to care about a three-way struggle between forces that seem repellant. At least this made me less invested when the ending had some cliffhangery elements.
Still, I would probably watch the series and see if it had more life on screen and with actors to provide some of the charisma described but not really shown in the book. I have really loved Kapoor's short, more indie fiction in other forms, but gangster fiction might just not be for me.
The book also has a slowly expanding cast of characters and a story which teases you and slowly shifts your perspective as you follow familiar scenes from a new perspective (one of my favourite aspects of the writing is the subtle contradictions in the way scenes play out from the focus of a different character, reminding us of how fragile memory is and how influenced by what matters to us, and how we see ourselves). The complex, sprawling plot and switching points of view would all translate well into a television series.
I liked the ways that Kapoor weaves caste, class, colourism, gender and regional tensions into her plot, reflecting the natural ways in which these impact people's lives. I particularly appreciated how some prison stories were handled for nuance and empathy.
However, I just didn't love it that much. After a strong, tightly focused start, the latter part of the book focuses increasingly on the dynamics and secrets within the ultra-wealthy, dirty Wadia family, which was simply not that interesting. I slowly realised that the book (intended as the first in a trilogy) would require us to care about the vacuous Sunny Wadia, and his rich-boy problems, and I simply wasn't going to do that. Honestly, I found it hard to care about Nada, whose character was rich, simply because she was so invested in Sunny's struggles. Nada's struggle between her values and her attraction to Sunny's world was engaging but fell down when it came to the pouting, drug-addled playboy himself. It isn't that Sunny seems unrealistic (although there are some Dues Ex Machina moments) but mostly just that he isn't interesting. It is hard to care about a three-way struggle between forces that seem repellant. At least this made me less invested when the ending had some cliffhangery elements.
Still, I would probably watch the series and see if it had more life on screen and with actors to provide some of the charisma described but not really shown in the book. I have really loved Kapoor's short, more indie fiction in other forms, but gangster fiction might just not be for me.