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Summary: The God Of Small Things
Review: This book is not for speedy reading and not for those who are into action movies. It takes you over and does not leave you ... maybe for the rest of your life. How often do we end up in care of The God Of Small Things... Rare beauty of author's speech, unmistakenly unique vision of the world, keen sadness ... Take your time for this book, new reader, I wish you find your place in the beautiful world of Arundhati Roy.
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Summary: The second time around--listen
Review: I read this miracle of a novel when it first appeared in 1997. Recently I listened to a recording of it which I highly recommend to those you who also love this book--Donada Peters' reading for Books on Tape. Simply put, it's a wonderful reading of a wonderful book.
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Summary: The ending makes the whole book make sense
Review: I swam through this book. The imagery is vivid and alive and speaks of a particulary slant of lookign at hte world. Very refreshing. However, I think the most sucessful parts is the ending. It ties things into full circle and everythign suddenly makes sense. And I realised how we can go through so much pain and hurt and nasty things and yet the instant of something so wonderful and beautiful, hwoever short, can contain and be reason enough to endure everything else.
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Summary: Small is Beautiful
Review: Set in Kerala during the late 1960s when communism rattled the age-old caste system, The God of Small Things begins with the funeral of young Sophie Mol, the cousin of the novel's protagonists Rahel and her fraternal twin brother, Estha. In a circuitous and suspense--filled narrative, it is a story of decadence of a family with a hoary past, trapped in a time bubble (the time on the painted face of child Rahel's watch always reads "ten to two"). The bubble is tossed like a yo-yo by the great surge of events, ready to burst any moment. Nevertheless this steady, mechanical and almost pre-ordained process of withering, stirs up great passions, with its attendant ironies and pathos. In the end, we have a classic with a tragic grandeur, albeit of small things! "A story is a simple way of presenting a complex world and in my book I have tried to create a complete world carefully with craft and detail," clarifies Arundhati Roy, the author while talking to mediapersons. Things unfold in the Ayemenem House, now mossy, soaky and dusty, but once the symbol of pride for the Syrian Christian clan. Here, the characters inch towards their doomed destinies. Things culminate with the arrival of Sophie Mol with her mother Margaret Kochamma, to visit her `biological father,' Chacko. A stealthy jaunt, masterminded by her cousins Estha and Rahel, climaxes in her death by drowning. This incident, alongwith the exposed rendezvous of Ammu, the divorced daughter of the house with an low caste menial, lets loose all kinds of passions, rage, trickery and madness. Expulsions, separations and deaths follow, turning the place to a phantom of its old glory. The old house had a fatal attraction about it. Every character returned there -- defeated, deserted and drained by the big, bad world, where they had dispersed earlier. The parallel here is all too discernible to miss -- of the returning Malayalees from their "unhappy" working places in the Gulf. But once back to Ayemenem House, the characters are trapped -- just like the small bird in the Plymouth, which, unable to find a way out of the car, dies there. All these, seen through the innocent eyes of Estha and Rahel, give a coat of freshness to the narrative. The children's perspective, apart from the overdose of similes and contrived usages, sustain the readers' interests in the small things Lenin, the young son of communist schemer K N M Pillai, for instance, is described as `dressed like a taxi' because of his yellow shirt and black pants. Arundhati Roy's super sensitive antenna catches all the tiny details of her landscape -- and the thick, wet Kerala countryside has plenty to offer. The `farting slush' does not escape her, nor does the `funnel cap' created by mosquitoes over people's heads. It is not the story element of The God of Small Things that is its strong point, but the language. The language characterised by a strange cadence -- plenty of capitals, joined words and phrases, pranky childish distortions -- supports the jerky unfolding of the story. The narration too is not linear but moves back and forth in time, each chapter briefly touching upon what has gone before or what is in store. These techniques pervade the whole story, even in describing the poignant moments like Ammu's cremation, Estha's separation from his mother and his witnessing the police interrogation. "My thoughts and language are the same things," says Arundhati Roy in an interview. "The book is not based on research, but is about some very raw, private things. It is more about human biology than human history ---- our nature is capable of extreme brutality, extreme love," she adds. As she rightly said, The God of Small Things was `a work of instinct.' She was not searching for a story, `the narrative and the structure slowly revealed itself and the book was written `sentence by sentence.' Therefore, the reader realises very soon that he can't skip over passages: every sentence has to be read and reread to get the flavour of her prose. ----------------
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Summary: worth the pulitzer award
Review: An excellent book written with an excellent flare for English. No wonder the book is chosen as text for schools in some countries. Ms Roy has given a great deal of imprortance in maintaining the beauty of God own country and its traditional style of living. The best thing I like about the book is the inclusion of some Malayalam(language) words. Being a hard malayalee myself it was very touching to see those words in print. What I admire most about the author is inspite of being away from kerala for so long, her heart still lies there. Thats the magic of Gods own country.
