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December 15, 2003

A Suitable Book

Prompted by a posting by Arabian Born Confused Desi on fictional treatments of Indian kulchure - I am finally coercing myself to announce that I completed Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy very recently. And my journey's to work and back have been feeling a little empty since then. (And so is my bag!) Click here to recall when I first started reading this.
Before and after.
It's such a long book - I'm not sure how the paperback edition that I've had for the last four months has held together. Four months and 1474 pages later the bus and tube journey to and from work are now back to being soulless and unforgiving. Fellow commuters have become irksome, and I have become pedantic and impatient once more. Especially what with it being almost pitch dark both on the way into work as well as the way back home. It all just adds to the feeling of hopelessness. The latter parts of the book brought tears to my eyes - but the story carried itself along throughout on a wave of emotion: joy, nostalgia, sympathy, elation and profound sadness. The emotions of situations and characters that became a part of me. And now it is done. I'm honestly not sure whether my expectations with regard to reading fiction have been changed - forver perhaps? Being Indian, I felt that there were an almost infinite number of situations in the narrative that made me wonder how a Western readership could comprehend it - but these thoughts paled into insignificance when it became obvious that many of the characters and the way that their stories panned out were almost identical in behaviour and manner to those experienced in my own life amongst my circle of families and friends. Albeit a generation later (the story is set in 1951 post-independence India) the traits and mannerism are all still very much alive and well today! The mental image of Mrs.Rupa Mehra will be etched in my mind for a very long time. I feel that she is the backbone of the story - and I will miss her as much as I do the nuances of my own mother. For she is almost certainly every Indian person's mother. There is a particular passage towards the end of the story that had me shaking my head in disbelief at the sheer brilliance of Vikram Seth in characterising the relationship between Indian mother and her own father - but in my own mind I feel that it could equally characterise the relationship between Indian mother and son too. In the following passage Seth describes Mrs.Rupa Mehra's confrontation with her father when requesting that his house be used as the venue for the wedding of her daughter (his grand-daughter): bq. "He had never had any truck with incompetence or insubordination. He now bluntly refused to countenance, let alone assist, the marriage of a grand-daughter in which he had not been consulted from the beginning. He told Mrs.Rupa Mehra that his house was not a hotel or a dharamshala, and that she would have to look elsewhere. bq. 'And that is that,' he added. bq. Mrs.Rupa Mehra threatened to kill herself. bq. 'Yes, yes, do so," said her father impatiently. He knew that she loved life too much, especially when she could be justifiably miserable. bq. 'And I will never see you again,' she added. 'Never in all my life. Say goodbye to me,' she sobbed, 'for this is the last time you will see your daughter.' With that she flung herself weeping into his arms. bq. (He) staggered back and nearly dropped his stick. Carried away by her emotion and by the greater realism of this threat, he too started sobbing violently, and pounded his stick on the floor to give vent to his feelings. Very soon it was all settled." If you are Indian in your heart - then you MUST read this book. If you are not Indian - then (as The Times said) "Make time for it - it will keep you company for the rest of your life". I simply hope that they NEVER turn this story into a film.

Posted by jag at December 15, 2003 10:01 PM

Comments

I see where you got all your pedanticism.
Tanks for the suggestion, but I think that it is a tad too long, I may not have the patience for it - I took a month to read Lord of the Rings.

Posted by: sat at December 16, 2003 07:07 AM

Hi Sat - I became very impatient with the book during many occasions - but I limited my reading of it to the "dead" time whilst travelling - and so got through it in around 4 months. I think the length of the story has something to do with it "growing" on you.

Anyway: just curious as to what specifically you see as the source of my pedant-ism?

Posted by: Jag at December 16, 2003 12:49 PM

Wow. Sounds like a good book (and an absolute bargin for that many pages!!). I don't think I could manage anything that thick myself, though I admit that's a crap excuse. It must weigh a ton!

Posted by: Stu at December 16, 2003 01:38 PM

Jag - you want pity? My mum gave me the hardback edition.
I have a wonderful ability to forget the contents of what I've been reading and as it was a few years ago I don't recall many of the details. But I remember moods and with A Suitable Boy it was desperately turning the pages hoping that the romance would turn out all right. Soft-hearted is what I am.
David

Posted by: David at December 16, 2003 03:36 PM

Four months - You wouldnt be able to remember the beginning of the story when you come to the end of it, and then you go back to the beginning, and then it will become very confusing and all.

I am surmising that the source of your pedanticism is you reading all these lengthy books.

