A Suitable Boy by
Vikram Seth
My rating:
4 of 5 stars
This was like an Indian
War and Peace . Spanning a large cast of characters, with Lata at the center, we follow the early years of India's independence and Partition of Inida and Pakistan. I learned so much about India's history while being very vested in who Lata would choose to marry: the Muslim boy she meets at school and has an immediate and intense connection with; the boy whom her mother has chosen who is in the same caste as they are, is ambitious and works in a shoe factory; or the brother of one of her sister-in-laws who comes from a slightly higher caste and is a well-know poet and aspiring novelist. Amongst this dilemma Seth interweaves the politics of Muslim and Hindu relations, both politically and religiously, describing house debates and various religious observances. Music, poetry, drama, and gardens are a large part of these lives. Also, surprisingly, a lot of talk about shoe making.... But also purdah, caste, and the role of the different languages are explored. There is love, passion, bromance, riots, attempted murder, garden parties, weddings, well, it's long enough to cover about everything. Despite its length, not everything is tied up, but the major questions are answered, even if it's not quite what I wished. Although it took me most of the summer to read it, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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"What I meant was that you're in a completely different element. All your movements are different--and, as a result, all your thoughts..."
He did not understand her but he was not understanding.
"They say he takes Rama's name all day. Why does he do so?"
"Wood burns when rubbed and rubbed till it gives you the light you desire."
When she wanted a handyman, she seized upon any man who was handy.
What, she asked herself, had happened in one generation that of her three children, only one continued to believe in what their forefathers had believed for hundreds, indeed thousands, of years?
Sooner or later, what does not bend will snap.
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
