Vickram Seth
1993
Around 1350 pages
I started this book when I attended my partner's soccer game (non Americans would call it "not soccer.") As you may have gathered, I'm not the biggest sports fan, but if I can do my part to normalize reading at games, then I'd be proud of my legacy. And I only read when he wasn't on the field, so I still received my good girlfriend points. Thankfully, this was a great novel and I didn't have to worry about finishing it before the game ended, because it's a hefty mofo.
Predictably from its length, this is a long, panoramic story. Most of the story focuses on Mrs. Rupa Mehra's efforts to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata, to a "suitable boy." Lata is a headstrong 19-year-old university student forced to choose between her suitors Kabir, Haresh, and Amit. The novel is divided into 19 parts, and each part is described in rhyming couplet form on the table of contents page. Which is fun, and takes me back to the eighteenth century.
If a novel is going to be this long, I either want it to be a book with dragons, or a sweeping family saga. Actually this book stands out because the action of the novel takes place in about two years. Seth is a very thoughtful author who understood his characters and was able to humanize all of their actions, even the actions that would be traditionally labelled as villainous.
He didn't exactly sustain my interest for the full 1350 pages, but that's a heavy ask.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Christopher Hitchens, in Vanity Fair, gave the novel a glowing review, saying the prose "has a deceptive lightness and transparency to it."
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