El's Reviews > A Suitable Boy

For Thanksgiving 2010 I spent the day finishing up Infinite Jest. For a while there I thought maybe I'd always try to finish up some sort of behemoth on Thanksgiving day, since the day to me means staying in my jammies and watching The Godfather on TV while I read. The food involved can easily be made while reading or the Boyfriend steps up and makes the yummies. But then last year I went with a a shorter book choice which I was able to read all on Thanksgiving. Boy, was that a mistake.

But then it so happened that I wasn't able to finish this book when I had anticipated (which was about a month ago), so it wound up getting to be close to Thanksgiving. Could I finish it off on Turkey Day? You challenging me??

Yeah, I finished it today. And it feels good. It's a different kind of feeling than what I experienced with Infinite Jest. A Suitable Boy is another whopper of a book, but even the parts I didn't necessarily understand still made more sense to me than most parts of Infinite Jest. Infinite Jest was work, albeit a fun flavor of work most of the time. A Suitable Boy felt like I was in a different country (hello, India!), totally immersed in the culture.

When I get right down to it, that's what I have loved about A Suitable Boy - the flavor dripping from each page. This isn't just a story; it's an experience. The reader experiences the music, the food, the costumes, the scents, the emotions, the politics, and the family dynamics. I can't remember the last time I read a book with so many layers. I started out reading this alongside Freedom at Midnight, hoping that book would help me understand some of the politics I didn't know much about going into it. And it did, probably more than I had originally expected.

At first my biggest question was why Seth decided to write a book about the Republic of India in 1952, when it seems the logical (maybe laziest? easiest?) starting point should have been 1947, during the Partition. But then a couple things became obvious to me. One was that 1952 was an important year too, it was an election year. Anyone who pays attention to politics in our own country knows just how important an election year is, and just how effing crazy everything gets. That's not exclusive just to the United States. Now imagine it's the first national election after gaining independence. Yeah, that sounds crazy-making.

The other thing that became obvious was what I read in the author bio at the beginning of the book (which, for some reason, I didn't read at first). Vikram Seth himself was born 1952. Now, maybe that's just a coincidence, but maybe it's not. Maybe Seth was writing his own personal history in these 1400+ pages. It's evident to me he poured his heart and soul into this work. Seems to me this was an important novel for him to write. Makes sense to me.

Somewhere in all this political turmoil and unrest is a love story, or a few different love stories. There's a huge genealogy here - the family tree at the beginning of the book helps considerably, but an understanding of the entire tree is not completely necessary in enjoying the book. The chapters flow by easily, it's not a difficult read, aside from the fact that the book itself breaks your wrists as you hold it. As one reads, the genealogy comes together on its own. My point is, don't stress about it.

I was most invested in Lata's story since that's where the title comes from and also I am a girl and sometimes find myself drawn towards other girls in literature. Lata and I have had completely different upbringings and family dynamics, but I can still relate to her on some level. She's an interesting character, and I believe she's the first woman in her family to have a sense of - and desire for - independence. Finding 'a suitable boy' and getting married is not her goal in life, not at this point. She's educated, going to college, she gets a part in a school play, she has some love interest(s), she's doing her own thing. She's doing her.

But society isn't ready for that. With all of the changes the society is going through, fully independent women is not quite where it is yet in 1952. Lata's family isn't thrilled with it and ultimately Lata needs to make a decision with how she will proceed.

Seth makes it all seem absolutely riveting. I don't know what else to say.

Rumor has it (although I think it's beyond rumor stage at this point) that Seth is working on a sequel, A Suitable Girl. If it's anything as wonderful as A Suitable Boy I think we're all in for a treat. If, however, as I fear, he's just banking on the popularity of A Suitable Boy... then it could be quite the loser and snoozer. But he's won me over with this one and I will be excited to see what comes next. And, because I'm a serious nerd, I hope it's as much a whopper of a book as this one.

"Oh, I don't know how it grew to be so long," said Amit. "I'm very undisciplined. 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. But if they're good, I turn into a social moron for days, refusing to go out of my room, scowling and growling at interruptions, ignoring weddings and funerals, and making enemies out of friends. I still bear the scars of Middlemarch."
(p 1370-71)