This is the ideal book for the long summer afternoons that are coming (or for those long waits in airports that may be coming). It is long, it is also a vast canvass of life in all its forms. Once you know the characters you are gripped. Every variety of real life is here to be enjoyed with some wonderful vignettes of life. It doesn't matter how much or little you know about India, this is a book to show that whatever your background or where ever you come from the concerns of people are the same the world over.

This is my second time of reading this wonderful book. I read it many years ago and the recent TV production prompted me to read it again. There are fascinating details of the lives of more characters within the book, plus many facts relating to the effects of the partition of India. There are so many subjects covered in the book - politics, the law, education, religion, poverty, the arts, family relationships - stories intertwined with the quest of a mother who is determined to marry her daughter to a Suitable Boy. After my first reading I decided that this book would be my choice to take to the desert island of Desert Island Discs fame!

This is a HUGE book. There's a lot of it. There are a LOT of characters. There's a lot going on. However, I loved it so much the first time I read it that I read it again a couple of years later. And both times, I took away a different detail, a different element, a different insight...I recommend this book to anyone who likes intricate details, stories about human kind, stories about love - romantic love, family love, love of friends...

This, as has been said in other reviews, is a very large book, you will need to make time to read it. That said, it will be time well spent! This is not just a novel, it is a full Indian soap opera for the intellectual. While it can be said that there is a 'main' character, it really has lots of equally important characters, all linked in some way. It is a story of love, the pursuit of happiness, of politics, of big legal changes, of religion and of status (or lack of it). It is not a book for someone who wants a quick easy read, it is a book for the serious reader. It has opened my eyes to some of India's cultures and traditions and to the way of family life in this wonderful country,

Deep insight into Indian culture and history during a critical period of change. At its core, the story follows a mother's quest to find a "suitable boy" for her daughter, Lata, but expands to cover intricate subplots related to politics, religious tensions, and family dynamics. Vikram Seth's masterful prose is established for its wit, humor, and poetic flair.