The main thing is the size. (The edition I read was 1359 pages). If this book was, say, 300-400 pages with similar style and themes, it would likely have been read, tossed aside, and forgotten long ago. But any book 1000+ pages in length is automatically considered as having more significance than it deserves in this quick-read-paperback-thriller age.

The story takes place in India, shortly after independence, and deals with the lives and interactions of the members of 4 families. It includes both their everyday problems as well as their direct involvement with the politics and issues of the day. However, the central theme is the forbidden love between the Hindu Lata and Muslim Kabir, and the story follows Lata’s mother’s attempt to find a more “suitable boy” before things end in disaster. Meanwhile, other members of the families deal with their own problems – from winning elections to finding the meaning of life to dealing with health problems, etc. The scope is huge, weaving these intersecting lives into a picture of the entire nation at the time.

Anyone who has read War and Peace will find themselves attempting to compare the Russian masterwork to this Indian version, not because A Suitable Boy deserves to be placed in the same category, but because the size, structure, and family issues can be seen as somewhat in parallel. Here the ‘War’ is the class struggle and litigation following land reforms imposed on authoritarian Zamindars, as well as Hindu/Muslim tensions in the time period around Partition. The Rostovs are the Mehras, and a capricious Natasha is here an insipid Lata. The novel maintains a wide enough scope perhaps, but not the depth of emotion, depth of language and depth of philosophical insight necessary for a classic.

Now War and Peace is in a category apart, (I sometimes jokingly say the best novel in English is the English translation of a Russian novel), and obviously it isn’t completely fair to compare a modern novel to an immortal masterwork. However, novels of this type are rarely written and an author who wants to take on the entire human experience within a culture must accept a higher burden than the average novelist. These writers attempt to go all out, maintain hundreds of characters, dozens of storylines, as well as philosophical observations on the minutiae of human actions and the broad nature of man. Booklovers, after investing a great deal of time in reading, will feel cheated unless the entire structure is maintained and they come away with a feeling of emotional grandeur. A writer who attempts to do everything in one volume must do everything well.

Clearly, one of the author’s main jobs is to make the reader interested in the characters presented. But the affection between star-crossed lovers Lata and Kabir seems forced and insincere, though this is supposedly the central thread in the narrative. Others are presented in a better light. The degenerate Maan and the brooding Rasheed are likely the best of the lot and Mrs. Rupa Mehra is dead on as the vexed Indian mother. Still other, minor, characters pop up as gems throughout. The shifty Varun, Anglophile Arun are not bad. The character of Amit, daydreaming poet, is clearly Seth himself, and through him and by other means unnecessary poetry is snuck in wherever possible. Stereotypes abound, but India is the indeed a land where living stereotypes can be found.

Images follow one after another: a Nawab contemplating a crumbling way of life, frenzied devotees crushed in a tragic pilgrimage, plus the standard mix of marriages, deaths, religious ceremony, betrayals and a stabbing for good measure. One especially well done episode portrays a rustic Muslim village as seen through the eyes of the character Maan. The pace of the story is reasonable, although chapters devoted to the courtroom, while important, can stretch tediously and a certain blandness pervades all.

The last line of Seth’s poetic contents describing the players taking their bow is apt, as the general lifelessness of the characters makes the reader feel he’s witnessed a well costumed cast, poorly performing a lengthy play. Props to Seth for picking a realistic over a romantic ending, but to be harsh, by that point the reader has lost interest in the robot-like Lata.

There are nevertheless, a number of good points. Few if any books will give you such an extensive buffet of Indian history and law, humorous and tragic vignettes, religious commentary, and glimpses into the lives of musicians, politicians, courtesans, and working families. Also, this is a period novel, taking place a few years after independence, and the ‘feel’ is maintained believably throughout. This is especially important in context of the transition period after 1947 when the Brits were out but still in, landowners were in the middle of an identity crisis and Hindu-Muslim tensions were continually boiling. Incidents sometimes rich, sometimes affecting, and too numerous to mention here dot the narrative, but nothing can change the final impression: that this is the magnum opus of an average writer.

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The popularity of Phillip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials has increased lately because of the release of a movie based on Book I, and as a result of the explosion in mainstream atheist literature (Dawkins, Hitches, Harris, etc.)

The plot of Book III: The Amber Spyglass, rolls along, though slow and dark at times, but Pullman’s greatest triumph is the world he has created, not the storyline. The daemon system, (whereby a human is paired to an animal which acts as an external soul) by this third book has become entirely natural and poignant. The connection between Dust/Original Sin/Dark Matter is stirring, but might not be sufficiently tied together for the casual reader.

The plot so far has carried heroine Lyra and her daemon to a cave where she is being held by her apparently evil mother. Lyra’s friend Will, aided by a knife which can cut through dimensions, comes to her rescue and they set off to find answers to the chaos around them. Lyra’s father, Lord Asriel, is making war upon heaven and the fate of the future world, and all worlds apparently, hangs on the choices made by Lyra, a neo-Eve. Aided by witches and gypsies, Lyra and Will adventure to different worlds including the world of the dead in search for answers.

