A Suitable Boy

In this post I’m going to share some thoughts on A Suitable Boy by comparing it with three English classics, Pride and Prejudice, Far From the Madding Crowd and Middlemarch.

This was not the first time I tried to read novels set in India but this was the first time that I succeeded. I tried three Indian novels before, Midnight’s Children, The Life of Pi, which is partly set in India and Kim, which is one of the most difficult Victorian novels I’ve ever read! In comparison, A Suitable Boy is a lot more readable. It’s a straightforward narrative, nothing too poetic, too philosophical, or too political.

It’s set in a newly post-independence, post-partition India, which is about the 1950s. The book is about the ordinary family life of four families, things like sibling relationships, romantic relationships and marriage, and friendship across families and religions; but on a bigger scale, it also looks at religious unrest, social and political changes in the wider society, like the happenings in the parliament, passing of new laws, election campaigns, all during a period of 18 months.

It might sound a bit odd to compare an Indian novel to 18th-century and 19th-century English classics. My mind was directed this way because the novel mentioned a lot of works of English literature, e.g. Emma and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, and Agatha Christie. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night featured heavily.

What I don’t know is if there’s a double meaning to the mentioning of these works, like in Mansfield Park, the characters in Lovers’ Vows map onto the characters in Mansfield Park; or the author just gave certain novels and writers to his characters as part of their personality.

Pride and Prejudice

The protagonist is a university student called Lata. One of the main storylines is Lata’s mother’s effort to marry her off to ‘A Suitable Boy’ – that element immediately reminds me of Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.

Lata’s mother Mrs Rupa Mehra was not as embarrassing as Mrs Bennet, but she was more blatantly manipulative emotionally – e.g. Mrs Bennet would say ‘no one cares about my poor nerves’, Mrs Rupa Mehra in the same situation would say quite aggressively, ‘you’ll appreciate me more when I’m dead!’ Let me give you an example.

The opening scene is the wedding of Savita (Lata’s sister, Mrs Rupa Mehra’s older daughter). The author gives an excellent portrait of Mrs Rupa Mehra in a few short paragraphs – an anxious, fussy, overly sentimental mother. It also sets the tone of the novel – whenever Mrs Rupa Mehra appears, it guarantees amusement. Let me read you the opening paragraphs.

‘You too will marry a boy I choose,’ said Mrs Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter. Lata avoided the maternal imperative by looking around the great lamp-lit garden of Prem Nivas. The wedding guests were gathered on the lawn. ‘Hmm,’ she said. This annoyed her mother further.

‘I know what your hmms mean, young lady, and I can tell you I will not stand for hmms in this matter. I do know what is best. I am doing it all for you. Do you think it is easy for me, trying to arrange things for all four of my children without His help?’ Her nose began to redden at the thought of her husband, who would, she felt certain, be partaking of their present joy from somewhere benevolently above…’

She asserted authority and control over her daughter’s life – ‘you too will marry a boy I choose’ – she chose a boy for Savita and today was their wedding day, she would do the same for Lata and Lata would marry just as she dictated. But the fact that she had to emphasise this verbally shows that she was losing control over her daughter’s life and she was not confident Lata would accept her choice.

Lata didn’t agree or disagree and just pretended she didn’t hear. It sounds like they had this discussion often and Lata couldn’t be bothered to start a full-blown argument on her sister’s wedding day. But she was set up not to be the traditional obedient daughter, but a bit of a rebel. We get the sense immediately that the story is going to be about the battle between Lata and her mother over the choice of Lata’s husband.

Then the emotionally manipulative mother’s trump card – ‘I am doing it all for you’ – ‘I’m doing this all for you and you’re not even grateful’ – while Lata was probably thinking, who asked you to do this, you’re forcing this on me, against my wish and will, and you think I’m indebted to you. I’d rather you not do this thing, less work for you, less annoyance for me.

Then she raised the stakes with tears – I have to take care of four children without the help of my husband, do you know how difficult it is? A widow, all alone. Should you not obey my every word?

The same pattern appeared throughout the book – She would demand to read Lata’s letters and order how she should respond. She would take Lata away from a city to stop her from seeing an unsuitable boy. If Lata disobeyed, Mrs Rupa Mehra would use the same weapons against her daughter.

Lata also had a gentle and kind sister whose personality reminds me of Jane Bennet, though their storyline was less comparable.

Lata was at the beginning a witty, high-spirited and modern girl, just like Lizzy Bennet, especially compared to her mother who had very traditional views and ways and her sister who was very obedient and mild. But very quickly I found her not as interesting as Lizzy Bennet.

