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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow.
I’m not sure how to start this review. I was fully engrossed in this book and the lives of the characters. I often struggle to like an anti-hero or a protagonist that I dislike. This both was riddled with both. However, I loved the fallen and broken humans and hoped for their redemption.
The end of the book was shocking and action filled, while being sad and not what I’d hoped.
All in all, I recommend “Age of Vice.”
I’m not sure how to start this review. I was fully engrossed in this book and the lives of the characters. I often struggle to like an anti-hero or a protagonist that I dislike. This both was riddled with both. However, I loved the fallen and broken humans and hoped for their redemption.
The end of the book was shocking and action filled, while being sad and not what I’d hoped.
All in all, I recommend “Age of Vice.”
This book was a complete train wreck, wrapped in in a head-on collision, topped with an overturned 18 wheeler! It really wasn’t my favorite. Can’t you tell? I don’t even want it on my shelves. I am donating it.
Any of you see the Brad Pitt movie “Babylon”? It was that - in a different country. The country was the ONLY redeeming quality of this book. I loved hearing about the different places in India! Made me want to visit.
But the story line and characters were just awful to me! It was a 546 page nightmare. Called a coming of age story, telling of bullies and the mob. Death and corruption at the heart of it all. That’s all I am going to say because I want to not think about this book ever again.
Book Quote: “He is an island. Marooned. No past, not future.”
Any of you see the Brad Pitt movie “Babylon”? It was that - in a different country. The country was the ONLY redeeming quality of this book. I loved hearing about the different places in India! Made me want to visit.
But the story line and characters were just awful to me! It was a 546 page nightmare. Called a coming of age story, telling of bullies and the mob. Death and corruption at the heart of it all. That’s all I am going to say because I want to not think about this book ever again.
Book Quote: “He is an island. Marooned. No past, not future.”
Characters hard to relate to narrative style I had trouble reading
I thought this book was great. Long, yes. Rambling at times, yes. Left me wanting for more and slightly confused, yes. But in a way that I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time, and what life is about, which I think is the point of literature. It was a refreshing read after too many dumb beach reads with characters I absolutely do not care about or relate to (middle class boring white women). I can’t relate to these characters in a generic sense—I’ve never been to India nor experienced their level of poverty or wealth—but found them interesting, and relatable in the sense of us all having vices, being the need to serve other people and receive their approval, or actual vices like drugs and alcohol. I’ll be looking for the author’s other works.
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Book Review Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
This novel is an examination of the purpose of life, destiny or choice. A gripping exploration of fate vs choice, and the cost of survival in a world ruled by power and wealth. Ajay’s life has been forever intertwined with the powerful Wadia family who control vast swatches of India from Uttar Pradesh to Dehli. Unswervingly loyal, Ajay serves as the personal aid to the eldest son, Sunny- a flamboyant playboy struggling to escape the shadow of his controlling and ruthless father. Neda, a journalist, wants to do a story on Sunny and finds herself captivated by him in a way she didn’t anticipate.
This novel is packed with action and heart wrenching incidents. After the death of his father, Ajay is sold in a desperate attempt by his mother to save their family. He works as a farm labourer until a twist of fate results in a job offer by Sunny, altering the course of his life.
Kapoor vividly contrasts the harsh realities of India’s poorest villages, where the caste system still dictates lives; with the opulence and corruption of Delhi’s elite. The story shines a light on the violence, exploitation and the impossible choices people must make to survive in a deeply unequal society.
This novel was full of twists and turns that keep you engaged from beginning to end. The power, corruption and violence of the Wadia family was despicable but uncomfortably believable, forming the backbone of the novel’s brutal realism. Ajay is a compelling and sympathetic character, someone you can’t help rooting for, even as he is drawn deeper into a world not of his own making. But in the end, it’s the wealthy who make the rules, and the powerless who bear the consequences.
This is a powerful, well told story that starkly depicts the divide between the impoverished and the wealthy and the devastating choices made by both sides.