A Bad Character

This promising debut explores the intense, short-term relationship that the novel's young female narrator commences with the title's ostensibly "bad character." Idha's lover is unnamed, giving the dark-skinned, unattractive, moody, and wealthy youth an even greater air of mystery. He introduces Idha to a slice of Delhi life spiked with cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, and passionate sex. This slice is juxtaposed to the mundane, even sedate existence she leads with her aunt, who intends to marry her off to the first appropriate prospect who comes along. Kapoor seduces readers with the breathless pace of a first-person, nonlinear narrative told by a young woman desperate to escape the comfort of her present situation and a likely staid future as a married woman. The author describes Delhi with courage and without sentimentality, capturing the allure of forbidden but accessible fruit for Idha and thus for any young Indian woman.