This book is damn heavy and thick. It's a tale of an Indian girl and her mother's attempt to find a suitable boy, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. And at the same time, it's a story of India, including the election processes, the conflict of Muslim and Hindu, and the political parties.
I must admit I skimmed read some parts of the book, because I was not too interested in the political aspects of the book. But i throroughly enjoy the love story, and the girl's journey in love and life. The book contains too many characters, I fell in love with almost all of them. Unlike most novels that has a couple main characters, and a great deal of the book is about them... the author of this book explored each characters in this book, and allow the readers to see the secrets, the soul and the hearts of the individuals. Hence, i ended up loving almost all the characters, even the ones that were presented to be antagonistic.
The main character had a choice of choosing (a) a Muslim boy she strongly loved and passionatedly crazy about, who she could really talk to and understand,but was not approved by her old fashioned widowed mother and family, (b) a lovely and funny poet, from a well todo family, who she shared many funny and lovely moments with, just like a real friend do and (c), a strong and capable man, who was kind and fell deeply in love with her, who was approved by her family, and who'd move mountains for her but who was not at the same brain wave length with her.
At the end, she chose the 'suitable boy'. And i felt sad with the choice.
