Villainy by Upamanyu Chatterjee

Villainy by Upamanyu Chatterjee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A graphic description of life in Delhi – a wealthy, philandering Mercedes-loving businessman, a rich spoilt brat, policemen with varying degrees of efficiency and sleaze, a dedicated mortuary attendant, a loyal driver, judges and lawyers of every ilk, the streets of Delhi, criminal courts, gaols and life within for venal supervisors and inmates – both innocent, as well as convicted, sundry canines, road rage and its consequences in the murderous traffic of India’s capital city, immigrants from mofussil towns across the ‘cow belt’, predatory ‘god-men.’ Here is a passage equating crime with quantum mechanics

The principles of villainy and uncertainty appear to be beguilingly familiar. They are all terribly all-pervasive, for one, and further, one can never be fully certain wither of what constitutes villainy, of whether it is not governed, just as much as the principle of uncertainty, by the four cardinal characteristics of time, location, movement and spin, and of whether it is not just unstable, volatile – and slippery, in short.

The ending is somewhat, disappointingly, abrupt and uncertain – unsatisfying after the detailed narrative.

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