Everything is great about these poems. The rhymes are clever, beautiful and very often funny. In the tales the good wins from the bad, but after trial and tribulations, and always in unexpected ways. One of my favourite lines is about a goat and a ram: "They ate with pride as if to balance, their total lack of other talents". But quoting excellent lines would take about as long as the book itself.

These are not children's rhymes, but I read them to my sons of 10 and 13 years old and we all three have a great time.

In short, this is a feast for the mind and for the ears. Try reading the poems out loud and u'll know what i mean. Ten beautiful fairy tales taken and woven into pages of beautiful humourous poetry, what else would you want? I could not resist reading them 4 times... do buy them u'll REEEELY enjoy them.

Yes, Yes, Yes! Please get the publishers to publish the book. I want to gift this book to a dozen people I know. Delightful verses, charming illustrations too.

I think Vikram Seth is the best author in this whole of world. This novel is just terrific and i am tempted to read it again and again. I think everybody ought to read it atleast once.

Ever since i saw this book it took me long to gather courage to read such a book. And much longer to complete it. The moment i completed the last page of throwing oranges to a group of monkeys, it made me feel that it was worth reading. The characters pictured here are really amazing. How all the varities of human life can be stored in a single brain of Mr.Seth. That wonders me. Till now. I can't escape the thoughts of Lata, Maan, Kabir, Haresh, Varun , Meehakshi, Kakoli, Mrs Rupa Mehra, Arun, Pran and all those. I liked Maan's heart, Lata's sensibilities, Malati's companionship, Mrs Mehra's responsibilities, Pran's arguments, Kabir's Passion, Haresh's practicability, Amit's poetry, Firoz's friendship, Arun's angriness, Varun's simplicity, Mahesh Kapoor's politics, Saeeda Bai's Ghazals, Meenakshi's cleverness, Bhaskar's calculations, Priya's talks, Kedarnath's efforts and in the end Seth's picturisation of the whole of it. In the end what wonders me more than anything else is the way it's composed. While reading it if someone asks you where in the world are you ? You can't escape unaswering it as Brahmpur, Cawnpur or in Saeeda Bai's concert no matter wherever you are.

That's sure.

Definitely it's going to help one socialise, and take life as it is.

Thank you Seth. You have managed it to get what you have wanted.

Thank You.

Rupesh

My instinct while reading A Suitable Boy was to compare it to Middlemarch; I guess that was due to the sprawling scope of the book. As I finished Seth's book, two nights ago, I thought of Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart. I was reminded of Okonkwo's decisions when I read of Lata's. I don't want to 'give away the story,' but I felt Seth forced his plot along at several points, particularly about three quarters of the way through when Maan and Firoz speak to one another in Saeeda Bae's room. It read to me as if Seth had written himself into a rich world and compromised the integrity of his characters in order to force an ending. For example, after 1200 pages of limited omniscience, Seth stops describing Lata's thoughts and emotions to us - just as she's making the choice around which the entire book has been structured. The sensation was disturbing, as if an intimate friend suddenly had developed a distant reserve toward me. I agree with many of the reader comments here; when I finished this novel I felt bereft. Partly, though, that was because Seth withdrew the characters from me well before the book ended. Seeing Lata as a sort of sleepwalker rather than as an actively intelligent, emotional person was haunting. I felt she'd been beaten down. That's how she reminded me of Okonkwo, I guess. And I've been debating to myself, over the past two days, whether Seth would have intended her to come across that way.

I picked up this 1300+ page book with a little trepidation, thinking there was no way I would get halfway through the book and still be interested in the story, but I was wrong! As I got farther into the book, the story got even more absorbing!

Vikram Seth takes us into the time of post-partition India. The country has just been split into two, and all of the characters in the book are dealing with the aftermath as they struggle to go on with their lives. I do not mean to imply that the book is depressing - there are a few sad situations, but it was written in a far different vein from Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.

We are immediately introduced to the Mehras, the Kapoors, the Khans, the Tandons, and the Chatterjis. The daughter in the Mehra family is marrying the eldest son in another family, and his sister is married to the son of another family, and so on. During the wedding, the topic of Lata Mehra and finding a suitable boy is brought up, and the story progresses from there.

Along the way we met a whole host of characters - Kabir, the charming cricketeer, Malati, the wild best friend, Maan, the wild brother-in-law's brother, just to name a few. You will love reading about the comically caricatured Chatterjis, who tend to speak in rhyme. I could almost imagine this family as the star of an Indian sitcom (with English subtitles, of course).

