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Swap the books you've read, for some you haven't!
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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Synopsis: 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.
Review: THis is the most beautiful I have ever read. With English as my second language, I have to admit that this is not an easy, fast-read book for me. Nevertheless, I love it. The story is compelling and profound. The language is beautiful. There are so many lines that are so well-written that I couldn't help reciting them. This has got to be the best book I have ever read.
Review: For me this was like revisiting Huckleberry Finn & Tom Sawyer but transplanted in another time (now) and another place (India) with other heroes (twins) and written in another prose (lyrical monsoon steam) and read by a much older person (me). It is beautful and touched moments in my real world every day that I read it. A change of consciousness through a tragedy half a globe\culture away.
The first chapter was tough for me, I'm not the most literate guy in the world, but after that, once I got the rhythm and plot and strange names, I was captivated. The key event in the book is approached by tangents so that you always sort of know who, when, how, what and where but never quite who, when, how, what or where. You gradually learn more about who, when, how, what and where - until you're confident (throughout most of the story) that all will be revealed in the next chapter. But the aftermath dribbles out in nuggets and like a who-dunnit in reverse. I read the first two chapters again when I'd finished and, knowing what was to be, illuminated them enornously. A brilliant read.
Review: I read with interest, and no surprise, the negative reviews for this book. Yes, the language is not easy and the narrative is not linear - but these are the strengths of the book and part of what makes it wonderful, what makes the story that much more real, human, passionate, funny, angry, romantic, and tragic. It is one of the best books I have ever read and I revelled in the many different feelings it aroused in me. With the moving back and forward in time, we find out what happens, but not straight away why or how, so the suspense is killing sometimes. The language is alive and really quite brilliant, yet in some ways so simple. Each character is real and has their own voice. The "two egg twins" are, in particular, beautifully brought to life and entirely loveable (and I don't mean in a saccharine way). I'm sorry to have now finished this book, but it finished perfectly. The last chapter was the ideal ending for the book and brought tears to my eyes.
Review: This book is wonderful. I read it while travelling in Greece as it had been left on a bookshelf on a campsite, and many travellers had read it and loved it. It envelopes the reader in the rich colourful perfume of India and uses beautiful language to make the twisting epic of family struggle and triumph into a fluid piece of poetry. Arundhati Roy describes even the most mundane everyday things with the same inspiration she uses to tell bigger stories, and this gives way to some glorious little flourishes of writing that act as little highlights in an already beautiful book. So many little phrases and accents she makes will have you going back and reading certain paragraphs and sentances twice or more just to revel in their brilliance. The main story itself is one of people, and Roy renders these characters so vividly you can almost reach out and touch them. Their lives are painted in great detail and yet nothing ever seems to be rambling or long winded. The whole book flows swiftly and softly like a river. I highly reccomend this beautiful evening song of a novel!
Review: I've tried on several occasions to read this and just couldn't get through. I found it slow and tedious, and just couldn't get invested in the characters or the plot (whatever the plot was, since it didn't really seem like there was one). After reading all these great reviews though, I must be missing something...
Review: I started this novel five or six years ago but found it too confusing so put it down. However, this time I found it mesmerizing and could not put it down, racing from chapter to chapter, totally caught in the mystique through which Roy masterfully unwraps her characters. Such a powerful new descriptive, totally "of the moment" writing. It was sad yet revealing of the way times, events and circumstances wrest control from those caught in their web. The feeling it leaves with me is akin to how I felt after seeing "Sophie's Choice" - haunted by the unfairness of the story itself, yet enriched from the unique gifts of the storyteller.
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