Over a decade ago, I walked up and down the aisles of the local Barnes and Noble because of an all-consuming curiosity which was ignited by some now-forgotten book review. (I would later work at that very BN during my senior year of college, in case you are unbelievably bored). I had picked up a torch for brown-ish fiction which burns just as brightly today as it did when I was a teenager. I found my quarry, picked it up very carefully and took it to the cash-wrap, where the clerk, on second thought, double-bagged it.
I went home and didn’t emerge from my room for two days; I waved away meals, plugged my ears to my father’s indignant screams about how I was missing class, I think I forgot to bathe, who knows. I couldn’t leave this tome, whose protagonist shared MY nickname. Upon reflection, I think I understand why you Potter-heads do what you do…oh, wait. I don’t. 😉
Vikram Seth’s “Suitable Boy” changed my life. It altered my expectations for literature, my perceptions of my parents’ histories, my conception of myself and what I wanted out of my future. Suddenly, I had a thousand things to ask my delighted father, about newly-free India in the 1950s. I looked at my mother, a freedom baby who was born right after India gained her independence with a new affection and appreciation; if Aparna were alive, she’d be my Mother’s age. I regarded all the other books on my shelves with a supercilious disdain.
I’ve read SB three-and-a-half times. It never left my bedside table; it’s been there for over a decade. My most cherished ritual involved briefly immersing myself in it before falling asleep every night; as soon as I finished the entire tome, I’d gingerly turn the book over and start it again the next night. Suddenly, I’m sad that my treasured font of comfort is dusty and untouched. When you summoned the oneiroi, Suitable Boy, I never wanted to wake. How many nights did I spend in that liminal space between dream and reality, feeling like I was with Meenakshi or Malati as they went about their lives, the lives you divinely conceived and described? Hell, sometimes during those nocturnal sojourns I WAS Meenakshi or Malati. No book has owned me so completely since you, I don’t know if one ever will.
Though I am astonished that almost no one “gets” that you are what I’m referring to (TWO people in four years = no one, okay?), my entire “online empire” is a tribute to you– fotolog.net/suitablegirl, www.suitablegirl.com, flickr~suitablegirl, etc etc. No other book captured my heart or injured my wrists like you.
Lo, somewhere in New York, someone utters your name, saying one who shall come will put thee to shame? Blasphemy!
“Hunger’s Brides” puts other behemoths to shame, including Michel Faber’s “Crimson Petal and the White,” (848 pages, 3 pounds); Neal Stephenson’s “Quicksilver” (944 pages, 3.3 pounds) and the recent reigning champ, Vikram Seth’s “Suitable Boy” (1,349 pages, 4.1 pounds).
The plot of “Hunger’s Brides” revolves around Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th-century Mexican poet and nun whose vow of silence at the age of 40 was signed in her own blood. Her life and work have inspired writings by Octavio Paz, Robert Graves and Diane Ackerman.
But the book is more – much, much more – than an extended piece of historical fiction. It is also the story of Beulah Limosneros, a graduate student who immerses herself in the study of Sor Juana, and Donald Gregory, her professor and a serial adulterer. And in addition to narrative fiction, it is told in the form of poetry, dramatic plays, letters and notes in the margins.
Looks like they heard my wrists screaming for help:
But there is no escaping its size…To aid readers, the author himself has contributed some helpful hints. The book’s elaborate Web site (www.hungersbrides.com) features a slide show of “safe reading positions.”
Harrumph. Fret not, my long-adored lover, I glower at this uppity newcomer. That he should tempt my loyal heart is “INCONCEIVABLE“!
How dare you do this to me, ANNA? My list of books I have to read is already sooooo long, and I read and read and read as it is. If I’m reborn, can I take my readng list with me?
Um… was I one of the two, because I got the literary shout-out!
