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Summary: A picturesque and verdant imagery of innocence and guilt.
Review: There is a wonderful description of the beautiful land that is Kerala in India, and a provocative narrative style that is quite forceful.Yes, one has to be patient in absorbing the images as they form.The picturseque view of the verdant landscape of the village is enticing.
The story has to be painted in the canvas of your mind, to really enjoy the interwoven patterns of abstractions which children can conjure up and the prejudices of the adult society of India.
If you are looking for a book to read after say Equal Music by Vikram Seth, this could be the book for you.As you start reading this book you are immersed in nostalgia,led back to those emotions and feelings of your childhood and the inner conflicts with the world built by the adults around you.
If Picasso was to review the book, he would have compared it to his famous work Guernica.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant surprise
Review: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy's first novel, was quite the pleasant surprise. I found this book a bit slow at the beginning but was soon drawn into Estha and Rahel's world. This is the story of twins, Estha and Rahel, and their mixed up, backward, slightly twisted family. We hear the story of the twins' childhood, why Estha finally stopped speaking, the joyous and horrific things that changed their lives forever; we also get glimpses of their later years when Estha still didn't speak and Rahel longed to ease his pain. The story also touches on the Marxist/Communist conflict through the lives of the characters. This is far from a mainly political story, but it does serve as a backdrop. Arundhati Roy's language and writing are very unusual but charming. I found some of the metaphors in the book deserved underlining and committing to memory. I find it hard to explain her style, but the best way I could explain would be to say that her style is simple...like that of a child...but beautiful in its simplicity and candor. You really feel that you are living life through the eyes of the twins. I almost put this book back on the shelf before I was 100 pages in, but I'm so glad I didn't. The story is gripping and touching and one to be remembered.
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Summary: This book, like all great ones, is intensely personal
Review: I first read this book in 1997. Today, after 4 years and countless re-reads (and esp after reading some of the negative reviews in here, I owe it to the author I think) here is my observation: Arundhati Roy wrote this book for herself. We are just incidental readers. Some say that people destined to be writers (or those allowed a glimpse into the dark depths of life through circumstance) have just one story to narrate. Every time I read this book, I can't shake the feeling that she had tears in her eyes while she wrote this story - the one that was her destiny to tell.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: upon first reading it, it immediately became one of my favorite books of all time. the story is enthralling; the language is awe-inspiring. it is an amazing feat of literature.
Rating:
Summary: a soul dripping book
Review: this book really moved me, just put me in a very raw, real place, something so very missing in our plastic, frantic world, thx arundhati.
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Summary: Sweeping, beautiful and powerful novel of family and society
Review: This immensely satisfying novel appears, at first, to concern itself with a private family tragedy. But as it gradually opens up you begin to see that it's also about caste and class, society, history, India, and the world. Arundhati Roy takes a huge and resonant theme - "the Love Laws which first laid down who should be loved, and how, and how much" - and dramatizes it brilliantly. "The God of Small Things" set for the most part during the 1960s in India, in a small town in Kerala (a region, by the way, which is famous in the literature of development for having, despite its poverty, high life expectancy and literacy levels and a low birth rate). At the beginning of the novel, which takes place in the 90s, a young woman named Rahel returns to her village and is reunited with her twin brother, Estha, whom she has not seen in many years. The narrative consists of flashbacks, in which a mounting series of misfortunes unfold, all leading up to a central catastrophic event which is a family, and human, and social, tragedy. The pleasures of this novel are linguistic as well as narrative. Roy's language is extraordinarily vivid and impressively versatile, encompassing lush, sensual physical description, playful puns, and lively, pointed dialogue. The narrative unfolds seductively, and as each layer is peeled away new depths and ambiguities are revealed. The ever-shifting story affords many moments of surprise and wonder . You'll think you've made up your mind about a character, and then something happens that completely throws you off, adds complexity, forces you to re-evaluate. Like all truly first-rate writers, Roy creates a world that is fully realized and uniquely hers. And one of the joys for the reader lies in experiencing this world, which is so like, and yet so unlike, the reader's own. One cautionary note: during the first few chapters this novel may seem enigmatic and difficult to follow. But stay with it - your efforts will be well-rewarded.
