A SUITABLE BOY

A perfect read for a bookworm.Why should you buy this book?If you like to float with the story, indulde in long paragraphs, don't mind skipping even the minute details and most importantly want to know about the post independence era of India, this book is for you.Vikram Seth has just painted everything in words and it was such a delight for 5 months to read this book bit by bit.Why shouldn't you buy this book?If you are :Not a patient readerDespise long storyCare more about conclusion than the story itself.Some people have complained that this book is voluminous. I don't understand what's the problem with that. If you don't have a habit of reading voluminous book, at least, don't criticise and discourage avid readers to buy this book. Please, don't compare the publication with hindi edition.

"𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔: 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆. 𝑰𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚'𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒖𝒑 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒔."“A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth’s is the story of Lata and her mother Mrs Rupa Mehra finding her a groom and also about the four families i.e. the Mehras, the Kapoors, the Khans and the Chatterjis and many other characters such as Kabir and Saeeda Bai and Malati. The beauty of this book is how detailed everything has been described, be it the streets of Kolkata or the different process of shoe making or the election campaign or how each of the characters has expressed their feelings. Though sometimes I just wanted to skip some parts but I couldn’t.Set in the early 1950s, the story also talks about political, legal, religious, cultural, social facets of India during that time through the families. The clashes between the modern and traditional values, Hinduism and Islamic, Eastern and Western cultures and many. A lot of things have been portrayed which made the story more real such as the Zamindari Abolition Bill, the riots, the partition of Congress, the Brahmpur Mela and more.Of all the characters I liked Amit, Pran and Malati the most. I liked how Amit took time out to take Lata around Kolkata where no normal would go, his observations towards people, his affection towards his siblings. He knew what he wanted and he followed his heart instead of following ancestors' footsteps. And Pran is the kind of guy who pranks on his mother in law and wife on april fool’s day and accepts whatever his mother says, a big supporter to his sister in law and to his wrecking brother too. And Malati is the perfect best friend, a bright student, outspoken who keeps interest in politics too who wouldn’t love her.

“Re-read your favourite books at different stages of your life. The plot never changes but your perspective does.” I’m not sure who said this but the maxim resonated with me as I re-read Vikram Seth’s “A Suitable Boy” after more than two decades.The book is set in a newly independent India that is still recovering from the trauma of partition while also dealing with tough issues like land reforms and communal strife. The story follows four families for about eighteen months in the early 1950s – the Mehras, the Kapoors, the Chatterjis who are all linked through marriage and the Khans who are close friends of the Kapoors. The fictional north Indian town of Brahmpur along the river Ganga is the capital of the fictional state of Purva Pradesh, and this is where the Mehras, Kapoors and Khans live, while the Chatterjis are in Calcutta. A narrative thread that brings these families and the events in the book together is the search for ‘a suitable boy’ by Mrs. Rupa Mehra for her nineteen-year-old daughter Lata Mehra. Lata has three young men who are wooing her and she must “choose”.The story without doubt is appealing. But what really kept me engrossed is Vikram Seth’s writing. His easy yet eloquent prose, with just that right tinge of humour, is interspersed with lyrical verse. In fact, the contents page has rhyming couplets to mark the nineteen parts of the book. There’s an abundance of evocative detail for every scene, nuance, emotion - be it a romantic boat ride to Barsaat Mahal, a first kiss, crowds at the Pul Mela, breakfast banter at the eccentric Chatterji household, dusty villages of rural Rudhia, an intimate garden music concert, or the rough and tumble of India’s first general election campaign. The ambiance envelopes you each time, like you are actually there. The writing itself is never in a hurry yet the book is completely engaging, a page-turner.There are no heroes or villains just people who have hopes, expectations, vulnerabilities, and cannot be slotted into stereotypes. Seth’s engagement with his characters is empathetic, sensitive, and at times even fondly indulgent - as it often is with Rupa Mehra who easily swings from bouts of tearful self-pity to being determined and practical! Mahesh Kapoor is a balanced, well liked politician but pretty dismissive of his wife’s views. There’s the lively charming Lata trying to make sense of her own complex emotions and Maan Kapoor who is exasperating and endearing. Saeeda Bai is as independent and strong, as she is vulnerable. Lata’s three suitors, markedly different in their sensibilities, are all likeable young men. The Chatterji siblings are insensitive at times but the delightfully inane couplets they come up with every once in a while, simply to irritate or annoy each other, more than makes up for it!“Buy me before good sense insists, you’ll strain your purse and sprain your wrists”, says Seth to the reader in a rhymed ‘word of thanks’. The book did not strain my purse but holding up 1535 pages – my wrists certainly hurt and so did my neck. But I’m not complaining. I wish I was still reading ‘A Suitable Boy’!