But I don’t know… Sor Juana kicks some literary booty, so now this Hunger’s Brides upstart has piqued my curiosity. Besides, my biceps really need more tone. 😉
was I the other one? 🙂
I so agree with you ANNA; few books have done for me what ASB has done… sigh. It is the barometer by which all others are measured, like a good man is 😉
While I know I can’t bring myself to betray my girthy love, the notion of two-fisting ASB with Hunger’s Brides, just for the sake of bicep curls and deltoid presses is throughly tempting. We’d be the fittest bookworms you ever did see…
I think there was a verse in “A Suitable Boy” that went
Western woman is a vulture doesn’t know our ancient culture!
but I loved it anyway.
Great post. I loved the book too and didn’t eat sleep drink talk until I’d finished reading it, all the while wishing it would never end. Seth’s choice of the 50s as the backdrop for his novel also indicates what a fine writer he is. He could’ve chosen the ready-made drama of partition or Kashmir, but he stuck to an unremarkable (for literary plot value anyway) decade, and showed how magical it really was, without much fanfare or flourish (esp of the magic realism variety).
I thought Lata’s ultimate choice of suitor denoted pessimism about India on Seth’s part (okay, I was disappointed because I didn’t think she’d be such a wimp)…but some might say the reality since the writing has been far darker anyway – this is Rushdie’s retort when people complain that Midnight’s Children ended on too pessimistic a note
Dahling, I thought Seth’s novel was too obvious to deserve mention!
It’s a great book. I only read it once, and that was a long time ago. Maybe it’s time to crack it open again…
I love this book. It’s one of my favorite. I loved it after reading the first page.
Anna,
I share your sentiments almost entirely about ASB. What a treasure.
Hari
My favourite Seth story remains Golden Gate. I have yet to read a novel written entirely in prose that flows as cleanly as that one.
Though you can’t really build triceps with that one.
“I thought Lata’s ultimate choice of suitor denoted pessimism about India on Seth’s part (okay, I was disappointed because I didn’t think she’d be such a wimp)…”
If I’m gonna spend THAT freaking long on a book, at least give me a happy ending, dammit! I was SO pissed off when I got to the end.
A choirboy friend forced me to read An Equal Music and that was much more digestable. 😉
Ah, yes. Lata bored me to death. It was Malati Trivedi who was all exciting and full of life. I wanted to be her.
Oh, this book, will I ever finish it. I bought it several years ago and was part of an online lit group that used to read and discuss a book each month, but, get this, the majority voted one year for ASB for the December book.
Hello????
December is one of the busiest months, between end-of-year stuff at work, holidays, holiday parties etc.
Needless to say, I read (and loved) about 100 pages of it and never got further.
But ASB is what I consider a bedside table book, given its heft, and I can only inch my way through it reading before bed.
But hearing everyone’s enthu about it, I’m going to go back and go for it. Now that fall is coming, it’d be a great book for a rainy Sunday.
I was disappointed in An Equal Music, though I went with a friend to see Seth do a reading/signing in NYC when it was released and, yes, as far as I understand he’s not terribly interested in women, but wow, he just oozes charisma and seduction. Which, given conventional standards of beauty, is something. He’s not very tall, his hair is thinning, but oh, those eyes and that smile…
I got the book-on-tape version of An Equal Music from a street vendor for $2. It’s read by Alan Bates and the neat detail is, if I recall correctly, in the passages referring to specific music pieces, you hear the music in the background/foreground on the tape.
Just to be clear, Vikram Seth knew exactly what he wanted in the ending of the book.
The character of Lata is biographically her mother and the character of Haresh is biographically her father and the story of how they met is not untrue. Apparently, they have had a wonderful marriage of nearly 60 years and approaching 80, are an exceptionally adoring couple. He is, like the book would suggest, the godfather of leather shoes in India. She was the first woman high court chief justice in India.
hari,
how intriguing!
The character of Lata is biographically her mother and the character of Haresh is biographically her father
who is the “her” you are referring to, whose parents inspired lata and haresh? i’m all excited and i haven’t had my chai so i’m easily confused right this second.
pleeeeease, tell us more! how enchanting. 🙂
Oh – I’m incoherent from lack of sleep. Lata and Haresh are modeled on Vikram Seth’s mother and father. Kakoli is biographically similar to Vikram Seth’s sister Aradhana, who ended up marrying an Austrian diplomat.
