The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

This book is so unlike anything I have ever read before, and is everything I would aspire to as a writer. This is the example I will constantly compare to, the standard by which anything I ever write will have to be held up to. Though this is probably a useless aspiration since I doubt anyone but Arundhati Roy could create what she has with this book. To try and emulate her would be fruitless, since she has invented a truly unique voice, a genuinely new language. 'The God of Small Things' won the 1997 Booker Prize and was Roy's debut novel, so I guess this review is a little late, but despite the fact I know I sound like a gushing publicist, I have ...

Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things was published in 1996. It quickly became a best seller and won the Booker prize in 1997. I first read the book in 2000 after it was recommended by a friend who was studying it as part of her English Literature Degree. The same friend went on to conduct her Literature MA into this book. I read the book again recently and it was just as wonderful as I first recall. The God of Small Things is written from the perspective of 'two egg' boy and girl twins, Esthappen Yako (known as Estha) and Rahel, who recount the story of their childhood in India. The book opens with Rahel's return to their childhood home of ...

As I write about this book, Iam a wee bit embarrassed. For one, I should have read this classic earlier, much earlier. Secondly no reviews or praise can actually do justice to this masterpiece. Even here the word ‘Masterpiece’ becomes an understatement. Arundhati Roy, an author blessed by ‘The God of Small Things’, with an ability to make the cold, bland language of English sound magical and triumphant, writes an entire book filled with emotions, feelings neatly and effectively sculpted with the use of words. Chew on these phrases for now. Chocolate is stickysweet and meltybrown. Bluegreyblue eyes snap A Wake, A Lert. Truths lie off the ...