The first six chapters of the book draw us into the lives of Leenie and
Sunny, now married for fourteen years, living in Calcutta.
Leenie is suffering from sexual anorexia. Thinks she’s become
clairvoyant. Starts writing a dream diary, obsessed with symbols, omens and
auguries.
Sunny is suffering from cerebral adultery. Thinks it is time to try the
real stuff. He meets a magnetic new woman. Wants to smash the conjugal yoke.
Leenie dreams of terrible disasters about to happen to their twelve year
old son, now in a boarding school far away in the hills.
Sunny thinks Leenie is going mad.
Leenie thinks Sunny is degenerating.
We reach a climactic point in their relationship.
That’s when we learn that Sunny and Leenie are characters in a novel. The
novelist himself is trapped in an extremely frustrating situation in life.
Sunny and Leenie are sublimations from his real life existence. His
predicaments shape theirs.
Then we don’t know who’s in control.
Instead of the characters living the author’s life, the author starts
living the life his characters do.
Like Leenie, he becomes clairvoyant. Like Sunny, he becomes a rebel.
The line between fact and fiction gets wiped out in a dramatic
culmination
