Caroline Moore
Among the Members of a Quartet
Vikram Seth ought to have won the Booker Prize in 1993 – or so most of those who have read A Suitable Boy will surely agree. It gives a superb portrait of a whole nation in a time of political, social and cultural turmoil; but it is for the human portraits that it will be loved and remembered. Mrs Rupa Mehra, the lachrymose, exasperating, transparently manipulative and infinitely touching mother, who is seeking a suitable boy as a husband for her daughter Lata, is a glorious comic creation.
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'"Dutch Light" roots its subject in his local environment, explaining, for example, how an abundance of sand for making glass led naturally to a thriving business in optical instruments in Holland.'
Patricia Fara on the life & work of Christiaan Huygens.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/through-the-magnifying-glass
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'We may not be able to shield ourselves from irrational passions such as hatred, anger, envy, mockery and pride, or from the buffetings of circumstance, but we can rise above them by obtaining insight into their nature and their causes.'
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