A blisteringly atmospheric novel set in the midst of the pandemic. Jay is an artist who, after a disastrous love affair and a subsequent search for meaning in the art world, has dropped through the cracks of his life. Washing up in New York, he works as a taxi driver until he contracts COVID. Forced to sleep in his car and make money delivering groceries, he collapses in the driveway of a house he is delivering to, only to find that his old lover is living there. Forced together again, Jay is finally in a position to revisit his past and interrogate the choices he made. This is full of the kind of claustrophobic atmosphere of Camus' The Plague. The microcosm interrogates the macrocosm and so much is revealed in such a clever, witty and yet sparing way. I loved this.

Blue Ruin is a novel about art and power, as a former artist finds himself facing his past. Jay was an artist in London, where he was in a relationship with Alice until she ran off with his best friend and fellow artist, Rob. Now, however, it is the early days of the pandemic, and Jay is an undocumented gig economy worker delivering groceries. When a delivery to a huge house in the countryside reveals Alice, suddenly Jay is confronted by the art world once again.

It doesn't feel surprising that Hari Kunzru has written a pandemic novel, even though Blue Ruin is a far more an exploration of being an artist, culture, immigration, and money, than it really is about Covid. The pandemic forms the weird coincidence that ignites the plot and fuels the paranoia of the rich that compares with the way in which rich people fund the art world, something that the characters, particularly Jay, reckon with throughout the book. The book follows a present day narrative of a lockdown in a country house, but also extended flashbacks to a much younger Jay, Alice, and Rob, their relationships, and, particularly, their art. There are twists and turns, particularly in the present day story, whilst the book asks, what are the conditions to make art, if any exist, and can you live a life of art.

There are some unfinished threads (for instance, Jay never quite has to face up to anything external, like his app-based job), but generally, this is a book that poses a lot of questions, pokes fun at the 90s art scene, and also looks at race, immigration, and how people can move through the world. It plays with the joke that an artist could do anything and claim it is art, whilst exploring where the power and the money is. As someone who knows very little about the art world, I nevertheless found this a gripping novel, that has a lot of modern commentary but tempers it with an across the decades look at what makes an artist and how an artist makes money.

A bold and sharply witty critique of the ludicrous extremes within the art world and the unpredictable challenges of the gig economy. Kunzru's narrative, a reflective journey of a once-prominent art figure questioning "How did I get here?", unfolds as a meticulously constructed breadcrumb trail. The story revolves around his daring decision to forsake everything, leading to an unforeseen confrontation as he is abruptly reintroduced to the lives of a former lover and a friend/rival. The narrative is a captivating delight to traverse, skillfully crafted and laden with thrilling revelations.

Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru moves between two timelines of the past and present and explores how the main character has ended up in life where he is and not where he thought he would be.