July 11, 2020 DEDICATED TO THE ONE I LOVE

There's this book I've been wanting to read for 20 years. Seriously--but I kept putting it off because it was a BIG commitment. There are commitments and THEN THERE ARE COMMITMENTS. This book is a MONSTER. 1488 PAGES. That's essentially 4 books if you think about it. That's a lot of time reading ONE BOOK. I wavered back and forth and finally decided to tackle the BEAST. Reading a book this size is a challenge for many reasons. First off--IT'S DAUNTING. I actually had to read a good 500 pages before I felt like I was even making a "dent". It was also quite heavy--carrying it to the beach was a serious workout. Forget falling asleep reading it--I almost suffocated. And my fingers couldn't even stretch around it. It was like trying to hold TWO whoppers from Burger King at the same time. Even though I faced tremendous odds-- I put on my SUPERHERO reader glasses and mottled through. The novel--that took me two weeks to read--was called A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. At 591,552 words, A Suitable Boy is one of the longest novels ever published in the English language. 

It is set in the fictional town of Brahmpur, India, in the 1950s post-partition. It follows the story of four interconnected families over an 18 month period. There are over forty colorful characters in the story, thankfully the book contains a family tree at the beginning to help the reader keep everyone straight. The  main character is Mrs. Rupa Mehra, who is on a  quest to find a suitable boy for her daughter, Lata, to marry. Sadly, Lata is in love with a Muslim whom she is forbidden to marry.  Lata and her overbearing mother travel far and wide so that Lata can meet and marry a man her mother and family approve of.  Seth's story is a social satire on the times as he pokes fun at many of the interesting characters who can be shallow, social climbers who only care about money and connections. Seth also examines the 1950s in terms of  political issues, land reform, caste systems, academics, religion and the importance of family. Although I found the chapters on politics immensely detailed and dry, I really enjoyed the chapters that focused on Lata and her extended family. Again, it was a huge commitment that I'm not sure was worth the time, but I am really glad that I finally BESTED the BEAST. This book is REALLY a marathon--26.2--that is definitely not for everyone but it was made into a BBC series last year that you might enjoy.