Customer Reviews

Suitable Boy (v. 1)

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I will be brief and merely add some comments to the many reviews already written on this book. First of all, I think it is a very good book, but definitely not for everyone. If you're thinking about reading it, you're probably wondering if it's worth the effort of investing in such a long undertaking. Here are some suggestions:

If you are yourself Indian and/or interested in India, especially early post-independence Indian history, then you will probably find this a very interesting read. Vikram Seth manages to pack an extraordinary amount of historical, economic, social and cultural detail in his novel, which is, after all, essentially a love story. But it is also a story about -- not just set in -- India. If you have no interest in India or Indian culture (or Pakistan and sub-continental Muslim culture), you will likely be confused by many words and references, and you should keep away from this book.

Likewise, if you are interested in Hindu-Muslim relations, Seth does a good job at highlighting some of the key issues and the different ways some Hindus and Muslims look at the same issues. In this, it is amazing to compare what he wrote about the 1950s with the situation in India today. You can't understand what's going on in India today without a good dose of history, and Seth knows that.

Well, what if you're not really one way or the other as regards Indian history and culture, but you like big family dramas? This book is also for you. Seth has so much compassion for his characters, that you will find it very hard not to empathize with at least several of them. Moreover, he injects a great deal of humor into the book. It is a book about people, about life -- in all its aspects, about death, about family, and more.

However, on the down side, Seth's writing style leaves a bit to be desired. He is no James Joyce, no Faulkner. Although at times his prose does achieve something close to poetry (Seth is originally a poet), these instances are very rare indeed. Usually at dramatic moments, I felt he was trying too hard. At other times, I found his prose simply pedantic -- not awful, just not very good. So ask yourself, how much do you care about really good writing? Most people don't care. For me, it matters a great deal, and proved a slight obstacle in enjoying this book.

However, on the whole for me, the good outweighed the bad. For many people, this will be a highly enjoyable and heart-warming read. But don't take my word for it -- you can read the first 20 pages and see for yourself. You'll get the tone and style of the book right away. It doesn't change after that.

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.

A contemporary critic reacted to War and Peace with the exclamation, "It's not a book, but an elephant!" A Suitable Boy is a lengthier book of similar scope (although more tightly-structured, I think). Tolstoy is a genius because He Did It First, but that does not take away from the fact that with A Suitable Boy, Seth has earned his place in the Canon alongside War and Peace, Anna Karenina and other nineteenth-century greats, for every reason one can name.

Let me get it over with. Yes, this is a big book. It is a very long book. It is 1,488 pages long. Yes, let us all say it again: That makes it a Very Long Book. Those readers whose attention spans have been permanently shrunken by 30-second commercials and 50-minute TV programs will have a hard time with this book. There are also lots of important characters, too, just as in Anna Karenina, where you have three families closely depicted. So there are lots of people to keep straight. The good news is that Seth's characterizations are such that you can tell who's speaking, often, merely with the dialogue. You very often don't need the tags, "Arun said," or "Kakoli said." But yes, there are lots of characters, lots of things happening, and it takes a long time to read because it's yes, Very Long. To those whose major complaint is the length: Don't be afraid -- it won't bite. Open it up and read it, one page at a time.

And let us get this out of the way, too: No, this is not a Sweeping Tumutuous Saga. If you loved Kristin Lavransdatter, you will not like A Suitable Boy. It is not a romance novel, even though it begins and ends with weddings. It has a similar feel to Anna Karenina, but with a little more hilarity and a lot less heartbreaking tragedy (in the literary sense). There are political speeches in it, just like in War and Peace, and Vikram Seth takes the trouble to quote speeches and Parliamentary minutes verbatim. He has done his homework. But no bodices are ripped.

