321 pages
English language
Published Aug. 1, 1997
The God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian writer Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book explores how the small things affect people's behavior and their lives. The book also reflects its irony against casteism, which is a major discrimination that prevails in India. It won the Booker Prize in 1997. The God of Small Things was Roy's first book and only novel until the 2017 publication of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness twenty years later. She began writing the manuscript for The God of Small Things in 1992 and finished four years later, in 1996. It was published the following year. The potential of the story was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent …
The God of Small Things is the debut novel of Indian writer Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book explores how the small things affect people's behavior and their lives. The book also reflects its irony against casteism, which is a major discrimination that prevails in India. It won the Booker Prize in 1997. The God of Small Things was Roy's first book and only novel until the 2017 publication of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness twenty years later. She began writing the manuscript for The God of Small Things in 1992 and finished four years later, in 1996. It was published the following year. The potential of the story was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received £500,000 in advance and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.
A portrait of a family in 1960s India, elegantly observed; the blurb says 'lyrical' and that's probably the best descriptor for Roy's style. But I found the increasing use of mid-sentence capitalization to highlight the Important Things toward the end a bit offputting, particularly when combined with a host of other choices such as phonetic spellings. Nearly a 4/5
This book had been on my lists for ages, before I even knew who was Arundhati Roy, and I was surprised that it took me a while to like it. There was something holding me back a little. It's a slow drama, like a train crash in slow motion, often foreshadowed through the labyrinthine construction between the present and different times in the past. Eventually, it started to make sense and the incredible writing gripped me.
Magnifique livre, très émouvant et incroyablement bien écrit. Ce premier livre de l'auteur, si je me rappelle bien mes lectures à son sujet, fit sensation dans le monde de la littérature anglaise. Il est de fait étudié au Bac français (option littérature anglaise) 2024-2025. Le style est de réalisme magique, vu depuis les yeux de deux enfants, faux-jumeaux, qui ont développés une vision très particulière du monde, certainement par protection. Bien qu'il traite de sujets parfois sur, ce style justement permet d'éviter de se retrouver le cœur trop broyé para leurs tribulations.
Tätä kirjaa oli aika uuvuttava lukea. Ensimmäiset kaksi ja puoli sataa sivua tuntuivat aika sekavilta ja tapahtumat irrallisilta, kerrontatyyli oli minusta ärsyttävä, ja vasta viimeisen sadan sivun aikana koko tarinaan tuli jotain tolkkua. Mutta kyllä sitten, kun loppuun asti sai punnerrettua, tästä muodostui melko voimakas kertomus eteläintialaisen yhteiskunnan jännitteistä.
Amazing.
Short but intense book, with lots to say about caste, class and family.
It was a powerful read but I honestly am not sure if I can say I liked it. It is disturbing and confronting. It is also extremely well structured, I will probably need to sit with it for a while.
Kerala and nearly all of the characters expand into three dimensions in a story that weaves between past and present and addresses class and patriarchal structures, colonialism, family dysfunction. It's cluttered however with poetic turns of phrase that founder and repeat and grow overshadowly wearisome.
Beautifully written, with just the right pace to savour the feelings and emotions that it evokes. Mostly, to be honest, sadness. It is an account of the loss of innocence of two children, the whirlwind of events that lead to that precise moment - and the devastating effect it had in their adult selves. An account of human nature, family, tradition, and the relentless advance of time, change, and mostly decay.
I'm sitting here, pondering about the story, and just sitting in sadness. It feels like the characters of the book are infallibly destined to an unhappy life, determined by external forces out of their reach. Like they're cogs in wheels that span through generations and are bound to have their wills crushed, just like all other souls unlucky enough to be born into them... ja feel? im back on my deterministic bullshit yall
Abandoned, at 24%. This is not good for my 2021 reading challenge: I'm already two books behind. If I were younger I might slog through... but now, with fewer moments left in my life, I choose to enjoy those moments more — and I am not enjoying this book. At all. Disjointed the timeline is, confusingly so. The characters (so far) only superficially drawn: no depth nor feeling, except for (the author's) heavyhanded scorn toward the Bitter Spinster and the Drunken Ex-Husband. The prose, awkwardly florid at times. (Lovely at times, too, but not enough of a balance for me).
Beautifully written, painting a vivid picture of a place and time, and dealing with a culture and subjects I knew little about. I struggled with the non-linear timeline though. Perhaps I’d got used to it by the time I reached the conclusion, but the latter half of the book felt stronger.
A book I’m glad to have read, which will stay with me for some time.
The ending is awful!
Damn, what a book
I cannot say I liked this book. It's great, but it's also awful, and I feel like it will take a while to wash it off of me. It describes ugly things as if they were beautiful and beautiful things as if they were ugly.
Also, I think it hit closer to home than I would have liked and much closer than it should have.
I cannot possibly rate this book.
A stunning tale, full of light and darkness, poetry and playfulness, big and small things. Arundhati Roy has a way with words that is unique, and speaks both to the hearts and minds of her readers.
Some great writing, most particularly in the tension of some passages and in the use of repeated phrases to highlight affect, but the pessimism can be grating. The narrative of loss, social difference, and the struggles of one family in the archaic Indian caste system is set up to be a story for all class struggle, but is overly sentimental throughout.
