A Suitable Boy: Part 10

Picking up the threads from a book I lasted visited (ouch, I know!) some two years ago, hasn't been as difficult as I was expecting.  It helps that I had been writing about each section as I went (maybe in my subconscious I knew I would need these notes to keep track of everything going on in this massive story.  Here I am back with a few (as of yet but more to come) characters of Vikram Seths' multilayered novel, A Suitable Boy.  If I am still in semi-quarantine still, why not have a serious project for the long haul?  If I can finish finally it will be a happy accomplishment.

Untangling a few threads now.  I am at page 740 having just finished section 10 of 19 (and 1,474 pages).  This story is about so much more than a young woman who has fallen for a very unsuitable boy and whose mother and family are looking for a much more suitable match.  There are four families involved, so many different plotlines and family dramas--mostly interconnected in some way.  It is, however, set against the backdrop of post-Partition India ca.1951.  There is so much going on politically and socially.  There are two main religious groups and a caste system and all kinds of conflicts both within the disparate ethnic groups and familially.

Lata Mehra is our main character, and I thought she would remain far off stage for a while, but she does make an appearance through the pages of a letter received by Maan.  Nothing we don't already know--Lata had gone to Calcutta and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra to Delhi.  It is Maan who takes stage in this section.  Maan is the younger, rather dissolute, brother of Praan Kapoor, the husband of Lata's sister, Savita.  Yes, I do have a print out of the various family trees (along with notations) to keep them all straight.  Well, just a sideways glance, Lata.  I hope we can get back together soon!

Maan has been sent to the countryside by his love Saeeda Bai, who feels he is too much of a distraction from her music.  Her younger sister's Urdu tutor, Rasheed, has taken Maan under his wing so to speak.  They are an odd pair really.  Maan is trying to learn Urdu to be able to communicate more fully with Saeeda.  Whereas he is of a wealthy and well-connected Hindu family, Rasheed is a moral and progressive Muslim who has had to take responsibility for his brother's wife and child after his brother's death.  Curiously Maan has become quite a fixture in these small communities--villagers and family members coming to unload their problems and worries to him.  Maybe is such an outsider that he is simply an innocuous listener.

Just when Maan finally receives a letter from Saeeda and prepares to return to her--we are literally left hanging at the end of this section, the letter unread as Maan's Urdu reading abilities lacking.  Rasheed has been thrust into disgrace by his political and social overtures.  His father is a landowner (if I have all the threads straight), and Rasheed cannot support a system where those who work the land have no rights to it.  He has made some family decisions and overtures with those workers without family approval and has gotten a thorough dressing down.  Just as Maan hopes to engage Rasheed in some letter-reading-translating, Rasheed stalks off in anger from the family home.  Maan left in ignorance with letter in hand . . .

Drop curtain.  End of Act 10 and onwards to section 11.  Whew.  I did it.  I managed to get past one section that just sat like a boulder in the middle of the road.  I am not sure if section 11 is actually going to be as engaging (or, hopefully not, less so), but I press on now.  Taking a peek ahead I see we are moving from the countryside back to Brahmpur (even though Lata is in Calcutta) and into a courtroom.  So, more political maneuvering!

Way back when I was struggling with toting such a chunky book around (because you know, of course, that I always have ore than one book in hand at a time), so I took a knife to it and literally cut it into five mostly equal size sections.  So much easier to carry about a few hundred pages than more than a 1,000.  I am on the third section and am looking forward to moving on to the fourth physical section.  My treat at the end?  I will try and get my hands on the film (or maybe it will air here on PBS in the Winter?).  Something especially nice to look forward to (and an accomplishment long in the making).

Comments

[Kathy A Johnson]

Good for you! I think we're all looking for ways to salvage our "lost" year, and reading a big, chunky book is a good one (in this reader's opinion). I'm almost done with Wives and Daughters, and I think I'll tackle the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography next, using my "Patented Pages Per Day" system--LOL!

[Danielle]

What exactly is your patented pages per day system? I try for ten pages of ASB but if I get one small chapter within each section read I call it good. This new section is another not as exciting part as it takes place in a courtroom. Good for you to finish Wives and Daughters. It was adapted to a movie, will you watch the movie? I shouldn't, but I have sort of been thinking what book I would pick after this one.... Now that is a goal--maybe knowing another new book is on the horizon will keep me on track.

[BuriedInPrint]

If I knew there was a film (which you mentioned in your last post), I had forgotten. That's certainly an extra incentive to read this now! Back in the spring, I made a list of all the super chunky books that had been lingering on my shelves for a long time (or recent additions that were also too chunky to carry around); now that I don't ever take a book with me when I go out (only to pick ulp groceries or to exercise in the early mornings), I don't have to give a thought to how long books are, so I've been trying to take advantage of the opportunity...but I'm not sure I'm actually reading any more long books than I usually do anyway. OH, well. Currently it's Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings, which is NOT brief, definitely not. LOL

[Danielle]

Do you find that your reading habits have changed a lot with the way we all live now? Is it more or less or the same but different? I think I did so much of my reading away from home and while exercising or on the bus that when I stopped doing that or now do it less, my reading kind of slowed. It is that whole focus thing for me. I would think I have more time to read--no having to take the bus to work, etc, so that time saved, but that time seems to disappear. I keep looking at my half read books pile which includes some chunkier books. Some recent stresses are keeping me from being able to concentrate on my books which really bothers me, but I Will get back to ASB this weekend. Did you finish Q?