The book is a snapshot of life in India in the 1950's. The chronicling of the lives of the Mehra, Kapoor, Chatterji, families is a feast because of delectable prose, excellent characterization, delicious Indian food, and the exciting life of newly-Independent India on the heels of the partition of India and Pakistan. The writing within is nothing if not versatile: Seth does write poetry, but even his novel in verse, The Golden Gate, while equally delicious and fragrant, does contain stanzas of the merest doggerel. Similarly, in A Suitable Boy, the couplets that the Chatterjis fling back and forth are frequently funny, but will not be appearing in any anthologies any time soon. Still, anyone who has been to poetry readings will appreciate the poetry reading scene that Lata attends at the beginning of the book, and one doesn't have to be an expert in 1950's Indian poetry to find Seth's parodies very entertaining. The poems of the character Amit Chatterji are striking, but I admit it will take me a fourth reading to truly appreciate them.

The only complaint I have is an observation: Seth needs a glossary. While most readers won't have trouble with food-related terms like "gulab jamun" or "nimbu pani," they may not precisely know what a khatri is (although they may guess it has something to do with caste), or a Pathan. And with regard to one vocabulary word, the knowledge of it has the potential to affect the reader's perception of Lata and Haresh.

From the first, as soon as Lata meets Haresh, she dislikes his "co-respondent shoes." She makes other observations about his dress, as well. And about his English. But throughout the rest of the book, Lata goes back to those co-respondent shoes. The reference is repeated so it seems to be important -- at least to Lata. But what are co-respondent shoes? It matters: Some manners of dress can reflect negatively on the wearer's good taste, judgment or even sanity, and some complaints about dress reflect only a frivolous snobbery on the part of the viewer. So that if one is rushing a beloved relative into the emergency room for a life-saving appendectomy, the viewer might reasonably demand a change of physicians if the doctor walked in wearing a pair of women's underpants on his head; however, if someone accompanies a beloved family member who is bent double with agony to the doors of the operating room and has nothing better to do than take note that the shirt beneath the surgeon's lab coat is of inferior quality, then he deserves to be flogged. Without knowing what co-respondent shoes are, it could appear that Lata is being juvenile and just looking for reasons to complain because she's angry at her mother for coming between herself and Kabir.

But it turns out that "co-respondent shoes" are a flashy kind of two-toned shoe worn by swingers during the 1930s. They're called "co-respondent" shoes because, as a curator of a shoe museum said, a "co-respondent in a divorce case is the man who has committed adultery with one's wife--'a swinger, so to speak'--yet another association well-suited to the flash and daring of the hot jazz era (think Gatsby, think Moveable Feast). A gentleman rake could count on adding a snap in his step with a pair of flashy two-tones."

So Haresh's shoes were flashy bordering on vulgar but they were also twenty years out of fashion, so the shoes were a lot to overcome.

A reader shouldn't have to resort to a search engine in order to learn such a pivotal point. Please,Vikram Seth, the book is a delightful jewel, so please, help out your readers with a glossary!

The book is delightful in every way, and it is one of those books where you close the book with regret that the book is over. But if you reread this memorable book again, you will keep making new discoveries.

The remainder of this review is devoted to the ending. Please do not proceed any further unless you have read the book.

SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT.

Some observations about Lata's ultimate choice: The first time I read this book I thought that Lata had made a terrible mistake, and that her choice was inconsistent with her character, and I felt that Seth had forced the choice against the will of the character to make some kind of heavy-handed point. However, upon re-reading the book, I re-read Haresh's letters, and re-thought the time-line of her romance with Kabir, and her decision makes perfect sense. Lata picked a good man for precisely the right reasons. Kabir is a decent guy, and handsome and witty. But Lata and Kabir really don't develop the friendship that is essential for a good marriage. He's handsome, and he and Lata are intellectually compatible, but for all of that, their romance is an infatuation. In contrast, Haresh grows on Lata, and his fundamental decency and flexibility are more important than what is clearly an infatuation.

