A Suitable Boy Summary

Introduction

Vikram Seth, an economist at Stanford who is also an Indian novelist, published A Suitable Boy in 1993. It is a family story with a length of almost 1,400 pages. The blend of humour and romance in A Suitable Boy, as well as its comprehensive, in-depth exploration of Indian cultural conventions, won plaudits from critics. For the book, Seth earned an extremely unusual 1.1 million dollar advance, which made headlines in the Indian press. More than ten years were needed to finish the book. A Suitable Boy is sometimes contrasted with George Eliot's Middlemarch (1871) due to its length, social commentary, and realistic tone.

The Theme of the Novel

Themes in A Suitable Boy include the intersection of politics and the individual, prejudice and forgiving others, strife between families and social groupings, shifting racial conventions, unexpected violence, and intergenerational ties. The early 1950s are the time period in the book. India experienced a turbulent time during which it gained complete independence from England in 1947 and put a stop to various protracted Hindu-Muslim battles that led to the creation of Pakistan.

About Author

Born in Calcutta [now Kolkata], India, on June 20, 1952, Vikram Seth is an Indian poet, novelist, and travel writer best known for his verse novels The Golden Gate (1986) and A Suitable Boy (1993).

Seth's first collection of poems, Mappings, was released in 1980; nevertheless, it wasn't until the publication of his comic travelogue From Heaven Lake (1983), which chronicled his voyage by hitchhiking from Nanking to New Delhi through Tibet, that he began to get critical acclaim. The Golden Gate is a popular culture book set in Silicon Valley, California, and is fully written in metred, rhyming 14-line stanzas. It is based on Charles Johnston's translation of Aleksandr Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. The lyrical skill of The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985) foreshadows the polish of The Golden Gate. The young professional characters in Seth's work debate nuclear weapons, Roman Catholic beliefs on homosexuality, and the dangers of overworking. Seth skillfully adapts modern issues to a difficult 19th-century framework.

The 10 stories in Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992) were similarly written in tetrameter couplets, and Seth continued to employ controlled poetic form in his 1990 book All You Who Sleep Tonight. The Poems, 1981-1994 (1995) and Summer Requiem (2015) are two later anthologies of poetry.

Plot Summary

A Suitable Boy is a 1,474-page novel that tells the story of four families. The two sons of the widowed Mrs Rupa Mehra are Arun, who is married to Meenakshi, a notable Chatterji of Calcutta, and Varun, a frequent racing track goer who is frequently teased by the older Arun. Savita, who is married to Pran Kapoor, and the intelligent, lovely Lata are two of her other children. Mrs Mehra is concerned about Lata's desire for a good spouse.

Mahesh Kapoor, the Purva Pradesh minister of revenue, and his family also reside in Brahmpur. Veena Tandon, a daughter of the Kapoors, has a husband who works in the shoe industry. Bhaskar, the nine-year-old son of Veena and Kedernath who has the same name as a well-known Indian mathematician, is a mathematical prodigy. (In a similar instance of onomastic play, Mr Kapoor's assistant, Abdul Salaam, shares with the Pakistani Abdul Salam who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 a vowel extra in his name.) While Maan Kapoor, his laid-back younger brother, indulges in courtesans, alcohol, and gambling, Pran Kapoor teaches English at a university in Calcutta.

The other two families are the Hindu Chatterjis of Calcutta and the Muslim Khans of Brahmpur. Since her husband left her to reside in Pakistan, Begum Abida Khan is a single woman. The affairs of the Khan family are managed by her husband's brother, the widowed Nawab Sahib of Baitar, who mostly controls the actions of his married daughter Zainab and his two sons, Imtiaz and Firoz. Due to the latter's tight connection with Maan Kapoor, a catastrophe is almost experienced. The elite of Calcutta includes the Chatterjis. Mr Justice Chatterji is a member of the Calcutta High Court, a scholar of Sanskrit literature, and he and his wife enjoy expensive entertainment. The Chatterjis' daughter Meenakshi is being used as a cuckold by his pompous son-in-law Arun Kapoor's wife.

