What is the author's style in A Suitable Boy: A Novel by Vikram Seth?

Vikram Seth writes his novel in the omniscient mode. It is as though the reader is looking through windows into the family relationships and the mental and emotional attitudes of the individual characters. Aside from Seth himself, there is no narrator in the book which allows the author to put in excellent descriptions of objects and the landscape, sometimes in clever phrases such as "wheels [that had] lost all memory of their shock absorbers." This omniscient point of view also allows both author and reader to look into the private lives of the characters without the need for any particular consciousness. For example, the reader learns about Meenakshi's character not from what she is thinking but rather from her actions and words. There is no internalizing of Meenakshi's character, but after discovering her ongoing affair with Billy, the reader hears Meenakshi ask if it is possible to be truly in love with two men at the same time. One of the most effective means of character insight in the novel is through the inclusion of cards and letters. Reading the letters Lata and Haresh write to one another as well as the letters to and from Kabir, a great deal is learned about how the characters actually feel. Conversation is very important in the omniscient point of view. One of the best examples of this in the novel is the slow revelation that Tapan is being sexually harassed at his boarding school. Seth handles this approach very well. There is no sense that a third unnamed character is relating the tale. He allows the reader to feel something like the proverbial fly on the wall, witnessing the progression of the story.