Product Description

The literary phenomenon of the year, again.

More magical than Mistry, more of a rollicking good read than Rushdie, more nerve-tinglingly imagined than Naipaul, here, perhaps, is the greatest Indian novel by a woman. Arundhati Roy has written an astonishingly rich, fertile novel, teeming with life, colour, heart-stopping language, wry comedy and a hint of magical realism.

Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, Southern India, The God of Small Things tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory, they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family - their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist and bottom-pincher) and their avowed enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1406 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In her first novel, award-winning Indian screenwriter Arundhati Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz improvisation. The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely; it is the product of a genius child-mind that takes everything in and transforms it in an alchemy of poetry. The God of Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that's completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.

William Dalyrmple, Harpers and Queen.
`genuinely a masterpiece, utterly exceptional in every way,

Synopsis
Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, this novel tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family.

Customer Reviews

boring
It is undeniable that Roy has an individual style of writing that many more mature readers (shown by the high reviews) will enjoy. However if like me you enjoy reading a book for the plot or character development then I would warn you to stay away from this novel.
Roy at times uses some beautiful imagery and symbolism but the abundance of which she uses it and the obscurity of some of it can be dull and confusing. The beauty becomes lost and the novel is drawn out, resulting in scores of pages adding nothing to the plot that could have been summarised in a few lines. The plot is not told chronologically or in any order that I could decipher leading to added confusion, some scenes were well placed but there were far too many lines of narrative for me to keep track of and I became too confused to appreciate the tension of the plot. My biggest problem however was that most of the time there is very little going on, much of the novel is getting to know the characters but I felt unable to do this as they were introduced far too quickly and then once it actually feels as if you are getting to know one they are left and the process repeats with another character. Only at the end which I did in fact find touching did the action actually begin however by that stage I was struggling to stay awake.

Disturbing
This is not the sort of book I usually read, which is sort of why I read it, as I had mentioned to a friend that I wanted to read something a little different, hence she lent this to me & it came highly recommended.

I agree it is quite hard to get into, but I promised myself that after 2 chapters I would decide whether or not to keep going with it & I chose to finish it.

The language is very ornate & I couldn't understand all the Indian references, but still managed fine, so don't let this put you off.

I did find it really very bleak though & quite eye-opening in some respects. It actually made me gag in a couple of parts, so be warned if you are of a sensitive disposition (like me).

On the whole I would say that this tells a very downbeat tale & no-one gets what they deserve in this book, but it makes you think.

Hard work at times but all the better for it...
I'd avoided reading this book for a long time as the 'blurb' delicately entices but doesn't really inspire you to read it.
Having now finished the book, I can appreciate why the book is so hard to summarize. It is a beautifully written piece of literature with some of the best repeated phrases I've ever read, (anyone who's read a Chuck Palahniuk book will know what I mean). The story itself seems a little pointless, (for lack of a better word), but thats not to say meaningless and certainly not a criticism... I basically saw the story as several snap shots, (at different points in time), of a few people who's lives are intertwined. See, I'm even struggling to review the book.
My best advice is to give it a shot. As stated above, it gets a bit hard to follow at points but we're talking paragraphs not pages and only difficult to follow as in the author has an amazing imagination and approach for describing... things... which at points led me astray, (says more about me than the author though).
I'm gonna shut up now and end on a repeat... give it a shot.