A Suitable Boy

I don't even know what to say anymore, it's been more than a year. Wow. Anyway, thank you for reading this (come on, it's not like most of you have anything to do anyway!)

Anyway, this is a fantastic book. Vikram Seth is now one of my favourite authors (I tried to review The Golden Gate but all I could write was basically 'WOW', so I absolutely recommend it, but I can't write anything about it), and this was the first one that really drew me into his books.

It's also the first time I got to know that I'd changed between my first reading and my first re-reading. The first time I read it, I loved the style and the characters, but I thought the ending was wrong. When I re-read it, I really noticed the scope and breadth of this book - it's like a reconstruction of the entire post-Independence era, from the Zamindars to the sharecroppers to the jatavs to the Anglicized Chatterjee lifestyle to the Kapoors' political background to the Mehras' middle-class world to the Khans' Nawabi place...you get the idea. It's a time that pretty much gets glossed over in history books and I think it's pretty authentic (Khushwant Singh says so). I can also see more clearly where the ending comes from, which makes me a little afraid.

Oh, and Amit is clearly based on Seth himself and it's nice to see his defense of rhyming, rhythmic poetry (which I love!).

So please read this book, especially if this is the time you'll be most free in your entire life before you retire. (Yes, I am talking to You!)