To read more about it, I recommend Leila Seth (the mother’s) autobiography, “On Balance”. She’s really a fascinating woman and the chapter, “A Suitable Boy” is about meeting her husband.
oh, hari, i could just ATTACK you out of pure joy! (much the same way hobbes would gleefully pounce on calvin)
i must own this book! to think that there really WAS a “lata” who got “two tight slaps” from her prone-to-weeping mother! by the by, “two tight slaps” is just one of the phrases that, a decade later, i can’t pry out of my brain.
eeeeek! i’m soooo excited! to amazon, i go! 😀
w00t!!!
:+:
you know, i almost married a Dosco who went to school with VS and he never told me THIS. hmmmph! all he’d talk about is how VS wasn’t very popular, how we was often a target for high-school-level torture, etc.
Just so you know, Anna.. I totally “got” the name of your online empire, and was terribly jealous that I hadn’t thought of it first.
I was so in love with Firaz. No one ever seems to understand that one. Why not Amit, or Maan (oh God, never Maan!), or anyone else for that matter? Nope, Firaz had my heart, although Amit was a dreamy Bong, much like my current beau.
And although Vikram Seth may never love me, I am madly in love with all of his books. I absolutely couldn’t put down An Equal Music – it touched me in so many ways, I can’t even number them.
Has anyone read his book that was written in the form of poetry? Or am I getting that completely wrong?
oh, you’re not alone in that one
How many of you caught Maan and Feroz on the first read?
Jhaan, you’re referring to Golden Gate.
By the way, chech out this short bio of VS online. I love the opening description:
“A small, wiry soap opera enthusiast with well-defined features and a ready smile…”
Latha is not modelled on VS’s mom.
she was the first woman chief justice of India so probably Savitha was modelled on her, don’t you think?
Anna – I was always Malathi never Meenakshi :-).
tilo- i had been confused about the “chief justice” remark as well…and sometimes, i think i’m a little TOO meenakshi (and not just b/c i’m a bongphile). oy.
Tilo: All I’m saying is that the Lata/Haresh story (as well as the depiction of her childhood) was based on Leila Seth’s life. In fact, in Leila Seth’s autobiography, the chapter where she meets her husband is titled “A Suitable Boy”
Anna: Glad I could be of help. I’m curious whether you can get the book in the U.S., though if you can;t there is this Calcutta bookstore, you can order online from. Not to knock you almost ex-husband, but I’m not surprised that the weirdly conformist, homosocial Doon School environment could stifle a creative talent like Vikram Seth. Who, by the way, is noted by those who know him, for his humility and grace.
Rani: Are you mocking me? 🙂
No, Hari :). Just taking a SM poll on who caught the Mann-Feroz connection on the first read. I totally missed it until someone pointed it out to me.
Hari, what’s the name of the Calcutta bookstore with the online orders? thanks!
PS – Amazon lists the Mama Seth book for $32
Rani: I think you pointed it out to me… No surprise there
Olinda: oxfordbookstore.com. I always get the books sent to my parents in India but I think they also mail to the U.S.
I caught the Maan-Feroz reference, but that may have been because others had speculated about it in my presence while I was reading the book. It was very subtle, though, and to a large extent ambiguous.
does anyone want to remind this befuddled girl about this much discussed Maan-Feroz connection? it’s so fuzzy to me, meanwhile, i can picture exact passages that have to do with lata, malati, savita, meenakshi, kakoli…i guess i only like GIRLS? 😉
why, oh WHY is my copy 3000 miles away?! GAH. >:(
if you don’t want to give it away in comments, email me.
suitablegirl [at] gmail period calm.
ah, i forgot to mention that in my litany above: flickr, fotolog, blog URL and oh yes, GMail addy. 🙂
Anna… aroung page 1000. More than brotherly love, which once you realize it, forms another major subplot of the book.
http://www.glbtq.com/literature/south_asian_lit,2.html “In his most recent work, A Suitable Boy (1993), Seth projects an epic vision of Indian life during the 1950s. Here homosexuality is merely hinted at: In one of the novel’s numerous subplots, there is a suggestion that two male characters–Maan Kapoor and Firoz Khan–were once lovers.”
http://contrapuntal.blogspot.com/2005/07/subalternity-separatism-subsumption.html “Indian post-gay fiction? Think of the masti of Maan and Firoz buried more than a thousand pages into A Suitable Boy…”
it’s starting to come back to me, but i really feel like buying another copy of the book now. hmmm.
