God of Small Things

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This book was absolutely fantastic. As Roy's characters grew up so did her writing. I can't believe people who didn't like the book actually read the whole thing. I can't wait to read more of her work.

Rating:
Summary: frankly disappointing and difficult
Review: Look friends, I exactly am not dumb! Infact I got myself a masters from Kansas to prove that. But this book frankly left me puzzled and scared. Scared bcos if I admit to the world that I could not find it interesting people will call me dumb. And I ain't a dumbo... Anyway here I am tryin to be frank at the cost of my reputation. Yeah man this book takes a lot of PATIENCE! And it ain't the best story book in town. So if you want to test yourself against confusing language and showy phrases, go ahead. otherwise follow my advice and avoid this. God knows how these prizes are distirbuted. I guess it may be a conspiracy against us simple dodos who look for satisfaction and story in books....

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but there are problems
Review: Roy has admirably invented a rich and engaging style of writing beyond temporal synchrony. Her poetic refrains throughout the novel are truly quoteable. However, the theme of the novel, despite the exotic setting of Kerala, is a somewhat hackneyed one -- a tale of forbidden love. That too is fine -- however, Roy doesn't really wrestle with the issue of why the "love laws" exist in the first place. Instead she spirals into a kind of postmodern relativism that leads her, inter alia, to tangentially condone incest between twins! Towards the end of the novel, I felt somewhat disappointed -- all that build-up to this -- if nothing else, there are genetic reasons why acultural natural selection would lead us to be repulsed by such actions. Anyhow, this is a good first novel. I might add that Roy is particularly admirable as a writer for using her literary pedestal to publicize many important social and environmental causes as well -- such as the movement against the Narmada valley dam.

Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Novel
Review: It amazes me that other reviewers said the novel was "immature", "confusing" and "falsely arty". The prose is wonderfully rich, neither false nor arty. It rings so true (as it should since Roy is from Kerala where the story is located) that the historical mix of childhood innocence and its loss, love (real and imagined), political violence, social and cultural taboo, familial abuse, and '60s nostalgia combine in almost surreal but ultimately logical (frighteningly so) patterns. Roy's switching between present and past works sensibly as people and events shaping the twins' thoughts and actions spiral closer and closer around them until they actually eyewitness the violent murder of their friend by the police and participate in the accidental death of their cousin. It was not until the end of the novel that I came to realize that The God of Small Things is only nominally about small things. Although the attention and allusion to small things is a constant and reliable theme throughout the story, it is, in the end, about very big things. I do not understand why some readers are put off by Roy's use of capital letters. I thought the capital letters, Estha's (the boy twin) backwards reading and other devises were extraordinarily effective in using childhood perception to examine adult guile. There are so many incredible and memorable scenes in the story -- the blue Plymouth stuck in the middle of a communist march, the horrible OrangedrinkLemondrink man at the movie theatre, the airport, the Kathakali dance -- that I'm certain I'll read the novel again which is not something I usually do.

Rating:
Summary: Am I the only human alive who found this confusing?
Review: I am not about to recite what everyone else did about condensing the plot, but this was hard to get into..I put it down several times,but made myself finally read it since the comments on the cover were so strong. I made myself finish it and find it a most disjointed piece of literature. Roy obsesses with her personal language and capitalized words thrown in everywhere. I do not suggest reading this to learn about the subculture of India...a place where I lived and hoped to re-visit in print and instead found an self-possessed auther writing for her own audience of one. How this book received any award is beyond my imagination! Do not waste your time reading it!

Rating:
Summary: sparse, falsely arty
Review: Being a big fan of Indian and Asian writings, I approached this book with a lot of enthusiasm and energy. However soon I found my interest waning. For Arundhati begins well but starts floundering by page 5. I started getting the feeling that the author suddenly discovered that she was onto a big book and wanted to make it arty as possible. So the story suddenly goes to the backseat. And in come gross and showy phrases. As someone said earlier this became style over substance. A simple story about twins in Kerala suddenly became complicated, complex and confusing. It is in parts an autobiography. In others just jumble of images and words. Sure there are signs of talent here and there. But, nothing warrants the hype. In fact some of the scenes inserted seem specifiaclly designed to show the critics that this is art and not plain story telling. For this false pretense I am tempted to give this one star...

Rating:
Summary: Booker Prize?
Review: Without rehashing the plot -- I am a bit shocked this book won The Booker Prize. It's a haunting and sad tale told in an almost too cute, sing songy, back and forth in time way from the point of view of child -- but told in third person. It is a clever novel and does explore cultural elements, but never really digs deeply enough in the pathos she explores.

Rating:
Summary: Review: THe God of Small Things
Review: (I am a University graduate, and I want kids under 13 or any age for that matter, to read this review) THis book is honestly the worst experience I have encountered in my 26 years of reading. With a major in English and literature, this book is by far the most tedious novel ever written. It describes trivial, insignificant things such as dirt on the ground and organisms under the ground that beats your slight interest for this book to death. The title "The God of Small Things" indeed does speak for itself. With descriptions to a microscoptic level, this book is both extremely mind-numbing and montonous. I would like readers of this review to read the book and find my points substantial.

Rating:
Summary: Overwhelming
Review: If you have any free time on your hands, use it to read this book. "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy is an amazing splash of words onto the pages of a book which you will finish and want to immediately read again, because it is so full of perceptive and pertinent detail. The story begins around 1969, and depicts the lives of two young boy-girl twins (Estha and Rahel) in southern India. Oh so simple? No, you will not only become a friend to, and live within the twins' lives, but you will be granted access into the "who" and the "why" of every character. Author Arundhati Roy takes us on an unforgettable journey. How is one person (Roy) able to so accurately display the innerworkings of the diverse lives we encounter in this novel? Let yourself wonder. Read this novel.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: I loved loved loved this book! I'm a fan of Michael Ondaatje's novels, and this has some similarity with the poetic language and elliptical way of telling a story. I had to read it twice, as I've had to do with The English Patient and In the Skin of a Lion. Some books make you feel "ugh, you couldn't pay me to read it again", but this one, like Ondaatje's, made me feel "I know this is wonderful, I haven't grasped what it's all about, but it's so good I have to read it again". That second reading set everything in focus for me. 542 reviews! Is this # 543?