Meenakshi offends Mrs Rupa Mehra with her sophistication, as does her vivacious younger sister Kakoli. Amit Chatterji, the eldest son of the Chatterji family, attended Oxford University and is a poet. Dipankar, the middle son, oscillates between the mystical and the practical, while Tapan, the youngest son, lurks in the shadows of the family drama.

The industrious Haresh Khanna, whose socioeconomic background is somewhat lower than that of the Chatterjis, the Khans, and the Kapoors, is a significant figure outside of these family groupings, even if he perfectly complements Mrs Rupa Mehra. He received his education at the Midlands College of Technology, and he is a shoemaking expert from top to bottom. His lowly beginnings are shown by his dialect, manners, preferences, and attire, yet his work ethic, self-assurance, and work habits ensure his success at the Czech company he brashly enters. (The novel's thorough portrayal of the shoemaking industry, where Seth's father also worked, is one of its greatest delights.) Haresh had a significant romantic interest, but the girl's Sikh faith destroyed their relationship.

Mrs Rupa Mehra supports Haresh throughout his serious attempt to win Lata Mehra, who has long had feelings for Kabir Durrani, an attractive and gifted Muslim student who has now become Amit Chatterji's more lethargic romantic interest. One of the many minor pleasures of Seth's complicated story is the relationship between Kabir's father, Dr Durrani, a bright but hazy mathematician, and the impressionable Bhaskar. Lata falls in love with Kabir, a lovely young man, but their relationship is difficult due to Kabir's faith, thus Lata finally obeys her mother's desires and weds Haresh Khanna, an acceptable candidate. As a result, A Suitable Boy is transformed into a traditional novel with a satisfying conclusion.

Conclusion

Indian culture is realistically shown in "A Suitable Boy." Modern realistic fiction offers a detached portrayal of all facets of life, both the good and the bad. The happiness and pain that people experienceare shown to the reader in their current state. Literature's ability to mirror the society it speaks for may be used to determine how excellent it is. Although the sincerity or accuracy of this insight cannot be determined, Seth exhibits hints of sensitivity in the way he portrays the social difficulties woven within Indian society.

Lata ultimately decides to divorce Kabir and wed a respectable man she likes but does not love. Only the inter- and intra-family machinations, which Seth somehow manages to make compelling reading, are truly ugly in the book, aside from Lata's painful decision to not wed Kabir.

In conclusion, A Suitable Boy is unquestionably a novel worth reading. It is a pleasant opportunity for everyone who has visited India before to experience the pleasure of hues and gastronomic delights once more. This book is the finest alternative for people who haven't had the pleasure of seeing India's vast cultural diversity.

FAQ's

1. What is the Theme of the novel "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth?

Themes in A Suitable Boy include the intersection of politics and the individual, prejudice and forgiving others, strife between families and social groupings, shifting racial conventions, unexpected violence, and intergenerational ties. The early 1950s are the time period in the book.

2. Who will Lata marry in this novel?

The outcome of Lata's relationship was finally revealed in the last part of the novel which reveals that Lata opts to remain with Haresh, which is the decision that her mother most likely supported.

3. Why is the novel still so popular?

A Suitable Boy is the ideal representation of India in the 1950s. The novel's complex locales, which range from Brahmpur to Calcutta, allude to the theme of nostalgia in each chapter. The readers are in for a real treat.

4. Why Lata didn't choose Kabir?

Kabir's protestations of love are nevertheless insufficient to qualify him as a viable option in the face of escalating intercommunal strife (caused by the erection of a temple close to a mosque). Although Lata's family insists they have nothing against Kabir, they remind her that it would be foolish for her to marry a Muslim during such unrest.

5. What does the novel A Suitable Boy conclude?

Lata ultimately decides to abandon Kabir and wed a nice boy she likes but is not in love with. There isn't much actual unpleasantness in the book other than Lata's tragic decision to not wed Kabir; yet, Seth manages to make inter- and intra-family intrigues intriguing to read.