Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor

This is definitely the book of the moment, appearing in several book clubs over the last couple of months although I did get it fairly quickly from the library.

The story focuses around three people Ajay, Sunny and Neda. Ajay was born into poverty and sold by his mother following an incident with a goat and his father being killed. Sunny was born into immense wealth with a father who had no respect for him and a life full of luxury items, expensive drink and cars. Neda was born to liberal, elite parents, surrounded by books.

What surrounds and entwines these three characters is wealth and poverty and how both trap people. All the vices are here in the book proving toxic and there is a long build up to the climax of the story (again, this is a book that I think could be shorter) but it is hard to say what sort of story this is. At first, I thought it was going to be a bit like The Talented Mr Ripley when Ajay copies Sunny right down to the aftershave he wears. Then when Ajay was in prison, the fight scene reminded me of the Bourne books and I thought it was going to turn off in that direction. But it didn’t. I think the nearest story it reminded me of was The Godfather as it is about the vices of a wealthy family chasing and holding on to power with all of society dragged in to the scene.

The writing is very good and keeps the story rolling on. There are various text forms inside the story such as emails, articles and then there is poetry-like writing when Sunny is losing his mind.

He comes up like he is coming up for air.

From the turbulence of the ocean floor.

Rag-rolled.

Rasping.

Howling.

And the dream he was having is receding,

sucking up boulders, hurling them toward the shore.

Leaving only enough oxygen

for the scream.

p417

This book is the opening part of a trilogy. I am not sure if I will read the others when they are published.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *