Review: Life Over Two Beers by Sanjeev Sanyal

232pp, ₹250; Penguin Some books tell you more about the writer than what they’re writing about. The story, like many others in the book starts in one place with one idea, then veers off in an altogether different direction that doesn’t connect remotely with the first. The first story, ‘The Used-Car Salesman’ baulks at the idea of the said creature rising through the ranks and deceptively making his way into the art and literary circuit. True but also when the writer robs the protagonist of any endearing features it’s a story that almost says – laugh at the car salesman who masquerades as a William Dalrymple prototype. It’s a call-centre idea gone out of whack and could easily become a story in the online series trending on Netflix – ‘Dark Mirror.’ Also, ‘The Re-Union,’ and ‘The Bench by The Lake.’ There is a certain hoariness with which the author approaches Kolkata and any other Bengali settings.