One thing that struck me most is the energy – you might remember I mentioned how I admired Lizzy Bennet’s energy and easiness of mind in my July wrap up – I was equally struck by Lata’s weariness and indecisiveness. When facing a marriage proposal, she hated the decision so much that she said, ‘I wish I would wake up one day and find I’d been married to someone for six years…‘

Another thing is she didn’t know quite what she wanted. She was not content with a marriage like her sister’s but she didn’t have the courage to pursue the man she loved. While she was still in love with one man, she started a relationship with another. She avoided making up her mind and kept going back and forth. In the end she made the decision by removing the unfavourable choices. She compromised and reconciled to the idea of marriage that she rejected at the beginning.

Far From the Madding Crowd

Just like Bathsheba, Lata got three husband candidates. Not just Lata, Tasnim, another girl in the book, had tragic encounters with three men as well.

Kabir was a fellow university student Lata loved emotionally, but because they were from different religious backgrounds, there was little chance they could be together. We’re made very aware of the uneasy relationship between the Hindus and the Muslims in India, especially by seeing the two riots.

Haresh was an ambitious hard-working young man chosen by Lata’s mother. Following him, we see a lot of the men’s world, especially in the workplace. We also see poverty and the shoe manufacturing industry. I’m sure the fact that the author’s father worked in this area had an impact on this plot line.

Amit was a poet with some fame, who was also related to Lata by her brother’s marriage. Among the three boys who were entangled in Lata’s love life, Amit was my favourite. I love him and his eccentric family. I wonder if the author had a model to base this family on; they were all wonderfully weird, had strong personalities, but felt completely natural and real, even the fierce dog called Cuddles.

I’m always partial to supporting casts. Amit had the same relaxed air as Fred and George Weasley. His speech and mannerism were witty and laid back; he didn’t take himself or life too seriously, which was completely opposite to Haresh, which I guess can be a problem if he needed to support a family. He was the one Lata was the most comfortable with, they were good friends. But I won’t tell you who she married in the end.

In the shadow of a house that Lata never knew, there lived another young woman who also had three suitors. Her story was a lot more tragic than Lata. Lata never knew Tasnim, so she could never know how fortunate she was in comparison, even though she was bitter and disappointed about her marriage prospect.

Middlemarch

Both Pride and Prejudice and Far From the Madding Crowd help me to understand the characters; lastly, for the structure of the story, I think A Suitable Boy feels a little bit like an Indian version of Middlemarch.

Middlemarch has four plot lines: 1) the life of Dorothea Brooke, first with Casaubon, then with Ladislaw; 2) the medical career of Lydgate and marriage with Rosamond Vincy; 3) the courtship of Mary Garth by Fred Vincy, and 4) the disgrace of Nicholas Bulstrode.

Two novels don’t map onto each other directly but there are many similar elements:

The families in both stories are interconnected through marriages, everyone seems to be everyone’s in-laws, and everyone is nosy about other people’s business.

They are both about a few middle-class families with parents and grown-up children; the novels show different types of dynamics between husbands and wives, and how their children turn out.

Maan, a young man whose father was the Revenue Minister in the government was very much like Fred Vincy whose father was the town mayor. Maan and Fred did not have proper jobs because they did not need to support themselves, they were idle and sluggish, and they sank deeper and deeper into debt and dishonour.

The Nawab Sahab of Baiter House lived a pious life throughout the novel but ended up in disgrace like Nicholas Bulstrode, though for different wrongdoings they committed when they were young. The tragic consequence of both older men’s actions fell on the younger generation.

Lata as mentioned earlier was too despondent to be compared to Dorothea; but her sister Savita and her newborn baby drew the same kind of attention as Dorothea’s sister.

Both stories had an election, where an older man ran a campaign and a young idle busybody became the unexpected but helpful assistant.

Conclusion

I enjoyed it. There are not always page-turning twists and turns, but it opens such a brilliant window to the Indian culture and society that I knew nothing about.

I felt A Suitable Boy was a bit too long. The tone slowly became subdued and dark; the climax was slightly unexpected; the joyful occasion in the last chapter did not feel very joyful and Mrs Rupa Mehra stopped popping up to lighten the tone. Maybe it was on purpose, but by the end, I took a deep breath. I enjoyed my journey but I was glad it was finally finished.

If you read the novels mentioned above, what do you think? Did you see these similarities? Did you notice anything else that I missed?