A Suitable Boy: A Novel

This sprawling historical novel is magnificent. Looking for a summer book? This is the one. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Raj Quartet which was also set in India, and equally sprawling, but with another plot line and slightly different time line The rhythm of this book hinges on cycles, balance, and duality: Hindu and Muslim, Pakistan and India, rich and poor, male and female, young and old, religious and secular, life and death, etc. The book is believable and manges to be quit educational in a most enjoyable way. For those of us in the West it is a history lesson that should not be missed. It offers insight into a critical region of the world and to India which continues to emerge as a force to be reckoned with in the global scene. I have been told by friends that to those of us in the United States that there is no place in the world that seems so "foreign" as India. So completely different from our experience, and a land of glaring contrasts to our eyes. I can assure you that this is a book I would recommend to anyone who planned on traveling to India as the place to start in learning about the land, peoples, history, and culture. Here in the West we are suspicious of the idea of "arranged marriages" and prefer the haphazard, and hazardous, route of "romantic" love with that one special person. This book helped me realize that perhaps here in the U. S. we have become too complacent about something so important as marriage (not only to the individuals but the family and ultimately society as well) and there is much to be said for a culture which puts such effort in finding a suitable match rather than leaving it to chance. As far as I am concerned if Vikram Seth never writes another word he has established himself as a great writer. This book truly awed me with its maturity, and depth.

Just finished my second reading of "A Suitable Boy", it will always be one of my favorite books. Looking over some of the other reviews here I see that this 1474 page novel has been called "just" an Indian soap opera, and while I think soap-opera may be an apt description, it is one of the best books I have ever read. This novel reminded me of an old fashioned English novel in the style of Dickens or Trollope or Eliot, with a large cast of characters, a thick tome with many divergent plot lines that are eventually tied together by the ending, an incredible journey for a reader. They just don't write them this way any more.The title story of the novel is the one of Lata Mehra and her search (or rather her mother's search) for a suitable boy to marry. The novel opens at the wedding of Savita & Pran and introduces many of the characters we will be seeing more of later. Lata is struck by the fact that her sister is marrying a total stranger, accepting passively a marriage arranged by the family, later she will choose between passion and an arranged marriage for herself. Maan Kapoor is another central character that we get to know in depth following him through his obsession for Saeeda Bai, exile from the city and the dramatic scene involving Firoz. There's far more though than the stories of only Lata and Maan, both of whom are sometimes almost forgotten for several chapters, so many other unforgettable characters amongst the Mehra family, Kapoors, Chatterjis, Rasheed & his family, the Nawab Sahib & his family, Saeeda Bai's establishment. I found Arun & his wife Meenakshi, the anglophile snobs absolutely hilarious.Besides being "just a soap opera" revolving around the lives of half a dozen families of Bramphur, this is an ultimate book about India following the years after the death of Gandhi and independence from the British. Partition and ever increasing tension between Hindus and Muslims are ongoing themes and the continuing more subtle influences of the British on Indian culture. Every walk of life is covered from the untouchables of the Rudhia district to the Raja of Marh and his son. Don't let the size of this book discourage you, I found it easy to read over a period of time; each of the 19 sections is like a mini story in itself, with many short chapters in each section. I took several breaks in reading this, always drawn back the way one is drawn back to a family and old friends to see what's become of them now. Long as it is, I wished it could go on forever.

I've always sustained that a good writer can describe the simple ascent of a flight of stairs, and make it interesting. A bad writer can describe a truly interesting event, such as a disaster, or falling in love, or death, and render it boring. Vikram Seth's novel is an example of the former. Seth takes the lives of several well-to-do families in India during the early '50's, and follows their steps day by day for a little more than one year. He saves us no details as he describes, for about 1400 pages, the ins and outs of these families and their intertwining. He also involves us in the intricate details of the volatile political situation and the various religious and language barriers in place at that time. It is interesting to note, for example, that although India had only recently attained independence from the British Empire, English was the one common language spoken by almost all people of India, despite the individual origins. Therefore, the English language helped to unify India. One could find the main story plot rather superficial - the difficulty of finding a "Suitable Boy" for an upper class Hindi girl to marry. But this story serves only as a starting point for the branching out of many other stories of much more depth. And, in truth, I find that the individual drama of Lata, who knows that eventually she will have to marry a man who perhaps is not her ideal, at a young age when perhaps she would simply like to continue her studies and friendships and café' society, bows down to do her duty towards the family, to be quite a deep story in itself. You have to be in the right mood to read "A Suitable Boy". You have to be ready to climb that staircase one step at a time, and reflect upon each step you take.