Mrs. Rupa Mehra's objection to Lata's relationship with Kabir is that Kabir is a Muslim and Lata is a Hindu. On the surface, the basis for this objection might be considered to be flawed - based on bigotry or stereotyping, but Lata has friends who are in purdah, so her mother's worries are not academic. And one must consider the violence that had just afflicted Hindu and Muslim alike in the time surrounding the Partition - wounds are still raw. In fact, Kedarnath Tandon bears the scars of it on his hands. However, it is clear on a close reading that Mrs. Rupa Mehra is not just indulging in mindless prejudice, but approaches marriage as most likely to be successful when it is a union of two people who have a lot in common. She doesn't just want Lata to marry a Hindu, she wants Lata to marry a khatri boy. She is just as horrified to hear that the brahmin Amit Chatterji is courting Lata, and has the impulse to remove Lata to another town, but realizes that it is not realistic to reduce Lata to an intinerant state because she attracts some unsuitable boys. Reasonable people might debate whether marrying someone who is like you is a good thing or a bad thing, but attributing Lata's family's objections to bigotry or religious closed-mindedness or some other bad trait is simplistic and disingenuous.

More to the point, Lata does not acquiesce to her mother's wishes, she follows her own. Haresh Khanna's misunderstanding of the word "mean," his reaction to it, his apology, and his wish for future guidance from Lata, immediately precede Lata's decision to marry him. Yes, he wears "co-respondent shoes" and doesn't seem to be as handsome as Kabir, speaks thickly-accented English and not well, but looks and shoes are not a good basis for choosing a life partner. Since Lata and Haresh speak several languages, his lack of total fluency in English is not as relevant here. And Lata wants to marry him anyway. This shows her growth, as well. Lata is depicted throughout as an independent-minded, intelligent girl, and the basis for her decision is consistent with her character, for all on first reading it might be tempting to root for Lata-and- Kabir. Furthermore, the outcome demonstrates Seth's ability to write plots and not cliches.

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.

Marriages (or divorces, according to Oscar Wilde) may be made in heaven, but as human intervention is undeniably required to negotiate them on earth, matchmaking of near and not so near ones has been a perpetual source of fascination for people from time immemorial. Perhaps it gives them a feeling of playing God to interlink the destinies of two people, probably forever.

This universal trait is remarkably well-manifested among the innumerable ayers comprising the social web of Indian society, and the average Indian middle class family offers the greatest scope for illustrating all kinds of hilarious and not-so-funny situations that crop up in the onerous task of choosing a Suitable boy, portrayed in Mr. Seth's delightful novel.

One of the principal characters is Mrs. Rupa Mehra, an effusive widow determined to find a good alliance for her youngest daughter Lata. Lata has other plans that include ambitions of a teaching career and an affair with Kabir, a handsome cricketer most unsuitable in Mrs.Mehra's eyes as he is Muslim.

The story is set in newly independent India in the early fifties, and intertwines the story of four different families including the Mehras -The Kapoors, the Chatterjis (Both related to the Mehras by marriage) and the Khans. It traces the ups and downs, the hopes and failures, the triumphs and tears of different members of these families.

The novel begins with Mrs. Mehra shedding tears of joy over Savita's wedding, and resolving to get Lata to follow her sister's example. Lata is both amused and annoyed by her mother's plans but things take a not so strange turn when she falls in love with the unsuitable Kabir. Kabir is not the only suitor for Lata's hand - Others include Amit Chatterji, a young poet, and Haresh Khanna, a dynamic young man who in the Shoe business. Which of these three would be Lata's choice forms the main thread of the novel.

There are several sub-plots involving other characters such as Lata's brother Arun and his wife, the selfish and adulterous Meenakshi, who are a snobbish Indian couple trying hard to keep up with the standards of the British Raj; Savita's father-in-law Mr. Mahesh Kapoor who represents the average freedom-fighter turned politician of the fifties, his wife - the gentle and accommodating Mrs. Mahesh Kapoor and Savita's husband - the unassuming and affectionate Pran, who is somewhat like Teinosuke of `The Makioka Sisters'.

Pran's younger brother Maan's infatuation with the courtesan-singer Saeeda Bai and its disastrous consequences is one of the more dramatic subplots. One of Saeeda Bai's patrons, the crass Raja of Marh, is a vivid portrayal of the vulgarity and barbarism of lesser chieftains in early post-independent India.

