The God of Small Things, the international best seller by Arundhati Roy, has raised numerous questions. Is it a piece of anti-Communist propaganda? Does it distort social reality? Is it a cheap imitation of the western fashion in novel? Does it offer nothing but play with words? The present book examines the novel sociologically and answers all these questions well. The book also shows that the novelist cares for the neglected in the society like women, children and dalits and even the environment. She conveys messages so relevant to our society and our age.
It's easier to talk about small things because the big things in life are far too complex and painful. But even small things can loom large, and everything can change, radically, in a day, a moment. These are the sort of big things first-time novelist Roy ponders in this highly original and exquisitely crafted tale set in the tiny river town of Ayemenem in Kerala, India. The story revolves around a pair of twins, brother and sister, whose mother has left her violent husband to live with her blind mother and kind, if ineffectual, brother, Chacko. Chacko's ex-wife, an Englishwoman, has returned to Ayemenem after a long absence, bringing along her and Chacko's lovely young daughter. Their arrival not only unsettles the already tenuous balance of the divisive household, it also coincides with political unrest. The twins and their cousin--each brimming with vernal intelligence, innocent love and longing, curiosity and fear--barely have time to get acquainted before tragedy strikes, first in the form of an accident (caused by carelessness in love), then murder (the result of ancient prejudice). Roy's intricate, enchanting, and often wry tale is positively mythical in its cosmic inevitability, evocative circularity, and paradoxical wisdom. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A work of highly conscious art—A Tiger Woodsian début — the author hits the long, socio-cosmic ball but is also exquisite in her short game. Like a devotionally built temple,
The God of Small Things builds a massive interlocking structure of fine, intensely felt details."—John Updike,
The New Yorker"A gorgeous and seductive fever dream of a novel, and a truly spectacular début."—
Kirkus Reviews"With sensuous prose, a dreamlike style infused with breathtakingly beautiful images and keen insights into human nature, Roy's début novel charts fresh territory in the genre of magical, prismatic literature—Roy's clarity of vision is remarkable, her voice original, her story beautifully constructed and masterfully told."—
Publishers Weekly (*starred review)
"A work that is complex in structure, sophisticated in its handling of time, and bold in its themes. But perhaps what is most remarkable is Roy's deft use of language."—
Maclean's"A compelling tale of forbidden love and its catastrophic consequences, wonderfully vivid—Arundhati Roy's novel has a magic and mystery all its own."—
The Toronto Star"Roy weaves her bold and startling narrative in sequences of luminously rendered scenes—remarkable."—
The Globe and Mail"Drenched with poetic image and saturated with wisdom, the book's rich tapestry is a tour de force in good storytelling, a book to savour and remember."—
The London Free Press"A first novel of remarkable resonance and originality—like Rushdie she is a dazzling stylist, someone who loves the sound and play of words—
The God of Small Things is both funny and insightful."—
The Edmonton Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘Richly deserving the rapturous praise it has received on both sides of the Atlantic…“The God of Small Things” achieves a genuine tragic resonance. It is, indeed, a masterpiece.’ Observer
‘“The God of Small Things” genuinely is a masterpiece, utterly exceptional in every way, and there can be little doubt that posterity will place it very near the top of any shortlist of Indian novels published this century.’ William Dalyrmple, Harpers and Queen.
‘The quality of Ms. Roy’s narration is so extraordinary – at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple – that the reader remains enthralled all the way through to its agonizing finish…it evokes in the reader a feeling of gratitude and wonderment.’ New York Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
'THEY ALL CROSSED INTO FORBIDDEN TERRITORY. THEY ALL TAMPERED WITH THE LAWS THAT LAY DOWN WHO SHOULD BE LOVED, AND HOW. AND HOW MUCH.'
The year is 1969. On the Cochin highway a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded in a workers' demonstration.
Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Estha, and so begins the tale. They grow up between vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their blind grandmother Mammachi's factory. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they try to fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family – their lonely, lovely mother Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom pincher), their enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth. They learn that Things Can Change in a Day, lives can twist into new ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river, 'grey-green, with fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night the broken yellow moon in it.'
In 'The God of Small Things', Arundhati Roy has given us a novel anchored to anguish but fuelled by wit and magic.
'The joy of 'The God of Small Things' is that it appeals equally to the head and the heart. It is clever and complex, yet it also makes one laugh, and finally, moves one to tears…Roy writes…with a fecund, teeming visuality that is entirely her own. A masterpiece, utterly exceptional.'
WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, 'Harpers and Queen'
'Roy peels away the layers of her mysteries with such delicate cunning, such a dazzlingly adroit shuffle of accumulating revelations that to discuss the plot would be to violate it. Like a devotionally built temple, 'The God of Small Things' builds a massive interlocking structure of fine, intensely felt details. A novel of real ambition must invent its own language, and this one does.'
JOHN UPDIKE, 'New Yorker'
'A compelling story which somehow marries the deepest, smallest personal emotions with an epic narrative…There were times I had to stop reading this novel because I feared so much for the characters or I had to re-read a phrase or page to memorise its grace.'
MEERA SYAL, 'Sunday Express'
'It is rare to find a book that so effectively cuts through the clothes of nationality, caste and religion to reveal the bare bones of humanity. A sensational novel.'
CLAIRE SCOBIE, 'Daily Telegraph'
'Richly deserving the rapturous praise it has received on both sides of the Atlantic…'The God of Small Things' achieves genuine tragic resonance. It is indeed a masterpiece.'
CHRISTINA PATTERSON, 'Observer'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Arundhati Roy was trained as an architect and is also an award-winning screenwriter. The God of Small Things is her first novel. Like her twin protagonists, she was raised near her grandmother's pickle factory in Kerala, India. She now resides in New Delhi. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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