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A Suitable Boy A Novel Modern Classics Vikram Seth Books

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A Suitable Boy A Novel Modern Classics Vikram Seth Books

As usual, we have the range of diametrically opposing reviews here on Amazon: people who loved the book, people who hated it. That simply demonstrates that different things appeal to different people. So which are you, the reader who has yet to take on this large book?

I can offer only a hint, which is this: if you love long Russian novels, with their slow development of plot and characters, and immensely detailed stories, then you will very likely fall in love with this book, as I did. I'm not a big Tolstoy fan - I find he has too little compassion for his characters - but I love Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov - a huge, sprawling novel very like this one - remains one of the half dozen books that I'd choose if I were stuck on a desert island.

By around page 6 of this book I had fallen in love with both the writing style and all the characters, and when it was finally completed I felt like I had been cut off from a family. I never wanted this book to end, and it is still one of my favorite novels, one that a couple of years ago I read aloud to my wife over several weeks (she loved it also). The comparisons of Seth with the great Russian novelists are, for me, not at all misplaced: A Suitable Boy is a major literary achievement. The writing is perfectly balanced, the narrative brilliantly constructed, and the plot is a rich, multi-dimensional story spanning long periods and painted across the broad, evocative canvas that is post-Partition India.

If you're still in doubt about whether it's for you, read the first 15 or 20 pages... if you find it slow or otherwise not for you, go elsewhere. But if you love the writing of those opening pages, I can pretty much guarantee that you will love the rest of this remarkable, utterly satisfying novel.


Tags : Amazon.com: A Suitable Boy: A Novel (Modern Classics) (8601400260784): Vikram Seth: Books,Vikram Seth,A Suitable Boy: A Novel (Modern Classics),Harper Perennial Modern Classics,0060786523,Historical,Literary,Domestic fiction,India - History - 1947-,India;History;1947-;Fiction.,Love stories,1947-,FICTION General,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Coming of Age,Fiction-Literary,GENERAL,General Adult,History,INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH,India,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),United States

A Suitable Boy A Novel Modern Classics Vikram Seth Books Reviews

I absolutely cannot say enough about this book. If first read it about five years ago, and, as I'm sure you will be, I approached it as a little bit of a challenge. As many people have commented, this book is so long its almost hard to hold, but as I got to the last few hundred pages, I kept wishing that there would be more and more and more. I never wanted to stop reading it. I read a lot of novels in a year, but very few have stuck with me the way this one has. Just say the words "A Suitable Boy" and I am transported back into the lives of the main characters, and I still get emotional over the choice the Lata makes.

Many reviewers have also commented about how this is a sprawling family drama, which almost doesn't do justice to the way you, the reader, infiltrate these characters' lives, and that you learn an awful lot about Indian history. That is very true, and in fact, I think I know more about 1950's India, and Indian history in general, from reading this book than I do from a class I took in college on the subject, but A Suitable Boy isn't a history book. Seth doesn't wonder away from the story for a not-so-brief lecture on the history of land rights in India, he weaves these social and political concerns so effortlessly into the backdrop of this story that you're almost surprised in the end by how much you've learned.

So if you're on the fence, not really sure if it's too long, or too dense, or if you're not a history or Indian culture buff, stop worrying. This book has something for absolutely everyone, and will make you love each and every one of the characters. From the moment Lata's mother declares she intends to find a husband for her daughter, to the very last page, you will be completely enthralled by this world.
This is a long book (1500 pages), and I approached it thinking I would put it down after 100 pages or so. But to my surprise I was plunged into the world of these four families and I carried this VERY heavy book with me everywhere (including to China). Others have compared the book to Dickens, but I kept thinking of Jane Austen (who is mentioned at one point in the novel). As in Austen, the business of getting married is central to the book, and the juxtaposition of being suitable in terms of money, class, and romance is central. But A Suitable Boy is also like Austen in the sharp-eyed social satire that appears time and again. Many scenes unfold with wit and surprise. Academics, social climbing and over-sentimental mothers, effete sophisticates who have little notion of how they would get on in the world without family money yet are quick to criticize those who make their way on their own, grasping, selfish, shallow young wives -- all come under Vikram Seth's microscope. I loved this book. My wife looked at me dubiously as I brought it with me everywhere and declared she would not read such a long tome, then found that she too was carrying it everywhere because she wanted to read more and more about these fascinating families. Read it!
As usual, we have the range of diametrically opposing reviews here on people who loved the book, people who hated it. That simply demonstrates that different things appeal to different people. So which are you, the reader who has yet to take on this large book?

I can offer only a hint, which is this if you love long Russian novels, with their slow development of plot and characters, and immensely detailed stories, then you will very likely fall in love with this book, as I did. I'm not a big Tolstoy fan - I find he has too little compassion for his characters - but I love Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov - a huge, sprawling novel very like this one - remains one of the half dozen books that I'd choose if I were stuck on a desert island.

By around page 6 of this book I had fallen in love with both the writing style and all the characters, and when it was finally completed I felt like I had been cut off from a family. I never wanted this book to end, and it is still one of my favorite novels, one that a couple of years ago I read aloud to my wife over several weeks (she loved it also). The comparisons of Seth with the great Russian novelists are, for me, not at all misplaced A Suitable Boy is a major literary achievement. The writing is perfectly balanced, the narrative brilliantly constructed, and the plot is a rich, multi-dimensional story spanning long periods and painted across the broad, evocative canvas that is post-Partition India.

If you're still in doubt about whether it's for you, read the first 15 or 20 pages... if you find it slow or otherwise not for you, go elsewhere. But if you love the writing of those opening pages, I can pretty much guarantee that you will love the rest of this remarkable, utterly satisfying novel.