Mr. Mahesh Kapoor`s friendship with the Nawab Sahib of Baitar and the latter's son Firoz's intimate relationship with Maan takes an unexpected turn causing turmoil in both families, and the reconciliation towards the end is one of the most poignant parts of the novel. The mutual understanding between both pairs of friends, especially in the court where the Zamindari bill is challenged (Mr. Mahesh Kapoor being instrumental in proposing the bill and the Nawab Sahib on the opposite side, with Firoz arguing for him) is conveyed beautifully.

Amit's younger brother Dipankar who seeks the meaning of life in philosophy and religion and finally settles as a banker, and Maan's urdu teacher Rasheed who strives to improve the lot of the peasants of his village but in the end is subdued and driven to suicide, portray troubled faces of Indian youth.

Even the side characters are more than mere props in the background. The Hindustani music concerts by the maestro Ustad Majeed Khan come live to the reader and one can almost hear the raags and the applause. The weekly meetings of the Brahmpur Literary society teeming with self-styled poets provides extremely comical situations. Anybody who has attended a local literary society meeting would immediately recognise a Mr.Naurojee, a Smt.Joshi or even a droll and self-complacent Mr. Makhijani.

If the Mehras and Kapoors form the background for the main storyline, one cannot miss the vivacious Chatterjis. The amiable Amit, dreamy and philosophical Dipankar, frivolous Meenakshi and fun-loving Kakoli come across as a crazy but loveable family, that is nevertheless, in the author's words, `a hotbed of sanity'. The ludicrous `Kakoli couplets' are sure to stay with the reader for a long time. The parties hosted by the Chatterjis at their Ballygunge mansion are delightful events that provide ample insight into the frills and thrills of high-society life in the early fifties.

Mr.Seth's rich and detailed description transports the reader to shady roads of the posh localities of Brahmpur, gutter-ridden slums in the Brahmpur suburbs, dusty village roads of Rudhia district and even a cemetery in Calcutta where the legendary `Rose Aylmer' lies buried.

The political situation in India with emphasis on the changing face of the Congress party soon after Independence, the apprehensions of the landowners before the passing of the Zamindari bill, the communal tension underlining religious processions have all been portrayed in picturesque and emotionally charged scenes.

A reader's only grudge after nearly 1400 pages may be that the book is too short! The way some of the loose ends are tied up towards the end (such as rediscovery of Mr.Mehra's medal) take away some of its authenticity. Though Lata's decision does not come as a surprise to the reader, as it is suggested and built on right from the later half, it creates a feeling that she had chosen the wrong one. Mr. Seth has compromised on the intensity of some characters, and one wishes to know more about many of them, especially Amit and Firoz.

An impression of newly independent India (that has not changed much after fifty-two years), an engaging journey along the banks of the flowing Ganges, an insight into the thoughts, emotions and dreams of a group of people caught in filial, social and political ties - `A Suitable Boy ` is much more than a novel - It is a generous (and delectable) slice of Indian life.

No, he is not Tolstoy. Or Proust, of whom he likes to make fun. His style is amiable, unpretentious and amusing. He reminds me, most of all, of TROLLOPE, particularly the Trollope of the Parliamentary [Palliser] novels. He might not be a profound observer of the human condition, or an Olympian of the English language, but his writing has charm and point. And he sure deploys a large canvas!

His protagonists are a very irresponsible but lovable 25-year-old boy and a much TOO sensible 20-year old girl, and the other characters run the gamut from broad Trollopian rajas and intoxicatingly devious manipulators to saints out of Louisa May Alcott and feral parodies à la Sophie Portnoy. As I said, this book covers a lot of ground-as huge as India itself-yet centered on domestic, provincial concerns, as Indian life itself is. The story never loses focus.

I read it entirely in doctors' waiting rooms, as my father got hour upon hour of chemotherapy; it took me into a different world, and held me there without fail. Maybe that's a little too rosy, but I sure needed it. I don't think Kafka would have been as helpful.

Maybe I'll re-read Barchester Towers next.

My instinct while reading A Suitable Boy was to compare it to Middlemarch; I guess that was due to the sprawling scope of the book. As I finished Seth's book, two nights ago, I thought of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I was reminded of Okonkwo's decisions when I read of Lata's.

