Book Review #17: A Suitable Boy By Vikram Seth

This book is a complete challenge for the readers. Massive in its appearance and thousands of pages makes this book as the longest novel ever written by an Indian author in the 20th century in a single volume. Story ranging from activities of political parties from the post-independence time in India, the Zamindari abolition bill in the parliament, the shoe manufacturing process, cricket, poetry, triangular love stories, family sentiments, etc., etc, etc,.. you name it, you will have it in this book.

Vikram Seth, the author of this book A Suitable Boy, made his readers spellbound with this amazing book. Spread across 1500+ pages, it is difficult for any readers to keep track of the story. Personally, I felt, this is challenging for me to read. I often felt like stopping reading this book because I was getting bored at times. Nevertheless, It kept me going page after page and it took me almost 3 weeks to complete this book.

As the title of the book says, the story of the book is about finding A Suitable Boy (or groom) for the heroine of our novel Lata Mehra. This is one side of the novel, which never loses track of the readers. Apart from this, there are stories about the political activities of all political parties especially congress after the Indian Independence. There is also stories of Poetry, Spirituality, Cricket, Shoe manufacturing process, University proceedings, Court drama, Parliament meetings, Hindu-Muslim riots, love, revenge, sex, songs etc..

It is a lifetime experience to read such books. It is a tedious job to write a review even. It is always good if you read the physical copy of this book rather than going for a digital copy. The joy in reading this book by holding it in your hands is priceless. Going page after page will give you immense pleasure and a sense of satisfaction that you are bound to achieve something.

Before setting the plot for the novel, Author had given an introduction of the all the characters and the family tree of the characters. Since, the novel involves around 40 characters and almost 5 families which intertwined in the novel deeply. It is certainly expected of the readers to forget some of the family connection at the beginning of the novel. Readers can always go back and refer to the family tree to keep track of the persons and their relationship with another person in the novel.

The plot opens when Mrs. Rupa Mehra is conducting the marriage ceremony of her elder daughter Savita Mehra with Pran Kapoor, the son of Mr. Mahesh Kapoor, the then revenue minister of Purva Pradesh.

As the story further reveals in further sections, various characters unfolds in front of us. It is best not to mention those characters in this review, otherwise the review itself will go to many number of pages.

As the novel progresses, Mrs. Rupa Mehra is in a search of a suitable boy for her younger daughter Lata Mehra. But, Lata was already in love with a Muslim boy called Kabir Durrani, the university cricket player, the son of Dr. Durrani, the mathematician. Reluctantly, Lata agrees to see all the boys that her mother proposes in front of her. Among these, Amit Chaterjee from the Chaterjee family, a successful poet, but always moody. Another person, is Haresh Khanna, a confident young man, who is a foreman in a shoe manufacturing company. The story revolves around these 3 people and the book keeps the surprising part of who will Lata agree to marry.

As we go deep into the novel, Author introduces us to a lot various sub stories, which includes politics, riots, Hindu-Muslim fights, Abolition of Zamindari Bill, Friendship, Murder, love interests, prostitutes, shoe manufacturing process, cricket match, parliament sessions, animal hunting, general elections, Nehru's resignation from Congress and rejoining phase, Poetry, deaths, pilgrimage, spirituality and what not. One must not skip even a single page from this novel. Sometimes, readers may feel like, this is a never ending book, but, you will cherish every minute you spend on reading this book.

Whatever can be written about this book is still very less according to me. This is simply the magnum-opus of Indian fiction literature in English. Recommended for everyone who is keen to read such novels.

My Rating: 5/5