Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: I've read several wonderful novels about India, including Seth's "A Suitable Boy" and E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India". This one, sadly, is the worst of the lot. The author shows some promise: she is quite gifted at word play. However, she has not yet learned to to create vivid, three-dimensional characters and her many literary allusions are more than a bit pretentious; what do references to "The Great Gatsby" or Vladimir Nabokov have to do with this story or with her theme (if there is one)? Her self-consciously post-modern approach to telling her (trite) story doesn't help matters.To sum up: no characters, thin plot, pretentiousness, and some good word play. This is an author in desperate need of a good editor; with encouragement and a fine critical eye she might one day produce a real novel.
Rating: 
Summary: The most wonderfull novel I have ever read.
Review: The God of Small Things is the most wonderfull novel I have ever read, and I can imagine that all of you who gave it 1 or 2 stars are men. I simply can't imagine a man writing a novel like this. I find her (A. Roy) much better than Rushdie, in whose novel The Moor's last sigh there are beautifull and "unbeatifull" women. Only a man could write something like that! A. Roy is intelligent, sensitive, simply fantastic! Even better than Garcia Marquez for magic-realism.
Rating: 
Summary: A REVIEW
Review: I READ THIS BOOK. THE STYLE OF WRITING OF A COMPARITIVELY NEWWRITER IS APPRECIABLE.
Rating:
Summary: Imagine "To Kill a Mockingbird" in a dysfunctional family
Review: This a story about the loss of childhood innocence and the evils of bigotry. Whatever our cultural origin, it takes very little time for us to become natives of this country, residents of this town and members of this family. We immediately recognize these characters as people we have known well, although the setting would otherwise seem foreign and strange to most North Americans. This book has made me rethink my own prejudices and ask myself: "who am I thoughtlessly hurting today?". It is a story that has stayed with me since I read it and will probably keep me company for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: A keenly observed, subtle, and darkly haunting tale.
Review: For her beautiful, breathtakingly imaginative use of language alone, Ms. Roy's novel is worth reading (and re-reading!) and savoring. Her poetic description of the outer world--the lush south Indian landscape--contrasts poignantly with the profound inner pain experienced by the main characters. Some have complained that the repetitions of phrases and longer passages as the story unfolds is a weakness of the book. On the contrary, this device perfectly captures the psychological repercussions of the central tragic events of the story: as Roy reminds us, everything in a family's life can be turned upside down by the events of just a single day. The entire novel builds inexorably to the explicit retelling of this central tragedy. Along the way, the reader experiences the fragmentary memories and foreshadowings triggered by these events. Among the many pleasures of this novel is Roy's delicate use of humor, mixed as it often is with an undertone of sadness. In this regard, the scene at the airport (where Rahel and Estha's family meet Sophie Mol and her mother) is masterful. I could just as easily single out many other passages. The hypnotic spell of this novel lingers on after the last page and changes the reader. Don't miss it!
Rating:
Summary: Unexpected beauty
Review: Roy amazes you as she tells a story. She will write something witty, then change to a quasi historical narration; all of a sudden, a superbly realistic (almost medical) description of violence shows up, then a sexual encounter is depicted in a very poetic tone.
One of the best books I read recently.
Rating:
Summary: words that will emboss your soul
Review: This book is an exceptional example of exquisite imagery and is so descriptive that you feel as if you are the air that the twins live and breath. For me, it brought back memories of how I thought as a child and reminded me of how innocent children really are. I have come back again and again to the beautiful descriptions in this book and believe that the author's words have inspired me in my own daily reflections.
Rating:
Summary: Hard, clever, but ultimately stilted and tedious.
Review: The plot, echoing Akira Kurosawa's classic movie Rashomon in its revealing layer by layer the plot is very cleverly done, but, since this provides the main bulk of the novel, it lacks any real plot. This means it becomes thumb-twiddlingly tedious at times. The characters remain permanently unlikable, and the deaths become a welcome relief from the tedium. The Indian-English is somewhat stilted, and the short sentences can become confusing and excessively complex (at least when you begin), but, while clearly very rich and lyrical, it eventually decends into soapy trash. Good try, but no cigar.
Rating:
Summary: Rich imagery but a lack of emotion
Review: The twins, at the epicenter of this piece, were lacking so much emotion and character that the surrounding mother, grandmother, and great aunt seemed to bleed into them. I did not empathize with them, but I felt pure pain for the mother who had no chance to explore her mind or love in a caste-ridden, chauvanistic society. The christianity of the family gave the book a distinctly western flavor which I found incongruous with the rich imagery associated with the river, the land, and the pickle factory. Overall, I was intrigued but not drawn in, a fine beginning author's attempt.
Rating:
Summary: pretty good
Review: This was not the best book I've ever read but it wasn't as bad as some of you made it out to be. For those of you who quit before you were half way through, try something on a lower reading level (and I don't mean that in a bad way).
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