Comments on: A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

By: girldetective

girldetective — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:58:48 +0000

C, Post Birthday World has been pushed to the back of the line for now. Too many books crowding for attention, first of which is HP7.

By: carolyn

carolyn — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:35:25 +0000

the more i reflect on ‘post birthday world’ the less i liked it (and the less i think my high expectations were to blame). jessica jernigan (if you read her site?) didn’t like it either.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:39:01 +0000

Carrie, if you liked the quote, you’d likely like the book. I really do recommend it.

Kate, I brought Mansfield Park on my current trip, and am surprised and somewhat peeved by the slow progress I’m making. I am very much enjoying it, though, and find it dark and complex, and thus unlike Emma and Pride and Prejudice. I think Austen was pushing her authorial envelope, and I am interested to explore how it fits into the Austen canon as soon as I’m done.

All those others will have to wait. Next I’m re-reading Eat Pray Love for a book group, and I think I’ll do Lionel Shriver’s The Post Birthday World after that. I brought both those on my current trip, but I think MP is going to be it for me.

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:37:00 +0000

I loved that book! The socio-political commentary intertwined with a boy-meets-girl-romance story reminded me of Anthony Trollope’s novels. As to the other books you’re considering, I heartily recommend them all, save Anna Karenina, and that only because I haven’t read it yet - but I plan to!

By: Carrie (Reading to Know)

Carrie (Reading to Know) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 21:30:33 +0000

I (*gulp*) have never heard of it. But it sounds interesting and I’m going to tuck it away on my TBR list (the page numbers seem a bit daunting for this time in my life). I very much enjoyed the quote you gave at the beginning of your post. I concur!

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:34:20 +0000

I read Mansfield Park this last winter and didn’t really know what I was getting into when I started. I’ll be curious to see what you think about it, when you get to it.

I ultimately enjoyed it, but for someone who is used to reading books very, very quickly (including other Austen novels), there was an initial shock when I realized this was a far larger investment than I originally planned.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:36:33 +0000

I felt he did a great job of making the characters so real that it felt as if I did know them. I became emotionally invested with all of them, and was so surprised by the suitable boy that Lata married at the end. It was as if Lizzie Bennet married Mr. Collins, albeit a more complex and sympathetic Mr. Collins.

By: carolyn

carolyn — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:45:39 +0000

i loved ‘a suitable boy’ as well!! but it was many years ago now that i read it. i didn’t like seth’s follow-up books as much, they just didn’t form the same kind of emotional connections.