As for the characters: Mrs. Coulter is so robotically evil and erratic readers are unsure of what to think throughout. Similar inconsistencies with Lord Asriel cause us to shout “Dammit! are these people good or bad!?” But that is probably the question Pullman wants us to wrestle with. Lyra jumps back and forth between being a goofy, bratty kid and a mature serious woman, but again this may be intentional as Pullman has to keep her hovering on the edge of sexual discovery. Will is rocklike and unlikable (though with good cause) but for this reason his expected love for Lyra in the final chapters is somewhat awkward.

Readers of the first two books might remember points here and there where Pullman drives the strangeness of his world home. For example, in Book I where Lyra eats a raw kidney or in Book II when Iorek eats his friend Lee’s corpse. These act as exclamation points that Pullman nonchalantly throws in so the reader might catch his breath and say: ‘Yes indeed, this is a strange world, so different from our own.’ Dr. Mary Malone’s time among mulefa (somewhat of a rip off of Gulliver’s last journey, complete with bird yahoos?) seems to continue this, as a kind of originality/weirdness for originality’s/weirdness’s sake. This compounded weirdness, (having no archetypal root in the reader’s mind), tends to ‘thin’ a story as it goes on, and though you will applaud the originality, I think most will find this story fading faster in memory than comparable fantasies, unless reread at least once.

What lingers however is pure poetry. The final image of Lyra sitting alone in the Botanic Garden knowing Will is doing the same in the overlapping world is absolutely haunting, and it is a cynical son of a gun who can’t shed a tear at such a time. The weird factor plus childlike discovery factor plus the backdrop of abstract philosophy add up to many other beautiful dreamlike images which I feel are the final residual treasures in the series.

Social philosophy:

Readers may note concepts in the book including homosexual angels, few examples of married couples as compared to lovers, a nun who throws her crucifix into the ocean and later moves in with a man, anima/animus ideas etc, and accuse Pullman of having a not so subtle social agenda. Those who rage against the machine often have a tough sell, but Pullman is no more “right” or “wrong” than his critics in this area as these critics will attack his social philosophy with their own religious philosophy. Few will dare to think “beyond good and evil” (“God” bless quotation marks!)

Religious Philosophy:

Numerous fantasy authors attack churches indirectly (e.g. Robert Jordan’s Children of the Light) or do not touch God at all. Others, like C.S. Lewis, supported Christianity by being masterful but ‘original in an unoriginal way’. That is to say, Lewis took something ready made and confirmed it in the hearts of his accepting readers with allegory. Pullman, the anti-C.S. Lewis, throws subtlety and allegory out the window with an all powerful church centered in the money capital Geneva, an assassin priest who performs preemptive penance and, even the suggestion that the church cuts out the sexual organs of children.

Pullman’s slip is identifying the God he is using specifically as Yaweh/Adonnai. This gives the Christian church reason to attack his religious ideas when the core of the book is its philosophical ideas. You could attack Jesus(Da Vinci Code style), the Church(historically or with certain controversies today), Mohammad, Buddha, anyone you want, and make some progress one way or another, bunk and debunk endlessly, though believers and skeptics would multiply. This is why Pullman’s enemies are foaming at the mouth, because they feel they can refute him with substantial argument……..

Abstract Philosophy:

But ‘God’ is simply too abstract to ever be created or destroyed by man’s philosophy or argument. What Pullman has done here is take an entity considered infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, etc and presented him as merely a powerful though mortal imposter. The true question of God is not touched, and even some characters in the book express doubt over the nature and existence of a possible “true Creator” beyond and above the presented imposter. Pullman, wanting to destroy God, has taken the abstract concept of God, humanized and personified it, and destroyed it instead.

Now, within the confines of a story this is no problem, and if the author wants “blaspheme”, more power to him. He can and does score legitimate points off the church, and the concept of a “Republic of Heaven” is too stirring to ignore. But the concept of God taken outside the book, when the story ends and the philosophy continues, is just too weak to stand up. Christians can lose or gain faith in the church or angels or humanity, but would be foolish to lose faith in God over this book. Atheists and giant-killers should look for more potent ammunition.

Note: Book I, The Golden Compass a.k.a. Northern Lights and Book II, The Subtle Knife must be read before reading this final Book in the trilogy.

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Never fear, for Seventh Sanctum has a number of random generators which can be used to combat this dastardly disease. Much like a game of mad libs, the site creates unexpected elements: from characters and setting to plot ideas.

For example, I gave the Romance story generator a click and here’s what it came up with:

This story takes place in a town in Cuba. In it, a cruel physicist attends a social event and meets a gas station attendant who inherited a family curse. What starts as contempt quickly becomes a passionate affair – all thanks to a failure. What role will a chest being opened play in their relationship?

Ooo la la…What’s that I smell? Could it be the next bestseller? Though the generators are likely for humor purposes, you never know….the kernels of some of the greatest works of literature are made up of some fairly stock components, and nearly all can be succinctly and irreverently reduced:

Romeo and Juliet: Boy Meets girl. They die.

Moby Dick: Dude chases whale. Everybody dies.

The Bible: Guy dies. Comes back to life. Sequel held up by publisher.

Well you get the idea.

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

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