WHY VIKRAM SETH

MATTERS
By S.B. Veda
The Global Calcuttan www.globalcalcuttan.com

VIKRAM SETH: A Virtuoso Comes Calling, Again

There are two pillars, of whom it can be said are responsible for supporting the structure of what Salman
Rushdie likes to call contemporary Indo-Anglian writing (the writing of Indian origin people in the English
language): one is Rushdie, himself; and the other is Vikram Seth.

Why, you ask? (hint: its not politics, though his outspoken critique of Article 377 of the Indian Constitution,
which criminalizes sexual acts against nature has rallied the educated public to be more tolerant of gays,
lesbians and bisexuals.)

Because at a time when Indian writers were straining to outwit themselves with witticism, sarcasm, and
various other isms, some involving whirlwinds of expositions from the tongues of cheeky narrators, Vikram
Seth authored a contemporary literary classic: A Suitable Boy.

Set in India and epic in its sweep, it is nearly 1500 pages in paperback edition, and well over half a million
words, making it one of the longest novels ever published in the English language. The length alone prompted
one critic to remark: I hope I get through it before Im dead!

The response has been very different from the vast majority of readers, making it one of the longest works of
fiction to be so widely read, in the history of English Literature.

I read the book in my early twenties around a year after it was published. After buying it (then not an
insubstantial purchase for a student of little means at least not for a novel, anyway) I was not confident I
would finish it.
Not yet a teenager, I had pounded through Rushdies Booker Prize winning, Midnights Children as if it were
an obligation and that too, at my fathers insistence. Rushdies follow-up novel, Shame was easier to
assimilate. More matured in my reading, I was overwhelmed by the magnificent prose in the controversial
novel, The Satanic Verses but it seemed to take me forever to get through a chapter, the book was so full of
meaning and meanings.

The point is: I like to read slowly, letting the story sink in. As one might imagine, I was somewhat intimidated
the sheer volume of pages comprising A Suitable Boy. Still, like the man who climbed Everest because it was
there, I began reading the tome with a nervous bravado and was hooked from the opening sentence, finishing
it in a couple of days.

It was a pleasure to consume a story set in India, which read not unlike Austen or Dickens stories as much
about period and place as characters and plot. Seth seemed to have written the book unselfconsciously but
brimming with meaning, indicating the thought he must have put into each sentence, each phrase, each
individual word.

The story consists as a tapestry of plot-lines, seamlessly woven together from the threads that form the story
arc of each character. The relationships between them stitch the characters together unforgettable creations,
many of them. It is the history of 1950s India reduced to its barest elements, the drama of life on a personal
level in a new country whose people were striving to define themselves, absent their shared oppressor. That it
all comes together so engagingly is a testament not only to Seths talent but also his supreme confidence as a
writer.

And, while Rushdie can be considered the quintessential writers writer, Seth is a readers author. He offers
stories that are leisurely written with the clarity and poise of a Victorian novel.

When he started writing A Suitable Boy, Seth had written only one novel, and that even in verse a rarity at
the time. (His success has seen a resurgence in narrative poetry, since.) His travel book, Heavens Lake was
acclaimed, and his skill with the sonnet was well-known but Seth was far from a household name. Still, he was
bold, singular, and uncompromising in his aim to paint a layered, complex, and meaningful portrait in his
slice of life (more like chunk of life) epic on post-independence India and her many challenges.

He knew the book would be long to allow enough narrative space for the different plot lines to bloom but was
unfazed by warnings about the dwindling attention span of readers during an age where fewer and fewer
people, it seemed, were reading novels in the English speaking world.

Seth rejected the first offer he got to publish it on the grounds that what was being offered did not adequately
compensate him for the time, effort, and commitment to this work; he felt his product had been undervalued.
He went back to work, polishing, perfecting. When he was finished, he was offered ten times more by another
publisher. Though he called it a ludicrous sum, no doubt, he felt vindicated for his efforts, a mere six years
in the making.

His then editor David Davidar, whom this writer interviewed during the Kolkata Literary Meet in 2013,
commented, We had the most outrageously enjoyable shouting matches. One might imagine what a
Herculean feat it must have been, editing a book, down, to nearly fifteen hundred pages! How long was the
original? one is apt to wonder.

But that was the joy of working with Vikram. There is nobody else like him. Hes special. Added Davidar,
who went on to be CEO of Penguin International and Penguin Canada, before his return to India to start a new
venture in publishing, Aleph Books. His company, which has a distribution arrangement with Rupa Books,
has purchased the rights to Seths hotly anticipated sequel, A Suitable Girl.

The two were a formidable team as Seth camped out in Davidars home in Mumbai, during the exacting task of
deciding what words would make the cut on the final printed page. Perfectionist to the last word, Seth was
even involved even in typesetting, much to the chagrin of the publisher. So particular was the author that he
demanded that the last sentence end on the last line of the last page. (A psychiatrist friend of mine, who
specializes in OCD would, no doubt, have something to say about that but what one man might describe as
obsession, another man will call genius.) The reviews reflected an appraisal that was closer to the latter.
After a thunderous launch and rave reviews, the book was snubbed by the judges of the Man Booker Prize,
leading some to wonder if there was as maybe just the barest twinge of jealousy in this unknown Indian man
being compared to Tolstoy.

