A Suitable Boy- a primer

A Suitable Boy- a basic primer.

What is a novel? You can find several definitions in various dictionaries; this one sums it up pretty well:

Novel: ‘a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organisation of action and scenes’.

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/novel

So let’s consider for a moment how it applies to a particular example; namely, A suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. Why this book? Well, its adaptation for Television by Andrew Davis provides a suitable excuse (pun absolutely intended) to discuss it. So this is  a Suitable Boy Primer that also ponders the nature of the novel. I like to give value for money.

‘A fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity’ is a perfect description of Vikram Seth’s creation. At thirteen hundred and forty-nine pages it’s a veritable door stop of a book, one that is rapidly overtaking War and Peace as shorthand for going on at length. ‘portraying characters’ is  a massive understatement for this story. The family trees of the main four families in the book contain nigh on forty names for a start. Finally, ‘a sequential organisation of action and scenes’ certainly applies. The action and scenes described take place over the course of a year and nineteen chapters in a variety of locations.

So ‘A suitable Boy’ is indisputably a Novel in the classic sense. Novels are artificial constructs that tell a story in a choreographed way, in which the end of the story seems inevitable and satisfactory once you reach it. But like the best novels, the story, both the narrative and the seemingly inconsequential details, are so immersive that you scarcely notice the structure and the artifice. They are there nonetheless, as are nods to the history of the novel, for those who have eyes to see.

Seth employs a neat device to signpost his chapters; each has a rhyming couplet that hints at the content without giving too much away. These allusive fragments constitute a poem in their own right, by turns matter of fact, descriptive and shocking. ‘A kiss stokes fury, Twelfth night sparks a snub, and even bridge stokes tumult at the club’ promises a chapter of conflict and intrigue.

The Novel begins with a wedding. Savita Mehra is marrying Pran Kapoor and her mother voices her determination to procure a similar outcome for Savita’s younger sister, Lata. The ’suitable boy’ of the title is the one who will marry Lata. This is the main arc of the story. But presaging the search for the aforementioned paragon is not the only purpose of Savita’s wedding. It also serves as a device to bring together most of the main characters in the book in order to introduce them, as well as launching several sub-plots. If this seems familiar it should be. Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe starts with a tournament at which he introduces the main players in his medieval romance. This actual scenario re-occurs in George Martin’s ‘Game of Thrones’ to good effect.

Without giving away too much I can reveal that Lata has three main suitors for her hand as the story unfolds. This mirrors Thomas Hardy’s ‘Far from the Madding crowd’ in which Bathsheba Everdene is wooed by three very different men; Shepherd Gabriel Oak, Soldier Troy and Farmer Boldwood. (yes, she is called Everdene, just like Katniss in ‘The Hunger Games’, you think that’s accidental?)

There are many ways to write a novel. The Basque novelist Miguel Unamuno attempted, in Abel Sanchez, to write a story that was devoid of anything that could tie it to geography or time period; he wanted the characterisation to be paramount. Other writers include details that provide clues to the period in which they were writing. Jane Austen’s female characters meet Militia officers and Naval Captains because Napoleon was on the other side of the channel at the time. Still other writers, describing a period that is already in the past, use objects, events and music to evoke the particular time they are describing.

A Suitable Boy is unashamedly anchored in time and place. The time is 1951, the place is India. The year is important, just four years after Independence, a fact that colours many of the plotlines. Seth puts his characters into a fictional city, Brahmpur, so convincingly described that the reader accepts it as real. The history and culture of India suffuses the book and provides a realistic background for the characters actions. The reader soon accepts the attitudes of individual characters as being in keeping with the setting.

This is an introduction to the story which is trying not to give too much away, in case you are planning to watch the Television adaptation or read the book. I think though, I can get away with mentioning one or two characters. Lata, as has been said, is at the centre of the story and other characters revolve around her. But they are all individually drawn and fascinating in their own right. Veena Kapoor, for instance, Savita’s husband’s sister is an example of a woman trying to maintain some sense of being something other than just a wife and mother. Her son Bhaskar is a mathematical prodigy and her husband is the sort of calm presence any family needs at times of crisis. Yet they would be classed as ‘minor’ characters.Veena's other brother Maan is a slightly more prominent character, indeed you could argue that the book is as much about him as about Lata. The infatuation that he is subject to begins at Savita's wedding and runs like a thread through the book. This is the extent of Seth’s achievement; to give every-one their due and weave all their stories together.

So whether you watch or read, you are in for a treat. I have read the book cover to cover on two occasions, some years apart, and fully intend to read it again. It is so rich, so varied and so life-affirming, and somehow defies definition. Is it a romance? A historical novel? An explanation of a political moment in time? A family saga? A hymn to India? It is all of these and more.