Review: The God of Small Things
September 6th, 2010 § 17 Comments
The God of Small Things: A Novel
by Arundhati Roy
Published by Random House
321 pages
my rating: 10/10
i haven’t read that many Booker winners, but this one is hands down my favorite so far. and by favorite, i mean that this book has to be the most melancholy and passionately written book i have ever read. there is so much that i cannot say about the book to avoid spoiling it, but just know that it has been, by far, one of my favorite reads of the year.
May in Ayenemen is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in a fruity air.
on the surface, The God of Small Things is about Indian fraternal twins Rahel and Estha and the visit from their Anglo-mulatto cousin Sophie (whom everyone basically worships for her whiteness). from the very beginning, the map of the storyline is laid out. we know that Sophie dies on that trip and it’s implied that the twins are intricately involved. we know that whatever the “Orangedrink Lemondrink Man did to Estha in Abhilash Talkies” was awful and that in adulthood, he is a sad and lonely mute. we know that Rahel and Estha are psychically connected, as twins often are, and that their relationship has been stretched thin. we know these things and yet we know nothing, and Roy takes her time unravelling every layer of complexity slowly, savoring its revelations that get us closer to the truth.
It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined.
and so it is, that Roy takes us from the novel’s present day, when the twins are all grown up, back to the days leading up to Sophie’s death, told in cycles and brief intertwining episodes that merge and meld without any apparent cohesiveness, but that ultimately get us where we need to go. with each incident having multiple recurrences, we begin to know our characters with a profound and resolute intimacy and we form the same morbid fascination with the incidents and the truth that surrounds them. steeped in family history, political activism and forbidden loves, this is an amazing story that will stay with me for a very long time.
arguably, the most significant achievement of Roy’s novel is that it provides a critical look at the long standing history of India that has allowed for the subjugation of its people through the caste system and flawed politics. throughout the story, the various characters and the incidents, Roy makes a strong case for the generations of damage that have instilled among the people and the corruption that persists in her country.
Paravans, like other Untouchables, were not allowed to walk on public roads, not allowed to cover their upper bodies, not allowed to carry umbrellas. They had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their polluted breath away from those they addressed.
one of the most captivating points about the book is that Roy brings the reader a new English that is rich and bubbling with language. she creates a compulsive rhythm in the reading and manipulates us to experience the story in a very deliberate and meditative sort of way. it was so easy to get swept up in the story because of the language and the powerhouse combination of the phenomenal storyline makes this book mind bogglingly good.
this is one of those rare books that you read and then immediately want to read again, because the last pages pull everything together in a way that illuminates the entirety of the story. a re-read is almost necessary and welcomed. i would recommend this for everyone.
I have been wanting to read this one but haven’t had much luck with Bookers as of late. I do plan on reading it at some point though.
oh, i hope you give it a chance. it’s truly wonderful.
what Bookers have you tried already?
So I read this before I read Midnight’s Children, and I ended up liking Midnight’s Children better. I’m not sure if it is because this book prepared me for Rushdie’s fantastic descriptions of India or whether it is because I found Roy’s creative use of language a bit much at times. Strangely, I think this book has helped me appreciate other authors who run free and loose with language, such as Keri Hulme in The Bone People. Do you think it made a difference for you to read Midnight’s Children before The God of Small Things?
that’s a great question! although i’m still not all the way through Midnight’s Children, i had read well over half before i picked up The God of Small Things and was immediately drawn into Roy’s writing in a way that i wasn’t with Rushdie.
i felt like Rushdie had so many tangential stories that it was easy to get lost in his writing, so it’s interesting to hear you say that Roy was a bit much at times. i had pretty much the exact opposite experience and i wonder if it’s because for both of us, the first reading prepared us for the next.
have you read anything else by Rushdie, by chance?
i haven’t read The Bone People, but i will have to give it a look.
The only other book of Rushdie’s that I have read is Haroun and the Sea of Stories. That was a children’s book that to me seemed like an allegory of the conflict over Kashmir; for some reason it reminded me of The Phantom Tollbooth.
I’m intrigued by a review I saw of The Enchantress of Florence, so I’ll probably find myself reading that sometime over this next year.
i’d like to try another Rushdie once i get through Midnight’s Children, for sure. maybe The Satanic Verses, if i’m feeling ready for another chunkster, or Shame.
I have just been on the Booker Prize website and quite a few people put this as their favourite Booker winner ever. Im sure this is knocking around my parents house somewhere.
i haven’t read nearly enough of the Bookers to have an opinion, but i can completely understand why so many people love this book. i hope you enjoy it, if you’re able to pick it up.
Wow! 10/10? I just might have to give this book a try!
yes, you know i don’t give those out willy-nilly!
I had a good friend lend me this in college and I wish I remember more of it. I think it’s time for a reread
i would definitely like to do a re-read myself. it reminds me very much of how i felt when i watched Pulp Fiction the first time. i just needed to watch it again to make sure my brain could put it all together correctly.
I’ve often wondered about this book, but I never heard anything either way about it – until now. (I never looked up reviews for it, though.) I’m going to have to try it now, after this!
i hope you do. it is just a wonderful book – probably my favorite by an indian author that i have read so far.
What a terrific review. I especially love this part: “arguably, the most significant achievement of Roy’s novel is that it provides a critical look at the long standing history of India that has allowed for the subjugation of its people through the caste system and flawed politics … Roy makes a strong case for the generations of damage that have instilled among the people and the corruption that persists in her country.” Well said!
aww, thank you. i appreciate that.
i wish that that statement wasn’t true, but her novel does such a brilliant job of addressing those issues without really throwing it in your face.
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