The God of Small Things

Rating:
Summary: A forgetteable book
Review: It is hard to understand the hype. A weak book, it depends too much on cliches and stereotypes. The story is weak and it has very uneven writing. Nothing of universal sentiment that could salvage the material. You won't miss anything if you never read the book!

Rating:
Summary: Good, not great. Pretty, not beautiful.
Review: While Roy's language was inventive and lovely, it couldn't cover her ingenue storytelling status. Her constant foreshadowing panders to her readers, most of whom don't need to be lead by the hand through a plot. Read this book for the descriptions and Roy's obvious love of language. It made the book worth reading. If only the story made the book worth loving.

Rating:
Summary: It shows that the book is by a novice
Review: The story is confusing, the characters come and go, and there is a surrealistic quality about the writing. Has some nice passages that recall life in Kerala, its steamy quality, and the complex social relationships. But the book does not go above the surface stories. Good first effort by a promising writer.

Rating:
Summary: What's the fuss about?
Review: I approached this book with high expectations, given all the hoopla surrounding it. What a disappointment. True, the language is in some cases poetic, although the stylistic devices become tedious and irritating rather quickly. The exotic background and detail are interesting. But at bottom, it's just a very ordinary story about nasty people in a nasty society. It left me with a bad taste, and the conviction that if the setting had been America, this book would have fallen into the obscurity it deserves.

Rating:
Summary: A disorganized, sensationalistic first novel.
Review: I am losing faith in the critics. This writer has promise---but if she is going to be praised for garbage, she is not likely to develop. This book seems to be the result of massive use of a computer's cut & paste function---Portions of this book could have been excellent short stories. That is all.

Rating:
Summary: An essential for all to read
Review: Roy has created a book whose language is so incredible and vivid that I found myself reading and then rereading lines to completely soak in every word. I highly recommend this book...it is an intriguing, enjoyable, and intelligent book. I cannot say enough words of praise

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: This is on the one of those rare books which I was up with all night! The language, the repetition of certain phrases until they truly ring with the hollowness and the significance that those words have for the characters was brilliant. There were certain points in the story where I found myself crying because of the basic truths that Roy touches upon through her characters, and because of how all the 'small' things add up to the futility of the 'big' things.' Overall, a brilliant story worth reading again just to once again savor the beauty of the language.

Rating:
Summary: A mediocre book
Review: This is similar to the stuff that used to be published in Eve's Weekly or Femina in India years ago. Repetitive language with a formula plot. The biggest hype of the past several years. God of Big Things, please save us readers from such writings. Shouldn't publishers be punished for misdirecting readers?

Rating:
Summary: Has good passages but a mediocre book
Review: This book is proof that marketing can do wonders to a product. Remember, not long ago Americans were lining up in droves to buy pet rocks! `Small Things' plays to stereotypes about India, about caste, about Syrian Christians.

Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read in over 4 years!!
Review: The first time I read this novel I was stunned. Actually the first paragraph stunned me. It is that good! Themes are picked up and set down, only to be returned to again and again. Everything in this novel builds to its conclusion. I truly couldn't put it down and ended up reading it 3 times in a row, finding new things in it each time. This is a novel I've been reading excerpts from at every poetry reading I attend. Everyone needs to read this incredible work.