- Author of the widely acclaimed Artist, Undone. - Most of the book is set in Chennai and Bangalore and has a distinct tonal flavor of the South in the narrative. - The language is gritty and humourous and has a good sense of place and locale. I hope to be remembered in this street, amongst the lame, as the husband of the one with amorous thoughts and sexy legs. ‘There used to be a writer here in this empty house, ’ they will say. ‘He had aporous mind. ’ A stubborn writer struggles with his stories in a city that has been encroached. The last bastion is an urban agraharam near Mylapore where a bunch of misfits perform a strange kutcheri. Among these are existential street dogs, short-changed lovers, disgruntled housewives, runaways with bombs, veshti-wearing elders and nihilist teenagers coming to terms with their sexuality. With a singular desire to escape, these characters visit each other’s stories, creating a layered narrative of loss and ennui. In language both gritty and humorous and often surprisingly poetic, V. Sanjay Kumar’s narrative, set in modern middle-class, housing-cooperative Chennai, tackles the simple conundrum of being and belonging.
