Book Review

[kenjari]

A Suitable Boy
by Vikram Seth

At nearly 1500 pages, this is one of the longest books I have ever read - it took a little over a month. However, it is an extremely good novel. Set in 1950s India, it chronicles the fortunes of four families inter-related by marriage and friendship: the Mehras, Kapoors, Khans, and Chatterjis. The central plot of the book is the efforts to find a "suitable boy" for Lata Mehra to marry. But there are a lot of other things going on in the book concerning the personal lives of the numerous characters and the political events of newly-independent India. It's a fascinating book, filled with characters who are incredibly lifelike. My sister, who also read A Suitable Boy said sitting down to read it was like having a visit with friends, and she is absolutely right. I got to know these people as I would people in my own life.

Comments

[epilimnion.livejournal.com]

I found too, that in the weeks after I finished the book, I missed the characters almost like real people. I would occassionally wonder to myself "I wonder how Lata's doing..."