Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional writing!
Review: This book has been one of the few that I really enjoyed reading. It had a style all its own. A must read!!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing...
Review: Like reading a Robert Frost poem mixed with a Jane Austen novel. Smooth, coherent and beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: everybody's a critic
Review: From the looks of the customer reviews posted here, it seems readers either love it or hate it. Personally, I thought the book was beautiful; I found Ms. Roy's prose jazzy, lyrical and the story haunting. But I'm really writing to suggest that, if you're steeped in a Western tradition so much that you think ONLY Faulkner, Conrad, Eliot, and Joyce are "worth reading," don't bother with this book. If you're already predisposed to think that anything different is either pretentious or unworthy of notice, move on. Amateur "critics" complain that Roy uses too many similes or that her prose is "crass," that she tries to hard and unsuccessfully to copy the style of Salman Rushdie, that the success of the book is due merely to the "exotic" setting that Roy somehow exploits, that Roy shows a "narcissistic streak" in trying to identify with her lead character, that "logic is a major casualty in this novel" in that it lacks a traditional "process of development," that Roy's aim is "to make an impression rather than tell a story.":...consider the counter-arguments: All authors are influenced by those who came before them; the setting is only "exotic" to Westerners who haven't lived in India; in identifying with a character, the author adds depth to the story; logic is a construct of thinking that may not apply in all cases; sometimes life is a series of impressions rather than a linear plot; most real stories don't end happily ever after. You people who don't like the book are entitled to your opinions...
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I did not need a review to buy this book: a book by an Indian woman, and a delectable title. I knew I wanted to read it. Buying a book is a rare treat for me. I made a mistake when I bought "The God of Small Things." I love transporting prose, and an unconventional (or post-modernist) style will not put me off, as long as the story is served and I can submerge myself in the author's vision. Roy's writing never served her story or characters. It hovered self-consciously and annoyingly over the characters and their lives, never giving me a chance to know them or care what happened to them, or what it might mean in the context of a real world. I will not recommend this book to my friends or book group, and I am disappointed that it beat another splendid book, Cold Mountain, for the Booker Prize.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful. Real.
Review: I loved this book very much. It is difficult to paint real life, to show how for something (terrible) to happen, many other little, different and separate elements have to converge. It is probable, as she let us believe that a good part of it is a true story. If it is, this book was a seed growing again in that devastated family. Her way out. To take the words out of her. I did not know the book was famous and so controversed. I wish her well and hope that having her work commented on by the whole planet will not upset her too much.
Rating:
Summary: True India through an Indian's eyes.
Review: A literary classic in every sense of the word. The unrelenting plathora of paradoxes throughout the book really keeps you on your toes - from masterly elegance one moment to carnal, scatological descriptions the next. The serenity and the inherent passivity of typical Indian village life has been brought out with acuity. Arundhati, as a person has been through various experiences in her life and she has been able to give us some part of those experiences through this book. Truly remarkable and highly recommended for an enleavening catharsis of the self.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: I think that one of the very best things about this book is the language and the grammar that the author uses to set us free. Too often, writers are forced to conform to all the grammatical rules and regulations. This book was a beam of light in a dark place. Arundhati is not afraid of what others will think of her broken language. Often, this language is the only thing that can express the feelings in the book. And it does so gracefully, and beautifuly. Even if you are skeptical about this book you should read it. If anything it willl make you think. And really, that is what reading is all about. Give it a try!
Rating: 
Summary: This book is not for everyone!
Review: I read this book because of the fabulous reviews, and I have to agree the critics are taking us for a bit of a ride---they seem to grab on to anything that is a little bit different. Just because a work is "different" does not mean it is worthy of such high praise!!!! I'm glad I finished it, but could not take one more simile or metaphor. It reminded me of short stories I was forced to write in high school creative writing class!
Rating:
Summary: Tech.Nique.
Review: I found Ms. Roy's book to be overfilled. With. Tech. Nique.However, I am lookingforward to Her Next Book.
Rating:
Summary: Non-linear. Interesting & fun read. Emotional story.
Review: Fun to read; halting style of narration that seems to cough words from a swallowed heart. Emotional story about love, family, social rights and obligations. Very fast read; once into the rhythm I could not put this down.
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