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See also: Midnight’s Children 300–05 ■ Interpreter of Maladies 338Vikram Seth
The son of a businessman and
a judge, Vikram Seth was born
in 1952 in Calcutta, India.
After leaving the Doon School,
he completed his schooling in
Tonbridge, England, and went
on to Oxford University,
studying philosophy, politics,
and economics (PPE). He
received a master’s degree in
economics from Stanford
University, California, and
later spent some time in
China, where he studied
classical Chinese poetry. He
now lives in England but
keeps close contact with India.
Seth’s written works
include poetry, a children’s
book, and three novels. In
2009 he announced that he
was working on a sequel to
A Suitable Boy, titled A
Suitable Girl. Initially due to
finish the novel in 2013, he
commented on BBC’s radio
program Desert Island Discs in
2012 that the pace of work
was slow: “The sound
of deadlines pushing past is
one of the sounds that authors
are most familiar with.”Other key works1986 The Golden Gate
1999 An Equal Music
2005 Two Lives (biography)Indian English novelists has
emerged, most of whom have
chosen to focus on the themes of
postcolonial India, including the
impact of imperialism, religious
tensions, and the caste system.Intertwined stories
Salman Rushdie was one of the first
of the so-called Indian diasporic
novelists—Indian writers living
outside India. His Booker Prize-
winning Midnight’s Children, with
its blend of Hindu myth, Bombay
movies, magic realism, and hybrid
use of English peppered with
Indian terms, is the starting point
of what has been described as
a renaissance in Indian English
literature, mainly produced by
diasporic authors. Several writers
followed Rushdie, including Vikram
Seth, whose novel A Suitable Boy
was published in 1993.Epic in scale, A Suitable Boy is one
of the longest novels in the English
language. Set in the early 1950s—
soon after India’s independence
and partition in 1947—the novel
follows the fortunes of four families
over a period of 18 months. Three of
the families, the Mehras, Chatterjis,
and Kapoors—all of whom are
middle-class, educated Hindus—
are related to each another by
marriage. The fourth family, the
aristocratic, Muslim Khans, are
friends of the Kapoors.
The novel opens in the fictional
town of Brahmpur, on the Ganges
river between Banares (also known
as Varanasi) and Patna, although
events also take place in Calcutta,
Delhi, and Kanpur. These places are
described with immense
richness, and often with wit. Seth
recreates, in magnificent, almost
photographic, detail the India of
the early 1950s, bringing to vivid
life the Ganges river, the crowded,
bustling streets and markets,
the country’s extremes of wealth
and poverty, and its wonderfully
varied landscapes. Central to ❯❯CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
Towns along the Ganges river
pulsate with life and color, providing
a vibrant backdrop to the interweaving
stories and multiple realities of the
India evoked by Seth’s narrative.US_314-317_SuitableBoy.indd 315 08/10/2015 13:11