Corridor has fabulous illustrations but narrative is not Sarnath’s forte. It is very fragmented, and it is supposed to be fragmented, but that totters a bit instead of marching ahead assuredly and weakens the impact of the book. I just read it this afternoon so the images are still fresh, as is the sense of wistfulness that pervades it, like the fog that diffuses the winter dusks in Delhi.

There are several strands in this book, all to do with characters who visit Jehangir Rangoonwalla, a roadside bookseller in CP, – ‘enlightened dispenser of tea, wisdom and second-hand books’ says the blurb. Brighu Sen – who looks suspiciously like Sarnath, long hair, goatee, glasses, earring and all – collects things, from rare LPs to leather-bound volumes of Phantom comics to the gallstone that killed his granddad etc. To put it crudely, he’s looking for a love life, gets one, but screws it up when he cheats on his girlfriend Kali, a documentary filmmaker. There are other minor characters, but will stick to two.

Digital Dutta, is ‘torn between Karl Marx and an H-1B visa’. Marx visits him every night in the one-room space of his head. DD lives here for the most part, a space that allows him to be a quantum physicist, top athlete, war reporter, linguist, Sandinista (this is spelt Sandanista in the book, I noticed), faith healer, Kalari expert, conqueror of Everest and so forth.

There’s newly married Shintu, who only knew about sex from Cosmo and played Scrabble on his wedding night. He’s looking for the ultimate aphrodisiac. So follows a series of visits to the hakims of Old Delhi. This was the most prolonged and definitely the most memorable part of the book. The frames/ illustrations here are very high quality postmodernism.

Another memorable set is the two toothbrushes of Brighu and Kali turning into the yinyang symbol over a few frames, as he moves in with her.
All in all, I thought it was textually weak, but the illustrations were great. He’s working on his second illustrated novel The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers, should be out next month.