This story is truly a saga in the greatest sense. I really loved the way the author interspersed elements of religion, history, politics, and culture in a way that will appeal to readers of all kinds. I found myself skipping through a few of the political discourses, just because the writing is almost too detailed at times and I can only take political discussion in very small doses. It was quite an educational book - I learned so much about Hinduism and Islam that I didn't already know, and also about different cultures. I even picked up a few new phrases in Hindi and Bengali.

As a first generation American with Indian parents, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Indian history, culture, politics, you name it - especially other 'abcds'. I could see it being an invaluable resource in schools for classes studying the history of India, although a person that doesn't have background knowledge in the history, culture, languages, and/or religons, might find it a little boring at times and harder to follow.

This book has a little something in it for everyone - Seth has created a wonderful story that is quite lighthearted most of the time, although it covers very serious topics that are still issues in the Asian Subcontinent to this day. I can't wait to read his other books!

Picking up a book like "The Golden Gate" can be quite a turn off for the traditional novel reader. However, it came as a pleasant surprise when Seth's masterpiece surpassed all literature I had read in the near past. Sonnet after sonnet and one controlled emotion after another, Vikram Seth is more than a writer - he is an invisible omniscience throughout the reading. Although, much in the novel is left to personal opinion and speculation, the options before the reader are as many as two steps to the right or the left of the intended effect. Starting off with neutrality and working his way into the emotional touch that has often defined Indin writing, Vikram Seth gives no reason for the reader to believe that there is an Indian hand behind the book. While bringing in poetic structure common to the Romantics and to the likes of Shakespeare, the language is simple, often slang and in no sense phrased in the manner Keats or Wordsworth might have put it. There is hardly more to say than "the book is a success and has become as much a part of growing up as is Enid Blyton or Shakespeare"

One of the most common things that links people together is a common language. 'The Golden Gate' is written in the universal language of human emotions, and reading this book is an experience of life in current times. Acclaimed to be a typical Californian novel when first published in 1986, the settings and characters easily fit modern youth in almost every part of the developed world. Above all, the book bears the warmth and touch of humanity that identifies Mr.Seth's inimitable style of writing.

The plot is simple and straightforward, lucidly composed in a sequence of sonnets - The main protagonist John is a successful and lonely engineer. His one-time girlfriend Janet places an ad in a personal column on his behalf and through it, John meets Liz Dorati, a lawyer. An instant attraction brings them together, and they set up home only to drift apart due to opposing views on politics and social ethics, the process accelerated by John's hatred of Liz's cat Charlemagne.

John's colleague Phil who forsakes a lucrative job to keep up with his anti-nuclear principles forms another thread of the story, and reflects the changing face of modern youth, concerned about the world and threats to the environment. The affair between Phil and Liz's brother Ed is depicted in a poignant manner that makes the reader feel sympathetic, rather than repelled, such relationships being forbidden in many sections of society even today. Ed's religious beliefs cause him to break up with Phil, and the arguments between the two vividly portray changing values and morals, and the confused state of today's youth in a world that is as transient as their views.

In a surprising turn of events, Phil and Liz get married, while John tries to cushion his jilted pride in wine and women and the story goes on with a few more twists and turns to a sad and sentimental finish.

The disastrous consequences of nuclear weapons is driven home albeit in a refreshing manner. The book makes one reflect about the current trends observed in society regarding life, the world, relationships, family, friends, love and much more. In this respect, it strikes a parallel with Elizabeth B Browning's brilliant classic 'Aurora Leigh' where the main protagonist questions an individual's freedom and role in society, making one feel that idealism is an integral part of all great poetry.

The verse and the story support each other, and the sequence of sonnets enhances the flow, rather than hamper it. A variety of topics ranging from the healthiest diet for a pet iguana, the method of pickling olives, to an invocation to St.Francis are handled with equal veracity. The characters speak in ordinary language that makes it easy to identify with them. The humour woven into the book makes it an absolute delight, and reveals a tongue-in-cheek satirist who perceives the comical angle in even the most tension-ridden situation.

Mr.Seth makes his presence felt, subtly and otherwise in each sonnet and one gets the feeling of having taken a fascinating journey along with him, a feeling that persists long after the book is finished. In one stanza, he mentions that he was inspired to write this book after reading Charles Johnston's translation of Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin', and fervently recommends it to the reader - It would hardly come as a surprise if 'The Golden Gate' inspires an author (or more) to create another masterpiece as a tribute. History as we know has long had a tradition of repeating itself...