Posted by: sat at December 16, 2003 06:50 PM

loads of my friends have been telling me i must read this book, though i've just started reading lotr all over again might be a while

Posted by: Jaina at December 16, 2003 08:43 PM

Hi Jaina: all I can say is you MUST read it at some point. I read LOTR many years ago - and I can tell you that A Suitable Boy is definitely the best novel I've EVER read. I was shocked when I saw the customer reviews at Amazon, at first I felt a bit silly and thought I was over-rating it - but it seems there are loads of people who share the same feelings! Check out:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/1857990889/customer-reviews/qid=1071523400/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/026-0697173-8626056

Posted by: Jag at December 16, 2003 09:59 PM

Stu: it definitely is a bargain! Especially as WHSmith were doing 2 books for £10 earlier in the summer. Well worth reading. Check out the Amazon reviews. Don't let the length of it put you off.

David: I do feel sorry for you: the hardback would have been a bit tough to haul around. But I think I am like you: overt sensibility and very soft-hearted! (We should start a book-club!)

Sat: surprisingly the sheer length of the story does not induce you into going back chapters - there's something about this story where the length of it becomes its very essence. Hard to describe - but you will only be able to judge what I mean if you read it. And as for the pedanticism: not sure this is due to reading long stories. It's probably more due to me being a scientist by education and trade. However: I am a romantic artist in my heart! :-)

Posted by: Jag at December 16, 2003 10:04 PM

oh...it's ten years or more since I read this book (I read it when it first came out, on a two week holiday in italy...i could hardly put it down and spent the whole holiday devouring it) and you've made me want to read it all over again. It's so long ago now that i forget a lot of the narrative detail, but i just remember being swept along by the sheer scale of the thing. i loved the sense of a huge cross section of all walks of life in India that the book presented...much the same as I felt whenever I read 'Middlemarch', which does pretty much the same for 19th century England - have you ever read that? And, IIRC, i remember being really irritated that she chose the (in my opinion) less suitable husband. I may be remembering this all wrong, though - didn't she choose the sensible option , rather than the exciting one? Thanks for spurring me to get this book out again...I can't wait to get to know it all over again. Have you ever read any of Vikram Seth's poetry, by the way? I'd highly recommend it. There's a volume called 'All You Who Sleep Tonight', published around 1990, I think...it's wonderful.

Posted by: sue at December 16, 2003 11:19 PM

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely try to get my hands on that book.

A scientist by education, but a romantic artist in your heart, you do have a very contrasting inner self.

Sathish

Posted by: sat at December 17, 2003 05:55 AM

Hi Sue, I haven't read Middlemarch - but I think I now will - because I think I know exactly what you mean! Glad to have ignited to the desire to read the book again! :-O

You're the second person to mention Vikram Seth's poetry work - I haven't read any other of his works - but I think I'm tempted now.

Sat: Actually: I am an "artist" trapped in the body of a "scientist" in a world where I am known as an "engineer". I know the meaning of turmoil ...

Posted by: Jag at December 17, 2003 03:16 PM

That does seem like a very comic description of you, and it does seem that you dont like what you are doing presently.
And what do you do ans an engineer? I am curious

Posted by: sat at December 17, 2003 03:34 PM

"Comic description" - yes. But "don't like what I'm doing presently" - no. On the contrary - I'm really enjoying life at the moment - both work and non-work. The comic description was a bad attempt at parody/irony.

By trade I am in the mobile Internet business. Internet in your pocket - sort of like a chief engineer. By night I am chief daydreamer, chief cook, chief games console player, chief mortgage payer and chief it's-your-job-to-empty-the-rubbish-bags man.

Posted by: Jag at December 17, 2003 03:56 PM

Well, I was just trying something there.

Gosh, I ams still wondering why you are not suffering from Multi - Personality Disorder, juggling so many acts at the same time.

Your job does seem interesting.

Posted by: sat at December 18, 2003 08:31 AM

Hi Jag : Congratulations...you finally did it!! What next? How's the festive season during your journeys? All the best to the Route79 family. Cheers! Ritu

Posted by: Ritu at December 18, 2003 10:13 PM

Thanks for your kind comments Ritu. All the best to you guys down under too!

Not sure what book to read next - but monacita at "Arabian Born Confused Desi" has given me a few ideas:

http://beingdesi.blogspot.com/2003_12_01_beingdesi_archive.html#107049206452160836

Posted by: Jag at December 20, 2003 03:27 PM

I just finished reading Seth's novel (after putting it off for more than a decade), and wish his publisher hadn't made him cut his next-to-final draft. I'm ready for a 2nd volume!

I really like your "before" and "after" photos of your copy of the book.

Posted by: ec at March 29, 2004 04:40 AM

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