Product Description

Vikram Seth's novel is at its core a love story, the tale of Lata - and her mother's attempts to find her a suitable husband, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. Set in post-Independence India and involving the lives of four large families and those who orbit them, it is also a vast panoramic exploration of a whole continent at a crucial hour as a sixth of the world's population faces its first great General Election and the chance to map its own destiny. 'A SUITABLE BOY may prove to be the most fecund as well as the most prodigious work of the latter half of this century - perhaps even the book to restore the serious reading public's faith in the contemporary novel ... You should make time for it. It will keep you company for the rest of your life' Daniel Johnson, The Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2311 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 1504 pages

Synopsis
Vikram Seth's novel is at its core a love story, the tale of Lata - and her mother's attempts to find her a suitable husband, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. Set in post-Independence India and involving the lives of four large families and those who orbit them, it is also a vast panoramic exploration of a whole continent at a crucial hour as a sixth of the world's population faces its first great General Election and the chance to map its own destiny. 'A SUITABLE BOY may prove to be the most fecund as well as the most prodigious work of the latter half of this century - perhaps even the book to restore the serious reading public's faith in the contemporary novel ...You should make time for it. It will keep you company for the rest of your life' Daniel Johnson, The Times

About the Author
Vikram Seth was born in 1952. He trained as an economist and has lived for several years each in England, California, China and India. He is the author of A Suitable Boy, which was an international number one bestseller, An Equal Music and several other novels. He has also written five volumes of poetry including Beastly Tales.

Customer Reviews

Needlessly long with non directional plot
This review will probably go against the grain but I bought this book on the premise that it was an award winning, must read and had not heard a bad thing said about the book. Being a bit of a book worm it didn't take as long to read as I initially thought it would, but I did find the story was more long winded than required. There was no discernable plot as the story just meandered through various sub plots that never quite ended satisfactorily. The abrupt ending did an injustice to the marathon reading effort it takes to work your way through it. Nevertheless, the amusing characters and rich use of language were enjoyable though overall I feel this was a pointless story with no plot development which I can't bring myself to recommend to anyone else.

GREAT!
This book was amazing! The start was a little slow but once you get into it and get familiar with the characters, you really start to enjoy it. I did skip a few pages here and there, (probably 5-10 in total) but it didnt take anything away from the story. Finishing the entire book feels like such an accomplishment but you begin to miss the characters and wish the book was longer.

A Suitable Boy
I found 'A Suitable Boy' to be a slow starter, but once you get going you'll be hooked. I found the first 300 hundred, or so, pages quite frustrating as I was waiting for something to happen, but then I settled into the story and realised that this was a meandering tale of family dynamics and the bonds of society. Once you realise that this book will not have huge shocks and intrigue the whole way through, but rather the gentle telling of lives and how they are intertwined with the odd moment of suspense or excitement, then you will become completely engrossed and compelled to return to this book at every given moment. The writing isn't stunningly beautiful (like In Arundhati Roys 'God Of Small Things', which I highly recommend if you enjoyed this) , but it's simplicity keeps you hooked to the story told, which may be more important in a book of this length. This is a big book and it will take some time to get through, but every moment is worthwhile and the journey is more important than the ending, so take your time and enjoy it. Well worth a read.