San Francisco definitely comes alive in this novel in verse. After studying this truly remarkable city myself over the last two years , I realize how vividly he has captured the people and the places in this city - especially its "yuppiness" which I feel has only multiplied since the books writing.
The story is about an educated,hip typically San Franciscan circle of friends and their highly entangled love affairs. It sometimes digresses into preaching about nuclear arms and its dangers but I guess it is justified as these issued were far more relevant in the 80s than now. The entire book - 300 pages or so written in delightfully rhyming verses is a pleasure to read and is extremely difficult to put down. I was afraid of missing some cleverly constructed rhymes the first time because of my eagerness to find out what happens next. This book deserves to be read twice to truly understand how good it is........

I read this book without too many hopes and it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. The language is easy and the thoughts expressed are beautiful. The title poem 'all you who sleep tonight' is one of the most touching poems i've read in quite some time. Hats off to Vikram Seth for coming up with such a beautiful collection of poems. Definitely a must read for those who enjoy simple and good poetry.

A tidy little collection of poems - some serious, some flippant. The title poem is especially powerful. There are a few other gems as well. For the most part, Seth doesn't wear his "Indian author" hat in this one.

His poems tell of places and moments of pain, but they are of the culture and cultures of life. Reading the title poem one can only nod their head, while Lithuania will make you shake, Mistaken you will blush and Telephone will make you laugh...and sigh.

Try it and see if you don't!

From the author of two best selling novels "A Suitable Boy" and "An Equal Music" this travel book is something very different. It is a delightfully written story created from the journals kept by Vikram Seth during his hitch-hiking traverse of China from Nanjing to Tibet. For most people, certainly for most westerners, this is about as far off the beaten track as it is possible to get.

We sympathise with Seth as he endeavours to obtain the myriad of visas necessary to cross communist China. These include, entry visas, travel visas, permits to stay in a certain village/area/precinct/canton and of course, exit visas. The bureaucracy is simply immense and yet nobody has any real authority, always having to revert up the seemingly endless chain of superiors. Overcoming the man made hurdles is only part of the story as rain, floods, swamps, swollen rivers, altitude sickness, extreme cold, washed away bridges and difficult terrain pose further obstacles along the journey.

During the narrative, Seth breaks off occasionally to discuss the Chinese political system and interestingly compares it with the Indian political system. The Chinese dictatorship virtually removes free will from the people whilst the wheels of Indian democracy slowly turn in a very different form of bureaucratic inefficiency. "One overwhelming fact" says Seth "is that the Chinese have a better system of social care and distribution than we in India do. Their aged do not starve. Their children are basically healthy. By and large the people are well clothed, very occasionally in rags." He goes on "The fact that we have elections every five years means that the government is afraid to undertake projects that are unpopular but beneficious in the long term. The Chinese government is not thus fettered".

Throughout his travels, but particularly in Tibet, the smashed temples, buildings and works of art, to say nothing of the ruined families, present evidence of the destruction which was wrought during the cultural revolution. How ironic that I was reading this in April 2001 whilst the Taliban were destroying fifth century carvings of standing Buddhas in Afghanistan.

This review would not be complete without a mention of the yaks which form part of the scenery along Seth's route. Whilst alive, the yak is an efficient machine converting grass into milk, butter, cheese and yoghurt. It provides a convenient means of transportation and delivers dung for fuel and fertiliser. Finally, the meat, bone, pelt, fur, hooves and tail provide sustenance, clothing, leather and material for tents and awnings.

So, please read and enjoy this unique travelogue by an educated, eloquent and observant man, multilingual Vikram Seth, also known as Xie Binlang in China. You won't be disappointed.

Surely the best test of a good travel book is that it makes you want to go the same places, while still describing them in a way that makes you feel like you have already been there. Even though it is now 20 years since Seth made the journey that he records here (and much would have changed) reading this book still made me want to make the same journey, even with all the hardship that it entailed. Another aspect that makes this book exceptional is that the commentary doesn't just focus on descriptions of the trip but wanders off into discussions of political and social issues prompted by the surroundings. One telling comment (especially for westerners) occurs on the last page when he writes of India and China, "the fact that they are both part of the same landmass means next to nothing. There is no such thing as an Asian ethos or mode of thinking". My only disappointment with this book (and the reason that it only gets 4 stars) is that, while Seth regularly describes taking photographs of various sights, none of them are included in the book. Seth's descriptions are amazing, but some of the visuals would have been even better. If you are interested at all in travel in China and Tibet read this book (and then Paul Theroux's `Riding the Iron Rooster' for a very different viewpoint).

A delightful travelogue.

Travel writing is not about places, it is about the people you meet on the way and there. From Heaven Lake is a beautiful piece of work that sense. It surely deserves praise and read.

