Review of Kari by Amruta Patil

I recently bought a book (yes, i had money). Kari, a graphic novel by Amruta Patil.

On the first reading, the novel sounds extremely narcissistic. Kari is a heart-broken lesbian who suffers from a deep sense of alienation. She works at an ad-agency and gives the impression that she is not-so-bad at what she does. Kari aims for a Chou yun fat hair style and is a voyeur sitting on the roof top. She is attracted to a dying woman, ironically named Angel. But the narrative seems a bit fragmented and I was not sure what to expect from the next chapter. After finishing the novel, I was wondering what it was all about.

So I decided to read it again, to see if there was something beneath all the wisecracks and the supposed boldness. And there was. Kari's sense of alienation is something most of us experience. "A bed the size of a football feild.........", now there's eloquence for you.

I especially liked the part, "we go back travelling in too much proximity. Two inches from one another and expressionless." I instantly remember one of Grass's quotes, "because man - each man and all men together - is alone in his loneliness and all men lumped together make up a lonely mass without names and without heroes."

Kari uses a Woody Allen style narcissism to address the profoundly moral and philosophical questions in a contemporary context. Don't miss Kari if you like watching Allen.