A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

An intimidating book (nearly 1500 oversized pages) and a long story about the intertwining lives of many of the members of four Indian families. In particular, the story centers around the marriage possibilities for Lata, a young college student, for whom her mother is attempting to find an appropriate mate. Set in the early '50s, after India has gained its independence from British rule, some of the contradictions presented in the book, such as Hindu vs. Muslim relations, were culturally interesting, although I don't know how accurately depicted. My lack of knowledge about Indian holidays, words and customs didn't detract from the story and, despite my ignorance, I still found most of the book captivating.

Full of poetry and music (many of the characters are musicians, and there is even one poet among Lata's suitors), I was naturally entranced by those details. Even though I have a soft spot for all things poetic, I wasn't blinded by them. Unfortunately, I felt that these details made almost all of the characters seem overly academic or scholarly which, in turn, gave the story a pretentious air. I simply didn't believe it.

Written in nineteen parts, further divided into smaller subchapters, reminiscent of Dickens or any other serializer, the book was easy to digest. Nonetheless, it was too long. Some of the events and characters in the story felt superfluous, that is, they didn't advance the story, especially many of the younger characters who seemed to only be around for ambiance or to give the reader a semblance of dimension. The writing wasn't exceptionally beautiful and, although I was happy to read song lyrics and poems sprinkled throughout the book, even though they weren't especially poignant, the rest of the writing seemed bland in comparison.