A suitable boy, please discuss it with me

[Vanfurgstan]

I love reading books but more than that I relish discussing and disagreeing with my friends. Right now I am far from my bookworm friends and having read this massive tome i want to go over it with someone. Fx someone will answer.

First off I love the characters but like Malati much more than Lata who is quite bland. I wish Seth had written about Malati. Also I think maan and firoz were more than friends. I vaguely remember something about them but it's quite hazy in my mind.

Also the 1 year span of the book annoyed me. I think we shd have seen a bit more into the future. I dnt think she would have been very happy with shoe boy, who was completely boring and unromantic. I preferred Amit to him.

I felt desperately sad for tasneem but I guess she couldn't get a happy ending.

it was about 10 years ago i read it - so i can't remember the names of most of the characters (was Malati the "mischievous" SIL - or was than Mekanshi or someone??)

i do remember feeling utterly disappointed by Lata's choice however. I thought she should have chosen the Muslim boy (don't think that was Amit?)

It was a mesmerising book though - i loved it!

not sure i can provide you with much more detailed analysis than this though.

btw have you read "An Equal Music"? I read this before i read suitable boy and LOVED it but everyone else (who had read SB first) was disappointed by it!

Long time since I read it too. I seem to remember that one of the characters had cut up a volume of Shakespeare into separate plays, and thinking that A Suitable Boy would have benefited from the same treatment... there were several story lines going on, and for me they didn't really come together. I wished he'd written about each one separately. Otherwise, I thought both Kabir and Amit were more interesting than Haresh, didn't think Lata was very interesting either, wished she had the courage to choose Kabir, can't remember Malati at all, but I did like Amit's sister (Kakoli?) with her rhyming couplets about the dog Cuddles.

I haven't read an equal music poppa. Malati was lata's friend. The SIL is menakshi and I love that entire claN, the chatterjis.
I can kind of understand not choosing Kabir (the Muslim boy) as the pressure from mum would be immense especially in the 1950's that would have been a no-no. Also Kabir should have said yes when she first said lets run away. By letting her think obviously she couldn't bear leaving her family.
Amit was the poet.
Thanks for replying :)

Longway I found the political bits very boring and skimmed that (something I never do and am going to reread it again if I can). I found menakshi very interesting too. By the end I was more interested in other characters than lata.

I gave the abridged talking book to my granny (aged 92) as she is blind.

she was really DISGUSTED by Lata's choice!

poppa I guess it's difficult to understand the choice if you haven't lived in that sort of environment. The pressure from family is immense and it's an either/or situation. FWIW people who I know who married for love eventually made up with their parents( but it's very stressful). No one can resist grandkids over there.
I was disappointed as lata made the predictable real life choice. Who wants that. Boo

Such a long, long time since I read it I don't think I can discuss it in any depths, but 'two tight slaps' is one of my favourite phrases from a book