I am pleased and slightly relieved to have finished this widely acclaimed masterwork. As an English man born and bred in the West Midlands I grew up with the vanishing ghost of Empire and the growing presence of Indian populations in my neighbourhood. Although I worked with, and was acquainted with both Hindu and Muslim people, my own background, my father stemming from South Australian stock, was largely white imperial English. I was curious about but largely ignorant of the conventions and mores of my Indian friends and colleagues.This book, while casting light in areas hitherto obscure to me, served at least as much as a reminder of my depth of ignorance in so much. The author clearly comes from the upper class of Indian society, and his insights and wit are most clear in that direction. Even so, he covers the poorer classes and those at the pinnacle of the pecking order with sensitive perception which appears to authentic.Despite the alien and now historic nature of the setting, the book dwells mostly on the eternal subjects of love, jealousy, hope, and despair which trouble the lives of all of us. In this way it fits in the canon of literature in English alongside Shakespeare, Austen, and Dickens. In common with those writers the author illuminates the unfamiliar with the searchlight of the universal.I understand that this book is one which, together with other such monumental tomes such as Proust's great work is most often claimed to have been read by those who were unable to finish it. I'm not surprised. Certainly for me, the multiplicity of unfamiliar names made keeping track of the cast of characters difficult. I found myself needing to refresh my memory as characters who had been absent for long passages suddenly popped back into view. The distinction between Muslim and Hindu names was obscure to me though clearly obvious to those familiar with Indian society. Various Indian words, most of them foreign to me, peppered the text. I was glad of the Kindle facility to highlight words which are then displayed in the dictionary or Wikipedia. Mostly.All in all, a great work of English literature which offers an insight into the recent history of Indian patrician society and thus into the attitudes, values, and prejudices of their contemporary descendants.

I read this when it came out, and returned to it at the start of lockdown. It's fantastic.It is, at its core, the story of Mrs Rupa Mehra's hunt for a husband (a suitable boy) for her daughter, Lata.It's also the story of the Mehra family, the Chatterjis, the Kapoors and the Khans. It's the story of the modern generation trying to find their way in the world, it's the story of Hindu/Muslim tensions, of the world's largest democracy learning how to be, a story of shoe making, of the perfect mango, of the tensions between town and country. It's the story of India at its birth.It's immersive and beautiful and wise and true and funny and sad and angry and a celebration of life. It's extraordinary. If you want something to take you out of lockdown and into a riot of sights, sounds, smells and tastes, this is the book to do it. If you don't read it now, when will you?

So undecided about this book. I've loved it and hated it in equal measure. I'm 80 percent through and I'm reading something else because I felt I needed a break from it. The story is slow, which has its merits, allowing you to really get to know tge characters and submerge yourself in post partition India, but it's also meandering and pointless at times. All the legal stuff is interesting, but would be more so if we weren't subjected to a blow by blow account of it. Most readers are able to join the dots for themselves or research bits that we don't understand. Boring, repetitive detail doesn't help me understand or peak my interest about land reform. It's so dry on places it's like someone else wrote it. I will go back and finish, just as soon as I shake the annoyance I feel about this author ruining great characterisation with needless detail.

In the literature of the world there are a few number of books, that although a novel as such are ultimately more than one. Of course, Tolstoy’s War and Peace is the most famous example, but there are others, and this book arguably falls into that category.Vikram Seth was inspired by the Chinese classic The Story of the Stone, and the story takes place at the beginning of the Fifties, where India has become independent, but because of Partition is not a whole entity as in the past. There are also some semi-autobiographical elements to this, such as the author’s father and mother, the former being an executive for a shoe company, and the latter a barrister and then high court judge, and the author’s own bullying at school. Including the story of four families there is of course at the heart of this nineteen-year-old Lata, and the determination of her mother to find a suitable boy for her to marry.Lata, a student wants to be independent and make her own choices, but of course there is the sad fact that in India, and indeed a number of other countries, marriage is decided by many families concerned rather than by the actual couple who are going to get wed. So there is the desire for obviously the same religious background, the same caste and suitable prospects. What we have added to this tale is of course India at this period of history, with its politics, its struggles and flashpoints, along with religion and the caste system. This produces a melting point to which our main tale is woven over the top. Although one of the longest single novels in the English language it does not actually feel like it, as the story becomes so engrossing that you are soon swept up and avidly want to read more.There is a lot to take in here what with the main cast, and then a series of others who wander in and out of the tale; so we have political as well as legal scenes, the fighting between Hindus and Muslims, and the powerful description of a crush at a religious ceremony, which results in a number of deaths. Within the main families here we get to know them, the family secrets and adulterous affairs, the deaths and illnesses as well as the births that take place. This does contain some comedy and satire, as there are some rather biting scenes taking in snobbery, the caste system, and the differences that people force upon themselves with their bigotry.So this is a novel, where we find out who Lata is going to have to marry, and whether she will have a say in the decision, and also something more, as this gives us a realistic glimpse into India at this time, and indeed the struggles it is still attempting to overcome. There is poetry here, songs, the whole maelstrom that is India, as well as the arts, culture and literature of the country, making this not only a great book to read, but one that takes you to this most exciting of countries and makes you feel that you are there. This is the first time I have read this, but it will not be last, as it is such a wonderfully absorbing book and story.

Its a few days since I finished a suitable boy and I am missing reading it, always a sign of a good book. I can read a novel easily in a couple of nights and this took me a month to read and I loved every page of it. As with all the best stories it takes a while to work out just who is who and in this case, as it's about the fortunes of three quite large Indian families, perhaps a little more perseverance is needed than is usual. But when you get to know them, and believe me you do over such a long read, you care very much about their fates. If you love reading well written, thoughtful books that cover just about every situation in life, love, grief, loss etc you will adore this book and remember it for ever. It's also a great insight into another culture and time in history as it is set in 1948.Only one tiny criticism. Seth quite rightly uses a lot of Indian vocabulary and you can guess from the context what he means but a large number of them are missing from the, usually excellent, Kindle dictionary and I would have liked a precise definition at times.