Rating: 
Summary: If you like your literature challenging, tackle this one.
Review: The first thing I would like to mention is that I am by no means a scholar when it comes to literature. I do, however, love to read books. I have my own particular taste for what I read, (mostly science ficiton and fantasy), but if a book is interesting and easy to read, then I believe it is worth looking in to. I read numerous reviews on The God of Small Things, and most of them had good things to say about Ms. Roy's book. Unfortunately I did not enjoy the book. I believe the reason that I did not really like it is because of my own personal views on the way a book should be written. When I read a piece of literature I don't want the text to be so confusing that I spend most of my time trying to figure out what the author is saying. It feels as though all of my mental energy is spent trying to piece together the sequence of events taking place. What the writer is trying to describe in his/her book should imbue itself on my memory for a short period of time, allowing me to immerse myself in the world the author has created; books such as Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I did not have these feelings while reading The God of Small Things. There are parts of the book where one does get into what she is describing, like the march of the Communists around the "skyblue Plymouth". But there are not enough of these moments to suit me. I also do not care for the way Ms. Roy writes the story. I find the first few chapters extremely difficult to get through and understand. There are numerous flashbacks which go back and forth, back and forth, and it is very hard trying to figure out when things took place. One minute Ammu is alive and talking to Rahel and Estha, and on the next page she has been dead for years. It is the same with other characters, like Mammachi. There needs to be clearer transitions between time eras to help readers understand exactly when certain events take place. Another thing that irritates me is the way Roy strings words together. It is almost like a foreign language inserted into the text. Words like: "thiswayandthat", "wetgreen", and "sourmetal". Perhaps these words are her own way of trying to desribe things, but it just doesn't work for me. Along with the togetherwords is her free use of capitalizing words in the middle of sentences. "It was her idea that Estha be Returned" and "For a Breath of Fresh Air" are good examples. I am not sure if Ms. Roy does this for emphasis, or to describe the way the children think, or what, but it works about as well as the imaginaryvocabulary. Ms. Roy's tale does have some merits however. She attacks the Indian "caste system" and "love laws" in her novel, which to me is a good thing. I did not know how serious and harsh these customs are in India until I read The God of Small Things, and her story shows how evil the love laws and caste system are. Of course you must read through the whole book to understand all of this, and to see what happens between Ammu and Velutha....not an easy thing for me. As I have stated before, I am not a literary scholar. But from my point of view this book is too difficult to read to really be enjoyed. For those who like their literature challenging, then by all means, tackle this one. I do not recommend this book, however, to those who simply want a novel that is easy to read. This book requires a lot of time to read, and is very difficult to really understand.
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful, poignant book
Review: This novel is an international bestseller and winner of the Booker prize. The writing is lyrically poetic and dense with detail, but initially I had a bit of trouble maintaining interest. About halfway through, the characters and events had been woven together in a manner that craftily captivated my attention, causing me to read the remainder of the book at a feverish pace. It's funny how that works. If I had less time on my hands, I might have given up reading too early to realize the quality of the writing. The story is mostly set in India, and it revolves around two seven-year-old non-identical twins and their extended family. The stark observations and playful dialogue of children are often depicted in a sing-song fashion, sometimes obscuring fact momentarily (or at least bringing to light the differences between adult and child perception of reality). The plot is at times startling and heart-wrenching; this is not light reading. All in all I was very satisfied by the book. I think someday I might even enjoy reading it again.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous
Review: This is the first book I read by Ms.Roy. This Woman is amazing. She has the guts to tell some of the things people don't dare to speak in the Indian society. The book has all the emotions you can name. It is funny and sad.She has a way with language. Her language is simple and eloquent. Hard to believe that this is her first book. The book deals with all the hypocrisies in the Indian society. The thing she had expressed so beautifully is how people decide whom one can love and whom one can not love. I liked the way she describes the caste system. After reading the book, it makes you wonder, if the Indian community will ever emerge from the evilness of the caste system.She has inspired me to do something for the society.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary novel
Review: Once, every now and then, I read a book that feels so powerful that I wonder how could I have lived before -- without knowing this story -- and not be aware of the void within? The God of Small Things is one such book. Extraordinary language carried me through. A masterful narration permitted horrible events to unfold in such a way that I was eager to see them through. What makes this novel great, greater than most, is that it is not only a story about India in the 1960s, about her caste system, or about Western colonialism. This story is about us, human beings with follies, and many cruelties. And it is also about our love, our need for love that more often than not is out of synchrony with our lives. It shows us the difference between a world seen through children's eyes and that of adults. How we corrupt ourselves as we grow into maturity, although sometimes it happens as abruptly as in the twin's lives in Ms. Roy's novel. I can't add anything else here that more than 400 reviewers have not said; I would have to dissect this book, and I don't feel comfortable doing it because I don't want to break its spell.
Suffice it to say, it is an extraordinary novel.