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Summary: Too much..just too much
Review: This book seemed like a curry that had way too much curry powder in it -- to use an analogy. The writer kept going off on tangents and never quite got back to the circle of her story. The language was pretentious and the sentence *velvet over sandpaper" to describe a *calloused* hand touching a nipple, made me want to laugh. I had my eyebrows risen through out the book and if there was a story I couldn't see it. Maybe I am not an intellectual person and that's why the book seemed to be hanging on the tenous threads of bombastic language and description. I will pass on Roy.
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Summary: An ambitious, poetic but immatured effort
Review: I remember an unusually well-read American friend of mine telling me that this book has been a revealation to him about the qualities of indo-english writers and also the complex and broad cultural spectrum of India the country. That was an year ago in LA. And immediately after that, another chap, a fellow Marquez and Rushdie fan, warned me about the pretentiousness and juvenile linguistic juglaries that are shamelessly repeated throuhout the novel. I guess both of them are right.Her absurdly beautiful language has really brought alive the bucolic beauties of 'God's own country' Kerala. Nature, both pristine and humane,are seamlessly inter-woven around each other. And she has honestly tried to face the major cultural dilemmas of post-colonial India ; what all are to remain 'pure' and untouched and what all are to be sold ? Check out the chapter where she brillaintly describes the trauma of a 'Kathakali' dancer( a traditional folk dance)who exhibits himself in front of the modern world of tourists to earn his leaving. I found it a very potent symbol of India's own problems.Maybe Roy didn't intend it to be so. When it's expected that the whole world will go ga-ga over all these positive aspects, it's surprising nobody seems to notice the very obvious flaws in this novel. No matter what you say, a novel is about story-telling( from Cerventes to Fuentes, that's the way it has been). And she hasn't yet learnt that. There is no underlying rhythm in the time-travels we encounter all so very often. Even to give your plot a semblance to the incoherent tricks that memory play, you actually have to 'construct' that incoherence. At places, it seemed like a William Burroughs 'book'. And then, the annoying repetition of what another reviewer says as 'Bratspeak'. Also the plethora of words starting with capital letters. Confusing. An extremely superficial reference to Conrad's 'Heart of Drakness'. Disgusting. Other than Ammu and to some extent Chacko, not a single character is well-developed. They lack in dimensions and richness offeelings. Cardboard-persons. The inexplicable emotional links between the dizygotic twins is a very vain attempt to invoke Marquez-like magical atmosphere. Unsuccessful. So, only 3 stars. And one more thing, if you're not an Indian and you honestly want to have a literary experience of the panorama of progress and anglophilia and terror and communalism and 'settled in abroad' achievers that is the modern India, check out 'The Shadow Lines' by Amitav Ghosh . Forget Roy or Vikram Seth. He is the second best alive Indo-Engligh writer, after Rushdie, obviously. And also try out Rohinton MIstry's 'A Fine Balance'. He is the best Dickens after Charles DIckens.
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Summary: absolutely magnificent
Review: this novel captures india in an amazing poetic way, ms. roy is captivating in her writing style which flows beautifully. beyond her writing, the subject matter is so interesting and can be easily related to by anyone, whether Indian or not. i highly reccommend this novel to everyone. even if you're not interested in india, her writing is something everyone should be exposed to.
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Summary: "The God of Small Things" is Lush, Hypnotic
Review: I originally read this novel a few years ago for a college course, but since that time I have re-read it twice and recommended it to several friends. First off, a disclaimer: Don't read this book if you don't like words. Roy can be quite verbose at times. Okay, now that we're past that... "The God of Small Things" is a lush, hypnotic journey that is well worth taking. This is a book to savor, ponder, and reference. Roy tackles the tough issues as well as the trivial issues with great style and soul. A very visual and satisfying read.
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Summary: Extraordinarily Special
Review: I hope Amazon will publish this review, although it does refer to another's review, but I feel very strongly that someone must reply to 'A reader, California, 16 December'. This a remarkably beautiful book, contrary to the ideas of the A reader, California. I found it absolutely chilling that someone would actually write 'good use of language, especially for someone from India', who found amongst other problems, that the regional issues and customs were too difficult ('for those of us without an Indian History major'), and who also, without a shred of irony, refers to a book entitled The Dumbing Down of America. This is exactly the kind of parochial ignoramus for whom literate Americans are constantly apologising to the rest of the world. Roy's language in The God of Small Things is breathtakingly beautiful, her rhythm and storytelling compelling. I for one eagerly anticipate her next work.
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