Author: Deepti Kapoor
Deepti Kapoor’s book “Age of Vice” had just come out and I immediately got in line at my local library to borrow the book. While I waited, I decided to pick her debut novel “A Bad Character” which was published in 2015.
One thing is certain from the start; Deepti knows how how to tell a high-wire tale. The book opens with “My boyfriend died when I was twenty-one. His body was left lying broken on the highway out of Delhi”. She writes a powerful prose, in short sentences, but with high intensity.
She writes about a young woman’s desires, both sexual and existential. What is even more impressive is how these stories are set in an Indian city where such mores are uncommon to say the least. She talks about her affair with a “wild animal dressed in human clothes”. Their favorite haunts are cafes in Khan Market, New Delhi, “where it’s civilized, where there are bookstores and florists”.
To contrast her wild side, she lives with a conservative aunt who is constantly trying to arrange her marriage. Deepti’s prose is direct and to the point and her descriptions of Delhi are brutal and beautiful. This is not your typical romance, but it will grab your attention until you turn the last page.
