A Suitable Boy

There are some books which I pick up as soon as I hear of them and there are others which sit on the must-read shelf for a while before they graduate to the currently-reading category. Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy falls in the latter category. It had been on my radar for many years but its tome-like length had deterred me. At almost 1400 pages, it is 3-4 times the length of an average novel. Two reasons motivated me to finally pick up this book. One, considering its stature in the world of books, I felt I needed to read it to truly own the 'well-read' tag that is often attached to me. Two, in the last couple of years I have read Seth's novel-in-verse Golden Gate and fiction, An Equal Music and both of which are lodged in my books to read before you die list.

At the core of it, A Suitable Boy is the story of Lata's search for her ideal life partner. Why does Seth take 1400 pages to do this you wonder? Austen found suitable boys for all Bennett sisters in quarter the amount of time. That's because Seth delves into great detail in the back story of Lara, her mother, her siblings, their spouses, their spouses' parents and siblings, love interests of those said siblings, siblings of the said love interests...I could go on but I don't want to do a Seth.

It was a stretch of my patience to finish the book and I have to ask myself why I did not give up. Partly because while the storytelling is tiresome the story itself is engaging. But, mostly because Seth managed to harvest my interest in his protagonist and I wanted to know who Lata chooses to walk off into the sunset with. Though, I must admit I am disappointed in the author's practical, well-reasoned choice for his heroine. Practical decisions are appropriate in real life, I want the heroines of novels to leap out and grab the opportunities that my real life concerns don't allow me to. Unfortunately, Seth does not agree. He is not a romantic.

My biggest grouse about the storytelling is his need to take the reader into the head of every character including the most inconsequential ones like the Lara's brother's wife's father's assistant. Seriously? Seriously! Why? Why? Why does Seth do it I ask myself through the five months that it tales me to finish the book. I lament about it to every person who asks me about my current reading. I get the answer after I finish reading, when I go back to the start and read the dedication pages. On the page before the story starts the author has reproduced two quotes by Voltaire:

The superfluous, that very necessary thing...
And,
The secret of being a bore is to say everything.

Aah! Now it all makes sense. Lesson learnt, note to self: Read every book cover to cover...literally!