A Suitable Boy: A Novel (Modern Classics)
by Vikram Seth
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Book Summary Information
Author: Vikram SethEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-04
ISBN: 0060786523
Number of pages: 1488
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Book Reviews of A Suitable Boy: A Novel (Modern Classics)
Book Review: It's a Book, Not an Elephant
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of A Suitable Boy: A Novel (Modern Classics)
Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find -- through love or through exacting maternal appraisal -- a suitable boy for Lata to marry. Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.
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