I don't want to 'give away the story,' but I felt Seth forced his plot along at several points -- particularly about three quarters of the way through, when Maan and Firoz speak to one another in Saeeda Bae's room. It read to me as if Seth had written himself into a rich world and then compromised the integrity of his characters in order to force the ending he'd originally intended to lead us to.

The best example I can think of is that, after 1200 pages of a limited omniscience in our narrator, Seth stops describing Lata's thoughts and emotions to us just as she's making the choice around which the entire book has been structured. I found this extremely disturbing, as if an intimate friend suddenly had developed a distant reserve toward me.

I agree with many of the reader comments here; when I finished this novel I felt bereft. Partly, though, that was because Seth withdrew the characters from me well before the book ended. Seeing Lata as a sort of sleepwalker rather than as an actively intelligent, emotional person was haunting. I felt she'd been beaten down. That's how she reminded me of Okonkwo, I guess. And I've been debating to myself, over the past two days, whether Seth would have intended her to come across that way.

Considered to be one of the seminal works of fiction in the Indian literary space, by sheer size this book definitely is foreboding to the average reader. It took me a few weeks to get through this tome. With all the hype and hoopla surrounding this book during the release about 10 years back , the end result was a marginal let down. To the authors credit, the reader never has to go through the page 15 syndrome, the reading is light throughout , the characters are well etched and there never is a moment when the events are overdrawn. There are very few books which describe post independence India very well and the choice of the period is definitely interesting, also rather than get stuck in a quagmire of "explaining" the depth of poverty, this book deals with a cross section of individuals who cut across various levels. Centered on a lady in a middle class family in small town India, the book comes a good circle from a family marriage to the marriage of the central character. You have a view of the cross section of society in Purva Pradesh (a fictional state in India - this could well have been Uttar Pradesh) , the upper echelons of society in Calcutta with a few characters from Delhi, Kanpur
The author tries hard at providing each character the depth and each chapter by itself stands out as a lesson in history with a backdrop of India struggling to live up to the ideals with which it had been conceived . We have a set of principled politicians , communal harmony and discord, the workings in a colonial firm bereft of the British, poetry, feudalism struggling against empowerment, nepotism and bureaucracy. Per-se this by itself is a fantastic achievement as somehow this is weaved into the core tale of finding a groom for Lata, and inevitably the links can be drawn back to the main theme.
You get a sense of the let down in the final pages of the book wherein I did feel that some of the events which led to the final outcome were a bit forced. For a book that was meandering for most like the river which is the thread to most of the settings , the last few events are a rush - a half baked assault , a choice of a groom which is badly explained and a lot of loose hanging threads. Had a strong feeling of fatigue in the storyline by the end. There are some unnecessary references to senior leaders like Nehru which seem to have been cut short and rather than lending to the storyline , stand out as unnecessary distractions
Nevertheless much of the book has ample charm and as I have already stated, this is a setting that is marked by optimism rather than pathos (which is the theme of most of the post-independence novels) and it does give a lot of insight into the society of the period. I'd still recommend the book in spite of the ending

Vikram Seth's first book, A Suitable Boy, is an epic tale of India, set in the turbulent period following independence and partition. Although extremely long, this is a book that never plods or bogs down. It takes a look at India through the lives of four very extended families, both Hindu and Moslem: the Mehras; the Kapoors, whose most prominent member, the charming if rather feckless Maan Kapoor, falls deeply in love with a Moslem singer and courtesan; the Khans, who are Moslem, and whose son Firoz is a close friend of Maan's, a friendship which eventually results in near-tragedy; and the Chatterjis a family of brilliant and highly Anglicized young men and women: Amit, the poet and novelist, Dipankar the would-be mystic, and Meenakshi and Kakoli, two beautiful and amoral sisters who continually exchange verse couplets with each other in a sort of verbal tennis match of wit. Rounding out the cast of characters are the families' friends, enemies, neighbors, servants, gurus and lovers. The central plot involves a love story that runs through the book like the Ganges.