I have three copies – two paperbacks and one wonderful hardcover that stays in my bookshelf ’cause I want to keep in in pristine condition :).
Rani is right, it certainly does form a major subplot of the book. One can’t help but wonder if Feroz is so disapproving of Saeeda Bai because of the relationship Maan and Feroz shared. I also seem to recall that there were insinuations that (pre-Saeeda Bai), Maan and Feroz’ relationship was still active, to some degree, in the sense that they still enjoyed some quality alone time together, ifyaknowwhaaimean.
My book is also in a box, somewhere, among the stacks and stacks of books that came home with me from college, but that I haven’t bought bookshelves for yet.
maybe i’ll buy an east-coast copy and start reading it again…this is going to haunt me, i can tell.
anyone who wants to join me, feel free. it’ll be the first book tackled in the fake Sepia Mutiny book club for dorks who like to read 1000+ page tomes FOUR TIMES.
Anna, I am in. I was planning a re-read soon, anyways.
awesome. to the indie bookstore i go, then. 🙂 anyone else?
You can count me in. 🙂
me three. how do book clubs work?
I would read it again. Haven;t read it since I read the autobiography so I would not mind making random connections.
Suitable Girl, I would dream of trying to come between you and ASB. Perhaps you and Hunger’s Brides might just be friends?
Best, Paul Anderson
Anna,
More autobiographical connections between Vikram Seth and ASB: I just started reading TWO LIVES, the new memoir/biography by Seth. (I have an advance reading copy.) He also makes the connections between his mother and “Lata”, his father and “Haresh” and his grandmother and “Mrs. Rupa Mehra” who was described in real life as “turning on the waterworks.” Anyways, I am loving the book so far. Will post my review here when I am done :).
Paul,
I am always happy to make new friends. 😉
~Suitablegirl
Rani,
you’re my new best friend; call me every five minutes. 😉
Suitable Girl, If you should ever get round to reading Hunger’s Brides, drop me a line. There’s a link on the website.
I’ve enjoyed dropping in. I must say it’s quite grand to see a whole list in love with a book.
Regards, Paul Anderson http://www.hungersbrides.com
Wow…and all this while I thought I was mad for re-reading this book every few months…I am another passionate fan of ASB. I first read it when I was 16, and almost 10 years later it is still so much a part of me and my life!
Great to read your comments!
Monika
FYI – Seth is reading at the international festival of authors in late oct. of note also – neil bissoondath, rabindranath maharaj, shani mootoo, nilofer pazira .. for a full listing see below IFOA About Seth –
Tickets are kind of steep – 35$ a pop, but free if you can show a student ID.
Just discovered this thread. Brings back so many good memories. My husband gave me this book on my thirtieth birthday “To a Suitable Girl”, thirteen years ago. It’s so good to see so many people with such passion for this book and here I’ve kept it to myself all these years. Cheers to you Anna! BTW, I totally got your url.
I just finished this book and I appear to be obsessed with the book. My mum just gave it to me to read and I love it, it is one of my faves. I am particularly obsessed with Maan and Firoz they are mt fave characters, especially since I their situation did not have closure-what happens to Maan? Does he go back to Banaras? What about Mahesh Kapoor? And if he and FIroz are gay why have them fall in love with women who ultimately lead to their demise? Oh yeah and I love KAbir (poor guy!)
Hey sorry for the multiple posts, but I just discovered this thread and I’m totally psyched. Why did Seth make FIroz and Maan bi? What was the point of their relationship?
If Lata and Haresh could be inspired by Seth’s parents, then why not Maan and Firoz symbolize an unspoken but indirectly acknowledged aspect of Seth himself? He has unofficially but generally widely been open about his “neither gay, nor straight” tendencies, and there are gay characters in the golden gate and an equal music and of course maan and firoz in the suitable boy.