Rating: 
Summary: Love, Hate, Greed, Passion...
Review: Through those 1200+ pages, one live and breadth with Lata, Kabir, Maan, Saida, Mahesh Kapoor and all the characters from this epic. Although becomes too dragged sometime, this is finest literary work.
Rating: 
Summary: dickens all over again
Review: This book is for people who like Dickens. I'm a big fan of Seth, and have read and enjoyed most of his other books, but I just didn't have the stomach to get more than 100 pages into this. The array of characters is stunning, and I just couldn't remember each one, or get attached to any of them. I'll probably go back and read this book when I'm 70 and have the time to pour over this tome. His tone has a laughing clarity to it that's wonderful.But for now, I have to give it a miss.
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: Do not be put off by the size of this novel - it would have been impossible for the author to encompass such a saga in a smaller volume. I could not put this book down - the characters are unlike any I have found to date in modern literature - you can really like and care about these people. There is no authorial grandstanding whatsoever, just magnificent storytelling, coming from the heart! I cannot recommend this book highly enough - I believe that Vikram Seth is the best author writing today.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond comparision and undoubtedly the best of the best...
Review: Being an ardent fan of RK Narayan,the trip from the peaceful south indian town, -Malgudi (inhabitated by tamil and kannada people) to the Religious clashes-prone North Indian town of Brahmpur was quite fascinating. It took me a good nine months to complete this bulky book which dealt with four well-to-do families set in the background of newly independent india,the main plot being the search for a suitable boy for the well-educated Lata. The narration was awesome, the style-amazing,the characters-extremely lovable,the tempo-gripping(if not in the beginning). All these made Vikram my latest favourite.Thank you bengal for giving us another literary tiger. Saeda bai's singings, Kuku's couplets,Rupa Mehra's parental upbraids,Maan's amorous ventures,Lata's longings (for kabir),young bhaskar's mathematical inquisitiveness,kabir's alacrity and sportmanship,street urchin -biscuit's pranks,Dipankar's spirutual insights,Arun's arrogant uprighteousness,Mahesh Kapoor's political battles,Varun's gambling sagas, ,Mrs Mahesh Kapoor's religous sentiments, Haresh's job struggles,rasheed's socialistic tendencies are superbly described and will be remembered by the readers for a long long time. There are hordes of instances of heart touching scenes,wonderful parliament speeches,witty remarks,lovely poems and tragic aspects of religiuos intolerence which made "A suitable boy" a must-read by any indian and those who want to know about india in its pristine spirit. and I will finally end with a Kuku's couplet.. Couldn't stop becoming seth's fan after reading 'A Suitable boy', which left me with tremendous satisfaction and unlimited joy.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a treasure
Review: Too long? No way. Seth creates an entire world that is a joy to experience. I left this book feeling sorry that it wasn't longer, that I couldn't spend more time with these characters.
Rating:
Summary: Novel as Gimmick
Review: This book just cries out for an editor to cut the oodles of extraneous stuff in it. The story's OK and would deserve more stars if it were told in a leaner manner. In its present form, it seems nothing more than a gimmick to get press and promote sales.
Rating:
Summary: 7 life times later....i've finally finished
Review: On the cover of my copy of 'A Suitable Boy' there is a quote from 'Time' magazine (or 'The New York Times'..I.can't remember which one) which says: 'Make friends with it, it'll be with you for a lifetime". Thats because it will take you a lifetime to read it! With work and study commitments (and general lack of interest in certain chapters) getting in the way, it seemed like many lifetimes passed before I could put it back on the shelf ..... for good! All in all I was dissappointed with this book - it was rather too long winded....... more to do with the newly-independent-Indian political arena and less to do with the actual quest for a 'suitable boy' With regard to Lata and her three suitors, and her final choice, the story seemed to lack any emotion. It was more like a potrayal of events (moving at a head-spinning pace) in a very objective manner, devoid of any insight into their thoughts and emotions. At most times, the characters seemed more robotic than human.. The potential was there for quite a few good stories...but Seth failed to develop them. The introduction to the Chatterji's and their rhyming couplets with their refreshingly 'open minded' approach to life, was defenitly one of the few highlights in this novel, but my final conclusion is that Vikram Seth seems to have used this novel to do nothing more than boast about his political knowledge and his over extensive verbosity (don't forget to keep your Oxford dictionary on hand when reading this book!).
Rating:
Summary: the best book i have ever read
Review: i got this book at april and never really got round to reading it with studying. i started reading it around the june july and never could part myself from the wonderful storylines and different things going on at once in the book. i have just finished it and i wish it was longer. it gives the reader the point of view from the girl lata and her mother who only wants whats best for her daughter and what latas late father would have wanted. i would read it again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: Is there something wrong with me?
Review: There obviously has to be something terribly wrong with me in the face of all the rave reviews-I simply found this to be the most boring,tedious book I've ever read!
Rating:
Summary: A delightful read, indian emotions vented like never before
Review: What spurred me on on this read, was the surfacing of emotions which many of us share but has never actually been put onto paper, and so exquisitely so. I'm awfully happy the indian perspective on the indians has been shown, and so pleasurably at that. I, myself, have never lived in the indian subcontinent living in the UK all my life, but this book really hit home. I can relate to Lata in some ways and to Malati aswell, if not in more ways. Mrs Rupa Mehra is a classic character and though she annoyed me at first (as the mother obsessed in hitching her daughter off asap, it hit too close to home!). But she grew on me. Kabir is definitely a typical occurence, the 'forbidden' being especially common in the West. I hate Haresh, even if I am supposed to, and I lost sympathy for Lata when she chose him over Kabir and Amit. But I'm sure I'll get over it. I first thought she was weak, in taking the easy way out which kept most parties happy, but maybe she was strong in choosing the loud Haresh over the dashing Kabir, or the intelligent poet; she looked to her future and chose the path which would give her most happiness- a strength which I still need to discover in myself. My mother has not read the book, but I'm sure she will approve of it! Mr. Seth, thank for such a truly fab read, and if I may use a cliche, "Why, you're Tolstoy reborn!"
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