It puts me in mind of a reading I attended at National Library of Canada during the early nineties when Seth
was promoting A Suitable Boy. One of the audience members asked him how he felt in being compared to the
Legendary Russian novelist. Seth paused, and responded with his characteristic playfulness. Wellhow
would you feel?

How indeed?

Perhaps the comparison has done him more harm than good, though it is an entirely reasonable one. Like
Tolstoy, Seth internalizes history through the eyes of characters, who are linked by blood or friendship, and he
uses the most universal story one to which many, not only Indians, can relate: a brides search for the right
groom. In this case the bride and family are a tense amalgam, searching together while often being at odds.

The premise knocks down all pretension; it is simple, straight forward, and necessary in the context of the
society upon which Seth sought to elaborate during the period he was depicting. In the process, the pressing
issues of the time add tension and drama, bringing many dialectics up against each other Hindu vs. Muslim,
Reason vs. Passion, Elitism vs. Populism, The Feudal System vs. Land Reform, Love vs. Possession and he
describes it all in such detail as to render as simple, the complexities of politics and religion in a pluralistic
new democracy as the sights, sounds, and smells of a leather tannery. The narration is gloriously smooth,
enabling the reader glide through the story while the words sink into the subconscious at least that was my
experience of it.

In the end, the story is true to its name: the protagonist unites with someone, who is suitable neither the most
romantic figure, nor the most talented nor even the most intelligent but one who will make the best
companion in life, someone with whom she can settle down and have a family. It is perhaps this rational
choice, seen by many (female readers, in particular) as a compromise, which perhaps hammered the nail in the
coffin for Seth on the awards circuit. Some might have found this to be a vindication of a society with
intrinsically oppressive social elements controlling the lives of people, especially to women. Ironically, Seths
female protagonists Lata especially challenge this notion.

There is love, death, murder, drama, drunkenness, and sexuality but no crudityas has become a mainstay in
the South Asian narrative no shocking for the sake of getting a reaction out of the reader. In the end A
Suitable Boy is a very traditional novel on a traditional subject with a traditional outcome by a very non-
traditional novelist, who makes it all seem remarkably fresh.

Seths writing allows one to enjoy the sophistry of his story-telling without the encumbrance of an overbearing
wit or the friction one encounters in prose that is too heavily stylized.

With fans clamouring for a sequel, Seth would go on to follow A Suitable Boy with a novel proved to be very
different, and not at all ethnic in the scope of the story. An Equal Music was about his other passion, music.
Then came a memoir of the love story: the non-fiction story of his great aunt and uncle, an inter-cultural
couple who found love during an improbable time-space.

Music and the rhyme dominated his later years, composing song for A Rivered Earth a collaborative concert
series with British composer Alec Roth and the violinist Philippe Honor. A critical element of Seths
sensibility as an artist, his love of music is innate and frankly very demanding from the beginning it is the
focus of many scenes of A Suitable Boy, and features prominently in An Equal Music. The concert series came
out of the cultural life of Salisbury, England, where he resides and in which he is an active participant.

He believes that in his home country of India music breaks through caste and class and religion. It belongs to
everyone, he told the Ottawa Citizen, my home-town newspaper. He was introduced to Indian classical music
early on, but when he came to England to study, the door opened to other styles and other individuals Bach
and the Beatles. He particularly enjoys Schubert and admits to a compulsion to sing out whenever someone
hits the piano for a lied or two, especially if his old friend and editor Kim McArthur is playing. He calls her his
liederine.

Novelist, poet, librettist, calligrapher, essayist, photographer, traveller and polyglot, it is perhaps Seths myriad
of talents and interests and penchant to explore, travel, which are at the root of his inability to move forward in
a straight line. Ever restless, perennially intrigued, unsatisfied by skimming the surface of a topic, he learned
Mandarin Chinese (including calligraphy) eventually translating the poets Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu, doing
so simply because he was dissatisfied with the quality of English translation available to him.

Its almost as if he is too brilliant, incredibly multi-talented to focus on one thing, like writing a book. Says
Malavika Bannerjee, Director of The Kolkata Literary Meet in which Seth inaugurated in 2012 and is due to
participate in 2014.

This is what likely got him in trouble on his way to writing A Suitable Girl, the planned sequel to his classic
novel of opposite nomenclature. Penguin International, his publisher had advanced him roughly $1.7 million
with the intention of launching and marketing the novel last year, which would coincide with the
20
th
anniversary of A Suitable Boy. However, Seth was far from finished, prompting them to ask for the
money back.

Still, it is not unreasonable for an audience to await the next opus from the imagination of a virtuoso. The
publishing world at large has chosen to accept this and accept him just as the corporate types at Penguin were
determined to take a hard line. Seths agent David Godwin promptly got him a substitute deal for the same
amount with his original publisher, Orion.

The wait for his sequel to A Suitable Boy, which is due to come out sometime in 2016 has made anticipation
for it rise to even dizzier heights. It is sure to be a best-seller, even if it doesnt rise to the high expectations.
(Though, I expect it will exceed them; for Seth is not one to submit a work for publication before it is ready).
I am curious to see how he tells the story of modern India through the eyes of the same protagonist, Lata, of A
Suitable Boy, now a grandmother, and doing to her grandson what her mother had done to or for her.

Twenty years later I am a different reader, and Seth is surely a different writer. India is a vastly different
country, so the only thing I expect to be similar is that age old premise what does a guy doting and
manipulative grandmother have to do to find him the right gal? Not the best gal, or the most enthralling one,
just the right one or the one who is most suitable.