Rating: 
Summary: Well done - Roy!
Review: If you are a junkie who like the types of John Grisham et al, probably you will not like this book at all. Splendid. Reminiscent of medieval English. All in all - A Very Good Novel. The onus is now on Roy to come out with an equally good novel. The beauty of English will survive only through books like this!
Rating: 
Summary: not for me
Review: I bought this book because everyone in my book club loved it. I am now the outcast. I did not get it. I never even could finish reading it. I do believe this was the first book I have not finished. I found it to be boring and confusing. I do believe I would try to read other books by Arundhati Roy, just as long as they are not like this one.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I read this summer
Review: Her flow, her language transported me to Ayemeneam(spelling?). And I lived through the childhood of the twins.(Though the twin egg term being repeated so often did bother me a little.) I started to reread it as soon as i finished last night.Kudos to Arundhati Roy.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent summer book with amazing description
Review: I found that this book lacked on plot a little, but being a fan of the words themselves as well as a storyline, I certainly felt that it made up in description.Arundhati Roy writes in a style which is fully conscious of the fact that it is literature; sentences paragraphs and chapters are constructed with such delicacy that the novel could be confused with poetry of long lineage. The culture discussed is discussed in an intelligent way, and the relationship between twins is impossibly presented in beautiful realism, with two unique, inextricable characters created within Rahel and Estha. I enjoyed it greatly, but it seems so genre unspecific, it is a voyage into the unknown which will be kindly rewarded. Warning: don't read if a climactic ending is all important to you.
Rating: 
Summary: its novelty won it the booker
Review: small things is an interesting book, as will any be that tells a story of a family in tradition ridden Kerala suffering from travails that caste, religion, and colonial vestiges invest upon the human experience there. but roy, for all her remarkable turn of phrase and marrying of words to form delightful little compound words that much of the average literate world is consistently mistaking for poetry, is a flawed story teller. she gave her clincher away in the jacket sleeve notes. doomed from the start. i mean even my dog knew ammu was going to sleep with velutha one day, or night, if you will. as for the hints of incest between rahel and estha, i wonder. if the reports that the book is autobiographical to whatever extent are to believed, then the incest angle becomes just that bit unpalatable, and contrived, maybe? anyway, the literati and the intelligentsia in India dont hold small things in much regard, but the aspiring legions of young authors know what got the book its booker - its the novelty of exposing a sensuous, lush, clandestine syrian christian family in the wetlands of kerala to the western world, and doing it with the occasional flourish of quasi-poetry, some pretty endearing, if u grew up in india.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Roy does amazing things with language. This is a haunting story told in a way you probably haven't encountered before. Beautiful, beautiful words, which are all the more remarkable for their sharp contrast to Roy's tough subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: The last word compells you to start it all over again!
Review: This book is absolutely breathtaking. The sentences are strung together like a finely tuned poem. It is the kind of book that wraps you so wholly in the world of the story that when it is over (after a long night, during which time the book posesses you to stay awake, no matter how much work you have to do the next day) you just want to read it again. The characters lived on in my mind for days after I was done. I have recommended The God of Small things to everyone I love.
Rating: 
Summary: not my style at all
Review: I bought this book because of the rave reviews and I started it about five times and never finished it. After a few months of starting and not finishing, I finally gave up. I found it boring and repetitive. I could not identify with the characters, nor did I really want to. I may have missed the point, but I'm having a hard time understanding all the hype surrounding this book.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully worded story about a much-ignored world
Review: I thought that Ms. Roy's book was extraordinarily heart-wrenching, and it opened my eyes to a part of India that I never did see before. Being Hindu in India, I never got a glimpse into the life of the Christians who lived there. The difference is mind-blowing, as are the similarities. Ms. Roy captured the true essence of India, ignoring the religious backgrounds. The country is mystical, and heart-breaking in its beauty and timeless traditions. the story was weaker than I thought it would be but still kept me interested throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Good but a bizarre ending
Review: Good language and philosophy et al but what did the author mean when she ended up with the ending she used. Good bringing up of the system prevalent in south india and as an indian i feel it was well potrayed, but then again breaking of love laws for intercaste marriages is alright but outright incest is not a fit ending.
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