Product Description

An utterly entrancing new collection of essays, as controversial, inspirational and passionate as anything Arundhati Roy has yet written. In this collection of speeches and essays, gathered together here for the first time, Arundhati Roy writes, with passion, clarity and urgency, about the subjects dearest to her heart, subjects which must be of the utmost importance to any of us interested in democracy, in global justice, and in the direction certain powerful agencies beyond our control are taking the world. Focusing largely on that intense period leading up to and beyond the UN's attack on Iraq, Roy systematically deconstructs the US government's argument for going to war. She brilliantly exposes the gaping errors in their thesis, the hypocrisy and false ideology behind the rhetoric that led to 42% of the American public believing that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for the attacks of 9/11 on the World Trade Centre, and that a bombed, besieged and starved country such as Iraq was a direct threat to the safety of the mighty USA. Roy opens our eyes, like no other writer can do, to the problems that our increasingly divided world is creating, highlighting the growing disparity between rich and poor, with the world's poor increasing by 100 million in the last ten years. Every article Arundhati Roy writes, every speech she gives, attracts worldwide attention and this collection, controversial, polemical, provoking but always inspirational, is an essential addition to her work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41296 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
'Though she be but little, she is fierce. Roy is witty and moving, and her passion is focused and mordant. She is a great modern rhetorician, treading the boards of a world stage.' The Times 'Roy is excellent at putting across the rational arguments and web of facts that are necessary to back up her opinions. She has a good command of both the big picture and the small and allows people to speak for themselves, pushing those who are often forgotten into the foreground of the debate.' Natasha Walter, Guardian 'Roy should be required reading.' Marie Claire 'Roy is always passionately intense. Her controversial views on terrorism are single-minded and uncompromising. She compels you to have an opinion on matters she feels are important.' Observer 'Roy is to be congratulated for a real and personally risky political engagement at a time when many Western writers of her celebrity can respond to world events only from a debilitating aesthetic distance.' Time Out

About the Author
Arundhati Roy is the author of THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS, which won the Booker Prize in 1997

Customer Reviews

Chance buy...
I picked this book up in a cheap bookshop in Chatham as something to read on the train... it turns out that what I bought was one of the most thought-provoking and intelligent books I have ever read. Not only that, but Roy has the rare quality of an emotive writing style. Both beautiful and profoundly insightful- a must read!

Insightful and intriguing
For many years I've heard much about Arundhati Roy but I've never picked up one of her books until recently. The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire was being featured on the shelves of the Oxford Book Store, Park Street in Kolkata - India when I picked it up and started browsing through it. The book captured me immediately. As an Indian born and brought up outside India, over the last few years I have started taking a greater interest in my mother country. This book at first glance seemed to be a bit of an eye opener about some of the pre-conceptions I have about India and the what I believe to be trouble because of what I’ve read or been told by the mass media. This book proved to be an antidote to what mass media had been feeding me about "India Shining". Roy does not mince her words and highlights the many injustices of governments around the world upon their people, though in this book her zeal is concentrated upon the injustices of the USA and India. From plight of those living in flood zones caused by massive river dam projects, to farmer committing suicide because of financial dept to the way western governments, notably the USA, is controlling power, resources and trade around the world, The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire starts to give the lay man an inside track on apparent “truths” which today’s people who been lead to believe is the absolute truth by our governments.

This book is composed of a series of essays and speeches given by Roy between 2002 and 2004. Detailed references in an appendix at the back of the book offer the reader extensive avenues of further reading and each essay is contextualized and it's date and location catalogues in a second appendix.

I feel this book is required reading for anyone who's blinded by mass media about India's current feel good factor. It's a real eye opener. The book leads the reader on to a wealth of extra reading material, though at times a number of the essays do overlap and the book starts to get a little repetitive. But that's the nature of public speaking. You don't always come up with different things for each individual speech you give to the public. Indeed, you probably would want to spread the same messages the world over and this is apparent in the book.

The Ordinary Person's Review of Arundhati Roy.
Roy separates the political FACTS, MYTHS and TRUTH about the world we live in post Sept 11. Her words tug at the hearts of all those that still believe in the principles of "satya" Truth and "Ahimsa"- non-violence. She remind us that that we are "standing on the shoulders of giants"[think about Gandhi,MLK Jnr,and Mandela next time you vote].

And lest we forget it - there's so much more yet to do to safeguard the freedoms and civil rights of people across the world. Roy is without a doubt, passionate, poetic and powerful.