Rating:
Summary: Resoundingly powerful, deeply moving
Review: Before saying anything about this book - my literary tastes. I like simple books - feel-good books with a quick-moving plot, linear narrative, simple prose and above all, an authorial voice that stays in the background. Why then do I love this book? It is the living embodiment of everything I dislike in a novel - the authorial voice is so loud you couldn't miss it if you were deaf; the narrative is anything but linear and the prose is everything but simple; the symbolism is everything but subtle; the pace is everything but fast. There are no simple solutions, no happy resolutions - this is the sort of book that makes you wish you had never lived. The story is enormously complex - a lesser writer would have cracked under the burden of the plot, but not this one. The story traces the history of the Indian state of Kerala. I have no idea how accurately she has portrayed its history - but it must be said that every page of the book bears that 'stamp of authenticity' so essential for a book of this kind. The greatest triumph of this book - apart from the brilliant characterization and the hugely complex and demanding plot - is the language. I am not talking about the 'poetic prose' that covers the pages of this book - I refer to the convincing manner in which she conveys the flavour of 'Indian English.' Few writers manage to describe how Indians really talk without descending to the exotic or worse, the ludicruous - a few manage to pull it off. R. K Narayan was one. Arundhati Roy is another. Instances of 'Indian English' abound. There is Rahel telling her twin brother that 'sorry doesn't make a dead man alive' - I am not entirely sure she did not eavesdrop on my private conversations. Then there is Estha saying 'Thang God' on finding out that the elephant that has died isn't an elephant they know, and Baby Kochchamma's subsequent correction - all priceless, and wickedly accurate. Then there is the plot - conceived on an epic scale - at first, it seems to want to say everything without actually saying anything. Then the pages on the right grow thin and you find that everything makes sense - the whole, complex, convoluted story, every 'Small Thing' now finds a place in the scheme of things. Each character is perfectly drawn out - fully three-dimensional. You have the Oxford-educated Chacko, the ornamental-gardening-graduate-cable-TV-addict-untouchable-hating ...-Father-Mulligan-loving Baby Kochamma (in my opinion the book's most convincing character), Papachi - the anglophile and the violin playing Mamachi - all perfect. And what is one to say of the portrayal of the twins. I am yet to find a book that can write of children's feelings more convincingly. 'Convincing' is the keyword here. That there will be those who may dislike her political views, there is no doubt (I have an exceedingly low opinion of her political essays), but the manner in which she delivers a resoundingly powerful, deeply moving tale - what can I say - whoever coined the word 'masterpiece' must have had had this book in mind.
Rating:
Summary: My favourite book of all time
Review: I've read quite a varied bunch of books in my time, but Roy's "God of Small Things' is definitely the first book that comes to mind when you say 'favourite'.
I find it incredibly textured. The little word games that the characters play remind me so much of my own youth.
I grew up in India, though not in the locale that Roy's book features, and I remeber my childhood games mirroring those that Rahel and Estha play... nictitating, ictitating, titating, etc"
I felt every character in the book, whether I loved them or hated them. The sense of little pleasures and ultimate hopelessness that the tale embodies is incredible and feels disturbingly like truth. The nice thing about it is that although it's a sad story, you don't end it bitterly. Roy picked the perfect scene to end the book with. Had she chosen any other, I think I'd have been too disturbed to ever want to read it again.
To me, it is one of the great stories.... one that does not trick you with a surprise ending. It is one that you can enter at any point and inhabit comfortably; as familiar as the scent of your lover's skin.
Because, in the great stories, we already know what happens;who lives and who dies, who finds love and who doesn't; but we want to know again.. just as although we know that one day we will die, we live as though we won't. If you like texture and description in writing, starve for two days if you have to, but have a pretty copy of this book.
I've actually got two copies: one hardbound and one paperback which I keep for my own use, and a separate copy for the sole purpose of lending out to friends that I think will appreciate it.
Rating:
Summary: The God of Small This
Review: Hello Customer Service, I am sorry to say this but I have the wrong product. I wanted the book not the tape. I haven't opend the package till now. Just now, when I got the time to read book, I found out it is a tape. Could you please send me the book and I will return the tape. Or tell me what is the procedure is. Thank.
Rating: 
Summary: Who is The God of Small Things
Review: Arundhati Roy's book is set in India, and is a family story. The book tells the story of the twins Rahel and Estha. They are two egged, but share mind, and their separation in their childhood is fatal for their lives. The book also tells the story of their divorced mother, their sad uncle, their grandmother and their dominant grand aunt.
The story is a mixed tale of love and beautiy, and of loss and sadness. Roy's writing made me so angry I almost cried, but also some places I had to smile and laugh with the caracthers. Sometimes it was very hard to follow the story, as Roy jumps from past to present and back again without any pattern. Therefore I gave the book a three star, but I really had a hard time deciding if it should get only a two star, or may be a four or five.
This is Roy's first book, and it got the Booker Prize of 1997. A writier we will hopefully hear more from. Britt Arnhild Lindland
Rating:
Summary: Fully Deserving of the Booker Prize
Review: I admit, the first time I tried to read this book, I could not get through it. However, when I went back to it, I could not put
it down! I was mesmerized by Roy's innovative use of the English language. The metaphors and imagery she invokes on every page are stunning. The storyline has a combination "Flowers in the Attic" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" feel to it, and shows how the mistakes of one generation can wreak havoc on generations to come.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant and naive
Review: Arundhati Roy introduces us here into Indian society in Bombay. It is a marvellous love story between a Touchable woman and an Untouchable man. The story is very moving and very convincing. It is brought to us mainly through the eyes of the two twins of the main character. She is a divorcee and she raises her kids in her family which owns a pickle factory. The two kids, a boy and a girl, make us discover this world with naive eyes and also with a lot of double-thinking. They think and speak in two languages and these two languages are mixed in a very agreeable way. But they also think in two different ways because they are from two eggs and yet twins, one and yet double. But they also think double because their best friend is an Untouchable and this is the cause of the drama. This Untouchable has been favored by the family but there are limits to their favor. Then, when this limit is trespassed, the whole society and everyone becomes ugly, brutal, immoral, unbearable, even the kids are blackmailed by their aunt into accusing the dead Untouchable of having kidnapped them, to save, so the aunt says, their mother. This leaves a bitter taste and shows how urgent it is for this society to find a way to move away from this feudal tradition. It also shows how it is an important slogan for the dominant communist party, even if it is only a slogan. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
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