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The God of Small Things

Arundhati Roy

Start date: April 1, 2024

Finish date: April 30, 2024

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: April 2024 New School Classic Group Read
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New School Classics- 1915-2005

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What Members Thought

Apr 01, 2008 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, womens-day, 1001-books

This books remains a hazy memory for me - every once in a while something reminds me of it, and I try to remember the name but I can't, I struggle, and finally I find it again. So I'm putting it on my list. ...more

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Feb 13, 2008 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, hf-india, man-booker-prize

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. ...more

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Jul 30, 2020 Maggie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, boxall-1001, guardian-1000, coming-of-age, family-drama, asian

Two-egg (dizyogmatic) twins, Rahel and Estha, seven years old, prepare for the arrival of their half-English cousin, Sophie Mol. Arundhati Roy takes us through the events of three generations, starting from their grandfather Pappachi's abuse of their talented, capable grandmother Mammachi, to the ill-fated marriages and divorces of their mother Ammu to a drunkard and their uncle Chacko to an English woman Margaret Kochamma (Sophie Mol's mother), to the twins' childhood, the tragic death of Sophi Two-egg (dizyogmatic) twins, Rahel and Estha, seven years old, prepare for the arrival of their half-English cousin, Sophie Mol. Arundhati Roy takes us through the events of three generations, starting from their grandfather Pappachi's abuse of their talented, capable grandmother Mammachi, to the ill-fated marriages and divorces of their mother Ammu to a drunkard and their uncle Chacko to an English woman Margaret Kochamma (Sophie Mol's mother), to the twins' childhood, the tragic death of Sophie Mol (this is not a spoiler, it's announced in the first chapter), and the grief and loss that changes the course of their lives.

The book is written in non-chronological format, starting at the end, after Sophie Mol's death, and jumping back and forth between the events across a century. Most of the action occurs over the course of two days, the first when Rahel and Estha are brought to watch the Sound of Music, where (view spoiler), and the arrival of Sophie on the second day, and the events that occasion the twins', and especially Rahel's, jealousy of Sophie. I liked the non-chronological format. The reader gets a broad overview of events right from the start, but there are gaps intentionally left it, and it is especially poignant when some of these gaps get filled. The plot is simple, but what makes it rich are the variety of angles that feed into it. We are told from the beginning that a tragedy has occurred, but why does it occur? We spend the rest of the book discovering the multitude of reasons, some of start decades before the tragedy itself.

The strong point of this novel is its use of metaphors and imagery to create emotive scenes. I felt my heart being drawn into the story, and the language changing my emotions. The bleakness of the book created a haze of sorrow that invaded my life even when I put the book down. However I did not like the way Roy conjugated words together, and repeated these words and other phrases over and over, to the point that it got excessive. For example, there's a scene when a man selling drinks is known as the orangedrink lemondrink man (reflecting the thoughts in young Estha's mind), and throughout the entire passage, he is persistently known as the orangedrink lemondrink man. Never just the man, or the drinks seller, but always the orangedrink lemondrink man. It was gimmicky and unfortunately became irritating.

Like many novels that come out of India, the main theme of the book is the class structure of India. Central to this is the caste system in India, how it affects the relationships between people, and the methods that people use to escape the system and their consequences. This is modulated by the influence of marriages and divorces, the hierarchy of acceptability of different types of relationships and marital statuses, and the role that religion and politics plays in altering one's class. Ultimately, all the characters, from the twins, to their defiant struggling mother Ammu, to the Untouchable man Velutha whom they love, to their aunt and the main antagonist Baby Kochamma, are victims of social norms and hierarchies. ...more

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