Top 100 books challenge: 55. A Suitable Boy

1474 pages is the reason that my blog has been so quiet recently!

I have been busy reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, on the train, at home....whenever I had a spare few minuets really. As I am so busy (and getting even more so in the run up to Christmas) it has taken me quite a while to finish this book.

I enjoyed it very much! It was nice to escape the UK, and travel to India, where we see the frantic attempts of Rupa Mehr to marry off her daughter Lata to ‘a suitable boy’. ThIs book shows the struggle Lata faces, between marrying for love, or to keep her family happy.

The idea of arranged marriages is one that I cannot really understand. I can see that parents want the best for their children, but I could never marry someone I did not love. For Lata it is a hard choice. She falls in love with a fellow student called Kabir, but he is a Muslim while she is Hindu, and her mother is horrified at the prospect. Here begins her hunt for the perfect man for her daughter, and we see them travel across India to find him.

Along the way we are introduced to Lata’s family, each with their own lives and stories to tell. Lata’s sister Savita was married to Pran, chosen by her mother. She grew to love him, something that Lata has been told will happen to her when she marries.

I felt a bit sad when I had finished the book. When I first picked it up the size of it was pretty daunting. Just carrying it around all day in my bag gave he a sore shoulder! But when I was a few chapters in I got addicted to the family, and felt like I was becoming one of them. Sitting on the train on a dark, dismal ride to work I was transported to a sunlit living room drinking tea with Rupa. Instead of waiting for my car to be fixed at the garage I was walking in the garden with lata discussing which man she should marry. When I finished the book I felt a little lost, as these characters had been with me for a while!

I won’t spoil it and tell you what Lata decides to do. Instead I will leave you with a quote from The Sunday Telegraph, which is printed on the book and sums up the way I feel:

“Make time for it. It will keep you company for a lifetime.”

Rating 10/10