If you enjoy inhabiting the pages of a novel, I can recommend Suitable Boy most highly.
Set in 1951 and 52 a few years after Partition. I knew nothing about Partition until a few years ago. When Britain left India, the area was divided into Indian (for Hindus) and Pakistan (for Muslims) - a vast oversimplification. It was one of the largest refugee movements in history and accompanied by horrible violence. It is not vividly described on the book, but is one of the important contexts of the novel.
The story revolves around 4 families and their interactions. It is also a panoramic mural of many different aspects of Indian life on the 50’s, from the very poorest rural and city dwellers to the rich and powerful. Settings are beautifully imagined.
I did not care for the long sections about the Congress, and skimmed those. I can see why the author included them since politics was key to understanding some of the characters and their motivations.
Watch the BBC’s Suitable Boy on Amazon to psyche yourself for this read. Director Mira Nair studied the places described in the book and created sets which I will never forget. But only watch the first 2 episodes before reading the novel! You will fall in love with Lata.
SB is an undertaking for a reader at 1300 pages. You may need to take breaks as I did. It was so worth it.
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Perfect 👍🏻
I love books on Audible because you can set the playback speed to your liking, it was very well spoken and it was a good book.
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Fantastic Book - Very Fast Delivery
Reviewed in Canada on February 23, 2024Kindle Customer Paula
All Life is Here
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2023Shoba Raja
Re-read after two decades and loved it!
Reviewed in India on March 27, 2021
Shoba Raja
Reviewed in India on March 27, 2021
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’!
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N. Rey
One of the best novels ever written
Reviewed in Germany on November 27, 2019