A Suitable Boy 01 Edition

I first read this book when I was in class 8, then in class 12, then in college and now when I am 24.
It meant different things to me at all ages.

A great book which if you have the patience to read, will show you what an Indian family is like .
Set in the times of post-partition India, it takes you through the life of Lata and how everything comes together to find a suitable boy for her.

Awaiting eagerly for Vikram Seth's A Suitable Girl.

Let not the size of the book let you down. The book is perhaps not supposed to be read over a fortnight. I just like many of the other readers read it over a expended period of 3 months - few pages at a time. It was always a joy to keep coming back to the book whenever I found time.
One would just wonder at the research put in by the author - one of the finest in English literature today. To weave such a rich story requires a in-depth study of diverse fields such as politics, fine arts and literature. And in no place has detail been spared. As has been said in some reviews, it is difficult to believe the author is one person - Vikram Seth. The author makes the scene pop right out of the book.
The characters are so masterly woven that they remain fresh in one's mind even after you finish the book. I would not give any spoiler alerts but would like to add that the last 100-150 pages just bring up the excellent climax to this tome.
One of the best fiction I have read.
Thanks Flipkart for the excellent service.

A masterpiece. Set in post-independence, post-partition India, the novel vividly follows the story of four intertwined families over a period of 18 months as a mother searches for a suitable boy to marry her daughter. It takes us into the richly imagined world of large extended multi cultured families and weaves an accurate and compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. What joys of excellent storytelling....

The story is so engrossing, each character so completely developed and believable, that is it hard to move on once you turn the last page. I secretly wished that the novel never ends.

The characters were so real, that you miss them as if they were a part of your life. An absolute masterpiece of prose.

Basically a story of a mother searching a suitable boy to marry her daughter.

Spun to this main story are a lot of social scenarios. The pathos of muslim women and the conserved life in the muslim society.

Then there is a whole act about the Zamindari Abolition Law. Don't be scared-it's not a lesson in law as it sounds!

Ghazals make rounds as life takes ups and downs with the characters.

By the time it's ending you would agree like me with the Observer's review about it:

"As with all the great books one feels only dismay as the pages on the right of the tome start thinning out"

This book was one of the best books I have read. I am a slow reader taking all the time to savour the moments in the story and this book gave me many. I lived the characters for more than 4 months. A good book makes you laugh and cry along with it and this is just that. I felt like an invisible extra character in the lives of the character. If only one is very patient they can have 1500 pages of bliss. Thoroughly enjoyed patiently and now impatiently waiting for the Suitable girl.