The most fully-realized and emotionally-engaging character in A Suitable Boy is Mrs. Rupa Mehra. Based loosely on Seth's own grandmother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra has only one mission left in life: to arrange a proper marriage for her youngest daughter, Lata. In other words, she wishes to find Lata "a suitable boy." Mother and daughter are a generation apart in their ideas, but, surprisingly, they eventually do reach an agreement of sorts, and, as they do, they find that they are closer than they had ever imagined.

Mrs. Rupa Mehra, however, is a woman who is determined to take care of her family at any cost, to take care of them even if they do not wish to be taken care of. Seth sums her up this way, "Mrs. Rupa Mehra, torn between solicitude for Pran, concern for Savita, who was due to deliver any day now, and desperate anxiety on behalf of Lata, would have liked nothing better than to have an emotional breakdown. But the press of events would not allow it at present, and she therefore abstained." Mrs. Rupa Mehra, is indeed, a remarkable character, and not one that is soon forgotten. She is vividly drawn and seems to leap off the page with energy, vitality and wit.

A Suitable Boy is straightforward, no-frills storytelling. There are, mercifully, no verbal pyrotechnics here, no extended dream sequences, no magic realism or any of the other literary devices that can be so wonderful but only when employed by an author who really knows what he is doing. Seth wisely sticks to his story and the result is an almost-Victorian rendering. This is one of those books in which the author's "voice" is almost anonymous or silent and that is just as it should be. With a sprawling plot and a large cast of characters, a strong sense of "style" or "voice," sometimes so essential, would have only been an intrusion in a novel such as this.

One of the themes of A Suitable Boy is religious intolerance. In 1952, India was still recovering from the horrors of partition. Muslim Pakistan had separated from the sub-continent and Brahmpur, the invented city where much of the action of A Suitable Boy takes place, is involved in the construction of a Hindu temple adjacent to an existing mosque. In fact, the temple was deliberately erected on that very spot so that when the Muslims gather for their daily prayers and kneel to face Mecca, they will be forced to face Hindu idols as well, idols they, themselves, consider obscene. Seth, himself, has said that he has no sympathy for Hindu fanatics and considers A Suitable Boy to be a plea for religious tolerance in India.

Politics also plays a role in A Suitable Boy and Nehru, himself, makes a few appearances. The sections in which Seth does veer off into politics or religion are less successful than the sections that involve the four families directly. I was tempted to skip many of the more political sections of the book, but didn't. Another minor problem crops up in a certain vagueness about the language the characters are speaking. Although this might not seem to matter, it does matter and matters greatly because the characters, themselves, make much of it. Lata's very pompous brother Arun, for example, often scorns Haresh, Lata's husband-to-be, because his English is less than perfect, although Haresh has studied in England while Arun has never even been there. A delightful bit of irony.

Although not a perfect book, and one that, at times, could stand a little more smoothness, A Suitable Boy is a rich and panoramic look at India during a crucial time in her history as well as being a delightful and incisive novel that is well worth the time one must devote to its more than 1500 pages.

A Suitable Boy,what a book!The very first thing I liked about this book was the size.I was 16 at that time and hearda bout the book in a quiz where we had to tell who the author of the book was.Had no idea, even the name of the book seemd to be weird but later I found the book in the library.Those days I was in 10th grade so didn't have much studies to do and had enough time to sit and read a book,mostly in the nights before I go to sleep.It book was great because it took me deep into the very personal lives of the characters.The frustrations,and the tension of trying to keep up to the expectations of the elders.Also the problems in relationships.The beauty of losing one's heart to someone and the aftermath of the act.It gave a beautiful and very clear picture of India and Indians.All the traditions and customs of India.The grace and beauty of the clothes they where and the women with their jwellery.I could borrow the book for only a month and when I reached the 700th page it was time to return the book.Then came the tension of exams and making up for the chapters not revised.I never saw the book again and now I am too busy to track it down and finish reading it.One day when i will be too bored with my life and have easy time with myself.I will finish the book. It is a good book and seems to be very personal.Reflects the emotions and feeling and the dreams of every Indian.