Can I just say, I'm glad I'm finished with this mammoth book? I have a lot of complaints about this book, but there is no point in going into those.

Yet, here I go, anyway:

1) A book this long is so much more enjoyable to read in e-book form. None available. (I can't believe a sequel is being written. It's been 13 years since this was published and no sign of A Suitable Girl yet. I wonder how many pages it will be?)

2) A book that revolves so much around religions that are unfamiliar is so much more enjoyable if things are explained a little more. Goodness knows the book took the time with everything else.

3) The politics sections, hefty chunks of this book, left me both lost and bored. That is a personal issue, I suppose. I loathe politics. In hindsight, given that I read this during the height of the 2016 US Presidential election, I could have chosen a better escape from the real world.

4) Somehow, even 1400 pages in, I still had to look at the family trees at the front of the book to keep straight who was whose sister, brother-in-law, mother. Again, that is on me, I guess. (Reminded me of my relationship with the family trees in One Hundred Years of Solitude, except here at least the names were more distinct.)

That said, I learned a lot about post-partition India. (Heck, I'll admit it: I learned about partition, which I was wholly unaware of. Blame my Western education.) I did get a few chuckles here and there which is just absolutely critical to my awarding this three, instead of two, stars.

Oh, and I checked this book off of my BBC Great Reads list. It only took me most of the year and an extended break from the book to do it.