A Suitable Boy

“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’!

Beautiful book but publisher Aleph is so damn irresponsible. Pages are missing by the dozens!

This is a unique book.It touches upon the society and political set up of those times and the personal lives of three individuals namely Lata Kabir and Haresh who represent different personalities.The end is extremely subtle It is a novel some what like Gone With The Wind.The author deserves full appreciation.

As Vikram Seth's Magnum Opus A Suitable Boy approached its 20th year, since first being published by Faber & Faber, the public's affection for this epical work still remains as strong as it ever did. Finally, after many years, I sat down to read this book, for which I had read so much praise. Neither with scepticism nor anticipation did I enter into this world conceived by Seth, before even turning to the first page, I fastidiously cleansed my mind of all prior knowledge, dismissing the reviews and the twittering of book lovers the world over, becoming a figurative virgin. Vikram Seth is quite an anomaly, particularly in this day and age, not just is he a novelist, but a poet, librettist, children's writer, memoirist and biographer. It is as if he's drifted from the pages of some 19th century novel, lost in the mists of time, and ended up here, in this age of ravenous vulgarity and mediocrity, to act as a sought of literary saviour. A Suitable Boy is set in Post-Independence and Post-Partition India; just as the country was entering into its first decade, free from foreign rule. It had been centuries since India had actually been fully independent, not truly since the days of the Gupta Dynasty, having just immediately gained independence from Britain, prior to that there were the Mughals, the Turks, the Mongols, but now India was finally ready to progress on its own. The book begins at a gently simmering pace, giving the reader ample time to absorb the characters in true depth, starting off with the wedding of Savita Mehra to Praan Kapoor, a university lecturer. No sooner has the wedding ended, that Mrs Rupra Mehra, the matriarch of the family, begins her search for a suitable boy for her youngest daughter Lata, who at 19 is determined not to have an arranged marriage, but to fall in love first. Lata is a girl who does not possess the preconceived prejudices of her mother, with regards to inter-religious marriage and class hierarchies; her aim is to fall in love and to experience the emotional euphoria and complexities that it brings. She has only ever read about true love in books, through the works of Jane Austin and Shakespeare et al, and also through her mother and late father's relationship. Lata ventures into an alien territory, where all previous poetical notions fly out of the window. She develops a fondness for Kabir, a cricket and literature enthusiast, who attends college with her in Brahmpur, then the inevitable happens, what first began as an awkward affection, quickly develops into a love, so deep and so penetrating. When Lata, and eventually her meddling mother find out Kabir is a Muslim, what begins as a pleasant courtship becomes clouded by upset and emotional conflictions. The inter-marriage of Hindus and Muhammedan's and vice-versa, was, and in parts of contemporary Indian society still remains, a cause of much confliction. Vikram Seth's writing is reminiscent of Jane Austin and in parts Dickens's, yet the overall style is entirely his own, and though the central thread of the novel is marriage, Seth also concentrates on the political and societal upheavals experienced by all Indians at that time in microscopic detail, regardless of class. No one could not possibly accuse Seth of producing a novel of perfumed frivolity, because there is so much depth and sensitivity, A Suitable Boy is not just about the pursuit of marriage and happiness, but heartache and disappointment, which is universal. Throughout its sprawling 1474 pages, there was no emotion left unexplored, no character left misunderstood and with not even a hint of saccharine. No other novelist could possibly give so much scope to such a complex world. Reading this at 25, my empathy and attachment magnetically drew towards the younger characters Lata, Kabir, Varun, Maan and so on. It was for Kabir in particularly that I felt an immense affection for, a true brotherly love developed as this character, so in love, so intelligent and so sweet unfolded as I read each page. I felt his deep-rooted love for Lata burning in his soul, like a raging forest fire, growing and becoming ever more intense. There was such beauty in his use of poetic lines, lifted from the pages of Keats and Byron. Here was a lyrical and sensitive individual, who through societal and personal circumstances was forced to experience a heart ache, never felt before. The novel matures with each chapter, the quest for love continues, and the many characters have to face their own demons and desires head on. A Suitable Boy is a novel which will stay with me for a long time; holding a special place in my heart, I will continue to remember these characters for many years to come.

Spellbinding

WOW! Just W.O.W! It’s a long book—1,500 pages. And every single page was worth the time I spent on it and more. After many years, I sat down to read this book for which I had read so much praise. I enter into this world created by Seth with great anticipation even before even turning to the first page The book is a snapshot of life in India in the 1950's. Set in the post-independence, post-partition era in India, the novel follows the story of four intertwined families over a period of 18 months as a mother searches for a suitable groom for her daughter. It takes us into a splendidly imagined world of highly extended multi-cultured families and creates for us an accurate and compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. The ghazals and the lovely long letters add a sparkling touch to the novel. The couplets that the Chatterjis fling back and forth are frequently funny The research put in by the author is simply incredible. The story is so engrossing, each character so completely developed and believable, that is it hard to move on once you turn the last page. I secretly wished that the novel never ends. The characters were so real, that you miss them as if they were a part of your life. An absolute masterpiece of prose.

The font size is small and given the length of this book it can prove to be tiresome. But this factor does not undermine the magnificent work by Vikram Seth.

Good