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Summary: redefines... EVERYTHING
Review: anyone who ever had a heart, wouldn't turn around and hate this book. maybe it's just me (the booker prize it received suggests not)but this novel has set THE STANDARD. yes, i am a woman. yes, i was born a lover of poesy, water, and the small heartbreaks that consume our lives (our stories). yes, i come from a dysfunctional family, one in which violence and monumental sacrifice play heavily... but it doesn't matter who i am. EVERYONE should at least take a crack at this book. this book ate my head and my heart and it actually (now that i have read it a second time, 2 years later) did change my life. after i read the god of small things, after i was so gutted and giggly, so transfixed, so lilted and quelled... i dumped my boyfriend and fell in love with the quiet man, the eyeballs man, the GOD OF SMALL THINGS man. and i didn't even realize that the book had made me receptive... because there was a lapse in time, about a month or so. where one morning i woke up with the quiet man's eyes in my eyes and the ionized feeling of falling water. i reread the book last night. i have, since the initial reading, moved to another country and found the only meaningful relationship i have ever had with a painful beauty(the above mentioned). there is nothing to dislike about this book. everyone who panned it is somehow sub-human in my eyes. or maybe they are not, they are like Baby Kochamma... so jealous of the beauty... and afraid.
Rating: 
Summary: Two but only barely
Review: There are certain books that you wish would never end. For me, this was one of them.... Because the ending of this book made me wish that I hadn't wasted my time. I won't give away the ending, but sufficeth to say, I have not been so disappointed in the summation of a beautiful novel in a long time. I was hooked from the first page of Roy's work. Her prose is glorious. Her characters are beautiful and tragic, even those hideous to the core shine under Roy's pen. The subtle yet persistent (and sometimes not so subtle) observations of a destructive culture were dead-on. Even slight problems that I had with the rhythm and motion of the prose and plot drifted away as I read. Then the ending came and blew it all away. I have no qualms over what happened; I've read far more "disturbing" things in novels. What I did mind was the utter unbelievable nature of the final few pages. Out of nowhere. Blindsided, like a bad surprise ending where you find out the entire story has been a lie. Completely contrary to the characters, their motivations as presented by the author, and the environment that they had been portrayed in. It couldn't even be described as an "escape" or even "desperate" action. It just looked like another book had been pasted on to the end of this one. In short, I've never seen a novel so beautiful be so completely undone by a mere few paragraphs. Sure, read it, but then drop it before you finish. Don't let a few bad pages spoil you to Roy's gift. Hopefully, her next work won't fall victim to the same problem. I'm hopeful but extremely wary.
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Summary: A truely exceptional work, better then wine!
Review: Let me preface this, I am not a literary expert and I do not consider myself to be a critic who know's what he is talking about. But, I would have to say that this amazing book is worth every second of your time, and more! First of all, the story is real; the kind that hits you hard, draws you in and breaks your heart. However, I don't mena that in a cinamatic, Hollywood sort of way. You might end up disliking some of the characters, but that's OK. What's so amazing is that you and your neighbor Fred might disagree on who's good/bad and that's the beauty of it. Secondly, writing is unique and beautiful. As the book progresses, you fell like your in the Roy writing school and it doesn't matter what grade you get, your just glad to be there. I've read places where they compare it to poetry, and that's cool, but it's something more, something higher then that... it's like..supra-neopoe-prose. (I just made that up). Finally, the way the story is constructed keeps you on the edge of your hammock (wouldn't it be nice to kick back and read in a hammock?). You never quite sure what Roy is getting at or where the story is going, and as the events unfold, they wil shock you and draw you in deeper. So read it already! Fork up the cash, by a bottle of wine and tell your significant other to take a hike for the evening! you won't regret it.
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Summary: Lyrical Qualties that every writer should aspire to
Review: I was told that Arundhati Roy wrote this book as a sort of protest againt the mind-numbing influence of TV and movies today. Well she succeeds in painting such vivid images and complex thoughts, that her book kept me away from the television for several days. This book is captivating. The story pulls you into its exotic setting and customs. It is the epitome of lyrical prose, as its words flow off the page. It has something for everyone: forbidden love, family secrets, passion, spirituality, and death. I don't want to ruin the book by giving away the plot, as it has more than a few interest twists, but you should defenitely pick up this book.
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