A Suitable Boy (A Bridge of Leaves, #1) in 100 books to read before you die

Mar 07, 2024 Dominic rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, india, romance

I need a day or two to digest and make my final verdict on this one, but I really did love it and I just finished it the day before I'm due to leave India!

Well, several days more than a day or two have passed and I find myself sat writing a review for this goliath book which I decided to read whilst backpacking around India for two months at the start of this year. I definitely think I made the right choice as it captures so many elements of Indian culture, society and recent history. It reads l I need a day or two to digest and make my final verdict on this one, but I really did love it and I just finished it the day before I'm due to leave India!

Well, several days more than a day or two have passed and I find myself sat writing a review for this goliath book which I decided to read whilst backpacking around India for two months at the start of this year. I definitely think I made the right choice as it captures so many elements of Indian culture, society and recent history. It reads less like a novel and more like a soap opera or TV series with many different characters coming in and out and the series following one character for a hundred or so pages then not mentioning them again for another 200 until the reappear, a format which I actually really loved.

The novel it reminded me of most was probably Anna Karenina which I read about a year ago, although both A Suitable Boy and Anna K are ostensibly love stories with a "main character" it turns out not really to be the case when you start reading, and A Suitable Boy has at its heart three families (plus hangers on) of main characters. Like Tolstoy's novels it also isn't just about the relationships between characters (though that is a huge part of the story) but about the country and the changes it is going through as well. Tolstoy includes his political views and philosophies, his ideas about the abolition of serfdom and what that meant to the people of Russia, Seth includes ideas about the partition of India, political land reform and religious tensions which are as relevent in modern day India as they have been since the time this novel was written.

One of the many sub plots is about the rescuing of a Shiva Linga (which had been hidden in the Ganges by a priest many hundreds of years ago to hide it from encroaching Mughul armies), something anyone familiar with Hindu temples would likely have come across (I saw a lot of these structures which look like a pokemon diglet coming out of an oil lamp) which represents the god Shiva... or at least part of his anatomy... And the establishment of this in a new temple which just so happens to be on the west side of a mosque where naturally this leads to increased religious tensions between the Muslim and Hindu communities (I won't go into details to avoid spoilers but I really found this part of the novel fascinating). As I was reading this part of the book, the news across India (and indeed it even made it into international news) was the dedication of a new Hindu temple on the site where a Hindu nationalist mob had destroyed a Mosque some thirty years before, their reasoning being that several hundred years previously a Hindu temple on the same site had been destroyed by the Mughuls when they invaded. Basically, the events of the book were very uncomfortably reflecting modern day events in India.

The characters in the novel were incredibly rich, and I felt like I knew them all by the end... Or until nearly the end (something I'll come back to in a moment). It really was like watching a favourite TV show whenever I picked up the book, and I would often find myself laughing aloud at the antics of my favourite characters. I loved that even side characters were well fleshed out and genuinely felt so real.

Now, it may seem so far as though this would immediately be one of my favourite novels, and at times it really was, but the ending (which I won't spoil) did let me down a little. When I am reading certain books I am fine with some things being left unresolved, but this was definitely not one of those kind of books. This is a book where I want to know what happens to the dozens of characters I have been reading about for almost two months and over 1,500 pages. But I feel I was left wanting in this regard. Also, I felt that the actions of several of the characters in the last 200 pages or so weren't things I could have imagined them doing, the choices they made came out of the blue and just didn't seem like the same characters who I had grown to know, care about and empathise with over the previous 1,300 pages.

That being said I wouldn't allow this to put you off reading the book, if you don't mind a long book and if you have an interest in Indian culture and society (from everything to marriage culture to politics in a newly established government and so much more) then this is really most definitely worth a read. And who knows, maybe you'll appreciate the end more than me? Maybe I was just disappointed that my favourite soap opera was coming to an end after I'd been binge reading it for so long... All in all I'm incredibly glad I chose this as my "India Read" during my time in the country and I would advise you to do the same! ...more

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Nov 20, 2022 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I do not think my review will do this book true Justice. But I will try.

Set in the 1950’s, A Suitable Boy is at its heart the tale of university student Lata Mehra and her mother’s quest to find a suitable husband for Lata.

But this book is so much more than that. The characters include four families who all intersect in someway. Through these characters, the author provides rich socio- political commentary. The wit and characterization reminded me of Austen.

I loved this book and highly recommen ...more

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