True, the eloquence, clarity and craft which Vikram Seth displays in his magnum opus 'A Suitable Boy' are missing, but then this is one of his earlier works. Still one can see his keen observation and description skills here. The troubles that a foreigner encounters to get permission to visit places in the interior and western China are very well documented. He finds fault only with the system and not with the people. Seth describes the warmth with which common people treated him. That underlines one truth -- common man, every where and under any system, remains the same.

Seth's description of the geography and people are wonderful. His description of the "underground canals" carrying water from distant mountains to oasis of Turfan is picture-perfect. The hazardous hitch-hiking he undertook from Heaven Lake in Urumqi to Lhasa on a truck, struggling to breath properly in that rarefied atmosphere and fighting shivering cold, demands one's admiration and sympathy. Seth dwells at long on the hospitality of the hosts where he and the truck driver stayed overnight on the way. Also, he gives us a clear idea of the unhospitality of the terrain full of mud, flashfloods and unmaintained roads.

I always wanted to travel through the ancient China, from Xian to Xinjiang and Lhasa. One day, when I do, I will carry this book with me. Sure, things might have changed a lot by now. Still, I will.

I am a big Vikram Seth fan and this was a cute children's book. The drawings are simple, yet effective. The story is close to a classic Grimm tale, an animal that helps a human, but ends up getting killed by humans keeping it in captivity. Maybe not suited for very young children, but a very well written story. A story that you can discuss afterwards on themes portrayed, asking questions like what would you have done?

I was perusing books at the bookstore and came across Seth's novel, and read it a month later, after having forgotten what it was all about (ie. did not re-read the back-cover which is full of spoilers). You might be better off not reading the backpage to better appreciate the plot twists in the novel. I was personally enchanted - and Amazed - by Seth's ability to describe the world of music and interactions / relationships between musicians, and assumed that Seth must himself have played in a quartet. I have never read a novel steeped so deeply in the language of music, which this is, and now am curious to find the piece by Beethoven so desired by the lead character. To me, the story started dragging a bit long once the characters arrived in Europe, especially the romantic stay in Venice, and the rich musical detail at time seemed a bit toooo rich, if that is possible, and I found myself wanting to get to the conclusion by glossing over some of the detail - I recommended this book to some of my musician friends however, and would do so again.

an equal music touches upon some of the most delicate subjects in creative writing with tender care and gentle skill. seth writes of love, passion, and loss brilliantly and quite flawlessly against the wonderous background of glorious music. although most authors tend to butcher these subjects with purple prose and ideal endings, seth skillfully conveys the story of michael and julia in a realistic setting filled with flowing dialogue and delightful spots of inside humor.

the language of an equal music holds the reader captivated by its beauty. the author's choice of words is a remarkable reflection of of the main character's plight. seth uses the less common first person in the present tense narration in harmonious combinations of complex, sing-song poetry with abrupt patterns of short sentences; conveying the instablity of michael's character and placing the reader amidst the turbulence of michael's heart and mind.

reasons for his actions, although sometimes seeming absurd or unnecessary to some readers, are clear to any of those who have loved deeply and lost so suddenly as michael did. this is a novel for someone hopelessly in love, whether it is with angels or music.

Unlike most of the other reviewers of this book, I love Bach, Haydn, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven, etc., and have loved them for many years. So I have no patience with those who talk about the main character, Michael Holmes, as a whiner or as immature. Of course he is these things. So what? The fact is, Vikram Seth has given us very plausible characters who act with passion, who are driven by the need to find the exquisite, and who are changed forever by their encounters with this passion. And who among us haven't acted dumbly when we think we are in love and that love goes bad and our lives go bad with it? I know I have. I know I've been selfish, dumb, self-pitying. But these days it's a sin to give in to emotions. One must behave like a "healthy" person, move on, take Prozac, and just get over it. I wonder if all artists, musicians, and novelists were always "rational" and just "got over" things, would great and meaningful art ever be able to be created through such a "rational" mind? In any case, this novel is a great entertainment, beautifully composed and easy to read. I think its ending is just fine. I admit there were parts that could have been better edited, redundancies that made me impatient with Michael and Julia, but these were minor flaws in a fine novel that accomplishes a whole lot. I was very happy to meet all its characters and live among them for a while. I even went off to my local music store and got the Haydn string quartet that Michael loved so much. I highly recommend this novel to anyone, but especially to those who love Bach and chamber music.

