Product Description

The story of the tragic decline of an Indian family whose members suffer the terrible consequences of forbidden love, The God of Small Things is set in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family -- their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).

When their English cousin and her mother arrive on a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3440 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-01
• Released on: 1998-05-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com
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.

From Publishers Weekly
With sensuous prose, a dreamlike style infused with breathtakingly beautiful images and keen insight into human nature, Roy's debut novel charts fresh territory in the genre of magical, prismatic literature. Set in Kerala, India, during the late 1960s when Communism rattled the age-old caste system, the story begins with the funeral of young Sophie Mol, the cousin of the novel's protagonists, Rahel and her fraternal twin brother, Estha. In a circuitous and suspenseful narrative, Roy reveals the family tensions that led to the twins' behavior on the fateful night that Sophie drowned. Beneath the drama of a family tragedy lies a background of local politics, social taboos and the tide of history?all of which come together in a slip of fate, after which a family is irreparably shattered. Roy captures the children's candid observations but clouded understanding of adults' complex emotional lives. Rahel notices that "at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside." Plangent with a sad wisdom, the children's view is never oversimplified, and the adult characters reveal their frailties?and in one case, a repulsively evil power?in subtle and complex ways. While Roy's powers of description are formidable, she sometimes succumbs to overwriting, forcing every minute detail to symbolize something bigger, and the pace of the story slows. But these lapses are few, and her powers coalesce magnificently in the book's second half. Roy's clarity of vision is remarkable, her voice original, her story beautifully constructed and masterfully told. First serial to Granta; foreign rights sold in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Holland, India, Greece, Canada and the U.K.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This "piercing study of childhood innocence lost" mirrors the growing pains of modern India. Twin sister and brother Rahel and Estha are at the center of a family in crisis and at the heart of this "moving and compactly written book."
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

My First Amazon Problem Ever
Unfortunately, I have yet to receive this item. I remain anxious, as I look forward to receiving and reading it. I am familiar with the writings of this author and expect that I will continue to respect her logic and writing abilities.

Beautiful poetry that is no casual read
I borrowed this book from a friend's library because I heard so many good things about it. Although it can be confusing at times with multiple flashback events, I love the wordplay and the little details of life from multiple perspectives. Some aspects of the story might be confusing for readers without a background on Indian culture, but it is still quite accessible. I love how the author sets up the drama and creates suspense, but it might be a little much because I lost interest at times and wanted to skip to the end (like what some other reviewers did).

This is a good read for English majors and those who like poetry in their narratives. I wouldn't recommend it for casual readers.

quite lacking
besides the cryptic sentences and unbearable overuse of metaphors, the characters and story are both terribly shallow. roy fails miserably in developing ammu's character, the novel's hero, who she describes with a mix of the caricatures of a bitter feminist, a depressed mother, and a unprejudiced free spirit. can you be any more unoriginal? the story is not engaging, and not all moving or sad as other reviewers have claimed. sure, if you look at the events, of course it can be considered a tragedy, but the jumpy plot and unnecessary detail really stems the flow of an already boring plot. in addition there is a strange and gratuitous twist added in that can easily be lost (perhaps for the better) in roy's awkward prose. probably just an a last ditch effort to add some spice to the novel, but uugghhh, very out of place.