Posted by Guillermo Maynez
on 4/6/2009, 14:25:24, in reply to "Re: A Suitable Boy"
201.103.197.84
Same here, Sterling. Haresh is a likable guy, but not very interesting. And as you say, Lata doesn't choose him out of love, but comfort and peace. I resist imagining Lata as the bored wife of a shoe factory foreman, living forever within the four walls of Prahapore, talking to the uninteresting wives of the Czechs. I wanted her to marry Amit, who, although an eccentric and lazy guy, would have given her a much more comfortable, dynamic, interesting and funny life. Now, as for other important characters:
Mrs. Rupa Mehra: the mother in law from hell. Of course she's one of the best-rounded characters, but not a person to be with for more than a few minutes. She kept reminding me of my aunt Lucy (and you don't want to know her).
Mr. Mahesh Kapoor: probably the most interesting character. His political life gives so much depth and historical context to the book. The one thing I didn't like about him from early on in the book is the arrogant and cruel way he treated the sweet Mrs. Mahesh Kapoor. But he's a man hardened by jail and the strenuous effort to keep a state running. He's also a sort of tragic figure in the book.
Maan: didn't like him at first, but he eventually grew up, the hard way. I was shocked to learn that he and Firoz had been lovers in boyhood. He seemed to be very manlike
Pran and Savita: THE lovely couple. They will be happy, and hopefully Pran won't die young.
Arun and Meenakshi: probably fun to chat for a while at a party, and probably good to see her beautiful face and figure. But even in bed with her lover she is frivolous, demanding, and capricious. Arun is a guy with an anger-management problem (and he's a cuckold)
Varun: the idiot of the family
The Chatterjis: funnily eccentric and obnoxiouos. Nice family. Kukoli must be pretty and fun.
More later, as I have to go...
--Previous Message--
:
:
: I thought I'd move to this thread, as I finished A
: Suitable Boy , and I would like to open the
: discussion.
:
: A 1700+ page novel is certain to be about several
: things, but my first impression after finishing the
: novel is that it could have been named "A
: Treatise Against Passion." The lines that Lata
: quotes from Clough near the end of the book are from
: "Amours de Voyage," Canto II, Stanza XI. I
: found it easily on the Web; I would embed a link here
: if I knew how. Anyway, Lata does have the gist of the
: verse.
:
: Passion gets a very bad rap in this novel. This is
: most prominent in the relationship between Maan and
: Saeeda Bai, due to which he almost kills his best
: friend (and boyhood lover). However, we also see the
: shallow, unfaithful marriage of Arun and Meenakshi,
: and the unsatisfactory union of Dr. Kishen Chand Seth
: and Parvati. By contrast, we have the happy,
: supportive marriage of Pran and Savita. Lata reflects
: that Savita would have been just as happy and
: fulfilled if she had married someone else.
:
: Somehow, perhaps because I'm an American with American
: cultural values, I thought "a suitable boy"
: was an ironic title. Far from it! Lata does indeed
: pick the most "suitable" suitor. (My
: apologies for what sounds like a lame joke.) She
: turns against the apparent love of her life, Kabir.
: She also turns against wealth, wit, and poetry by
: rejecting Amit (probably wisely). I find it hard to
: feel any enthusiasm at the end of the novel for her
: selection of Haresh. Haresh had a passion, too, in
: Simran. I suppose he has made the right choice by
: setting aside an "impossible" marriage,
: although my heart rebels against the idea that
: religiously mixed marriages should be avoided at all
: costs. Anyway, Haresh seems anbitious, energetic, and
: well-meaning. He is also moody, quick to anger, and
: wears those "co-respondent" shoes. He is
: indeed the most "suitable," but I would have
: liked Lata to enter into marriage with more love and
: passion.
:
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