I think there is no task more daunting for a writer than to translate poetry from ancient China. First of all, the poems consist of ideograms, the so-called "characters". Vikram Seth's introduction to his book "Three Chinese Poets" has a good example how a Chinese poem looks in the original characters and in pinyin translation, and how a literal, word-by-word translation would sound: "lonely, close, brushwood, door/ vast, face, falling, light/ cranes, nest, pine, tree, everywhere/ men, visit, wicker, gate, few/ tender, bamboo, hold, new, powder/ red, lotus, shed, old, clothes/ at the ford, lantern, fire, rise/ everywhere, water-chestnut, picker, return home." The freedom given by the lack of grammar stands in stark contrast to the rigid structure of the poem. It consists of eight lines with five Chinese characters in each line. The lines 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 end with rhyme words. Lines 3 and 4 have an identical grammatical word order, as have lines 5 and 6. Also, the images of the poet are symmetrically arranged. In line 1 a closed door stands in contrast to the vast expanse of line 2; line 3 sets the cranes everywhere in contrast to the few visitors of line 4; line 5 sees new powder against the old clothes of line 6. Only lines 7 and 8 do not contain contrasting images but rather an evening scene that reflects the evening scene of lines 1 and 2. Within this finely crafted structure the poet expresses a feeling: loneliness.

A translator has two options: to stay true to the Chinese characters and the structure of the original poem, or to stay true to what he feels to be the poetic message of the poem. It is essentially the same problem that a piano player faces when interpreting a sonata by Mozart or Beethoven. Seth chooses the conservative path of staying very close to the original, as he explains in his enjoyable introduction: "I should mention that the poems in this book are not intended as transcreations or free translations, in this sense, attempts to use the originals as trampolines from which to bounce off on to poems of my own [great image, by the way, for the arrogance of some translators]. The famous translations of Ezra Pound, compounded as they are of ignorance of Chinese and valiant self-indulgence, have remained before me as a warning of what to shun. I have preferred mentors who ... admit the primacy of the original and attempt fidelity to it."

Fidelity, however, is not all it takes to make a translation succeed. Sometimes the much lamented and maligned "freedom" of a translation yields better results. This is the case here. Let me compare two translations of a poem called "Moonlit Night" by the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu (712 - 770 AD) to illustrate my point.

Seth translates: "In Fuzhou, far away, my wife is watching/ The moon alone tonight, and my thoughts fill/ With sadness for my children, who can't think/ Of me here in Changan; they're too young still./ Her cloud-soft hair is moist with fragrant mist./ In the clear light her white arms sense the chill./ When will we feel the moonlight dry our tears,/ Leaning together on our window-sill?"

For comparison, here the "transcreation" by David Young from his book "Five T'ang Poets" (1990): "Tonight/ in this same moonlight/ my wife is alone at her window// I can hardly bear to think of my children/too young to understand/ why I can't come home to them// her hair must be damp from the mist/ her arms cold jade in the moonlight// when will we stand together/ by those slack curtains/ while the moonlight/ dries the tear-streaks/ on our faces?"

Seth's translation keeps the eight-line structure and the rhyme words in lines 2, 4, 6 and 8. He does not give a pinyin (character-by-character) translation of the original poem. Therefore I cannot judge how true to the original his choice of words is. I would assume Young takes more freedom with the words. Young also breaks up the 8-line structure of the poem into a 3-3-2-5-line structure. In doing so he tries to highlight the train of thought of Du Fu: wife, children, beauty of wife, yearning for reunion.

The success of Young's translation lies in his bringing out the pain and longing of the poet who is separated from wife and children. This is where Seth fails. How pale is the pain of separation in "and my thoughts fill with sadness for my children" in comparison to "I can hardly bear to think of my children"; and how old-fashioned does it sound to end a poem with "leaning together on our window-sill" rather than with the poignant "while the moonlight dries the tear-streaks on our faces".

The best ancient Chinese poems pack a tremendous amount of emotion into a tight and formal structure. In this they can be compared to Shakespeare's sonnets. These Chinese poets are no lesser poets than Shakespeare is. Translating their poems, the success of the translation must be measured by the extent to which the emotion can be released without destroying the sense of structure in the original poem. Seth's translations with their stress on formal structure and literalness stifle the full emotional impact. The translations focus on the original structure rather than the truth about the human condition that the poet wants to convey to the reader. This is where Young's freer translation yields much better results.

The only objection one might raise against Young's translation is that it is reminiscent of a modern poet like William Carlos Williams. But I'd rather have Du Fu's substance in a modern structure than Du Fu's admirable craftsmanship at the expense of the impact his words have on my heart. His emotions are timeless - let them shine through with the help of a little "transcreation".