FantasticFlicka reviewed Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Age of Vice
3 stars
Started out really well, but went off following different characters and became pretty boring.
eBook
Published Jan. 3, 2023 by Riverhead Books.
Age of Vice
3 stars
(7 reviews)
This is the age of vice, where money, pleasure, and power are everything, and the family ties that bind can also kill.
New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb and in the blink of an eye, five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold.
Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family — loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all.
In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: …
This is the age of vice, where money, pleasure, and power are everything, and the family ties that bind can also kill.
New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb and in the blink of an eye, five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold.
Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family — loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all.
In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family’s ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire. Against a sweeping plot fueled by loss, pleasure, greed, yearning, violence and revenge, will these characters’ connections become a path to escape, or a trigger of further destruction?
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption. It is binge-worthy entertainment at its literary best.
GG reviewed Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Completely changes from great to terrible 1/3 of the way in
2 stars
In the first 1/3 or so of this book, I was ALL-IN. A Slumdog Millionaire-type story of a kid who uses his wits and generous spirit to take advantage of any small bit of luck that comes his way. But then the narrator’s perspective shifts, and by the time we got to Neda’s story, I was just bored. The heavy-handed morality also got to me — I don’t drink or use drugs, but the piling on of alcohol as a signifier for all social ills got very tiresome. So, too, did the non-stop, unnecessary violence. It basically turns into a gangster drama that isn’t particularly interesting. 2 stars for the first 1/3.
EBat reviewed Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Review of 'Age of Vice' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
An extended prologue suffering from torturous plotlessness.
2/22/23. I just wanted to edit to add: if you are looking for a book that captures the ugliness, the complexity, the devastation, the beauty, and the horror of life for many millions of people in India, I have found no work better than Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers". Read that. Not this.
Back to my review:
Listened to this book on audible. Let me first say that this narrator is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I would listen to anything he narrates, really.
In 2007, 2008, and 2009 I spent a total of 8 months in India, primarily in New Delhi, though I traveled a bit. This book was engaging for me from the beginning because it brought back memories of the horrors and ruthlessness that I witnessed there. The characters were familiar and well-written, overall, if a little one-dimensional.
I'm going to …
An extended prologue suffering from torturous plotlessness.
2/22/23. I just wanted to edit to add: if you are looking for a book that captures the ugliness, the complexity, the devastation, the beauty, and the horror of life for many millions of people in India, I have found no work better than Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers". Read that. Not this.
Back to my review:
Listened to this book on audible. Let me first say that this narrator is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I would listen to anything he narrates, really.
In 2007, 2008, and 2009 I spent a total of 8 months in India, primarily in New Delhi, though I traveled a bit. This book was engaging for me from the beginning because it brought back memories of the horrors and ruthlessness that I witnessed there. The characters were familiar and well-written, overall, if a little one-dimensional.
I'm going to disagree with a lot of reviewers who really like Ajay's opening 200 or so pages. This was a slow, passive slog. It was just extended backstory. Ajay himself is a character without agency who doesn't seem to develop as the backstory drags on.
Neda's portion was a little more interesting because she at least has a little agency in the world. I think Neda was a well-done character, realistic, with a lot of believable, annoying flaws. She reminds me of the classic shtick of many of the young women I met in Delhi during those years. Eventually her story got a little blah too. I think at one point I accidentally moved the dial back an hour and found myself listening to something I had already heard. But rather than thinking I had accidentally jumped backward I actually thought the author was going over the same things again later in the story, as the character reflected on what happened, because this would not have been in anyway outside her established patterns as a writer to this point.
We finally switch to Sunny, who's a total whiner, but has more agency than all the other characters and actually does things. The story starts at last (I think I was about 12 hours in at 1.3x at this point) and I was engaged and excited. Then the finally present story comes to a SCREECHING halt so we can listen to some rando bad guy that has just appeared--apropos of nothing--give a 2 hour monologue (no joke, at 1.3x speed). I almost stopped entirely and gave up.
That monologue really ruined the rest of the book for me. I no longer cared about the brief "story" that had finally started, the characters, the outcome. All credibility the author had gained in the brief moments of brilliance were utterly shattered. Not sure if Penguin Random House had to cut all their editors due to the pandemic or what. I will not be buying the sequels. There are flashes of brilliance in the story (hence 2 stars) but that accounts for about 2 hours, the rest is a dragging, monotonous slog, going nowhere, without plot or point. Torturous.
