Book Club: The God Of Small Things

From the back cover: “'The God of Small Things' explores the tragic fate of a family which ‘tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how.” They are an eclectic mix: grandmother Mammachi; her spoilt Anglophile son, Chacko; her daughter Ammu; Ammu’s inseparable twins Estha and Rahel; and Baby Kochamma, grand aunt, determined to spread the bitter seeds of her early disappointment in love. From its mesmerising opening sequence, it is clear that we are in the grip of a delicious new voice … a voice of breathtaking beauty. 'The God of Small Things 'achieves genuine, tragic resonance. It is, indeed, a masterpiece.” CHRISTINA PATTERSON, Observer


I mentioned a while ago, when I first found out this was our next Book Club read, that I was already dreading reading it because the cover was so disappointing! You may think I was being childish, and perhaps I was, but it turns out I wasn't the only one with that exact same thought...

In short, I wasn't looking forward to this book as much as some of the others I've read - I was anticipating something quite difficult to read because I knew it was a Booker winner and promised to deal with a lot of characters and a lot of issues. It certainly does deal with a lot... but I'm pleased to say that the book pleasantly surprised me. I even found myself welling up by the end (be it happiness or sadness) because I found that I had, without realising, been sucked in.

The setting is unfamiliar to me and, at first, I found it interesting but a bit alienating. Once the Western character arrived, though, I finally could see my access point within this story. That's not to say that I understood or felt more for the Western characters because it was actually the opposite.

I liked the characters, the settings and found the politics and social history interesting but there were some disturbing scenes. It wasn't a cheerful read but there was humour in it and I liked the way Arundhati Roy wrote her younger characters and the odd way that children think. The one thing I didn't like in the book was that the writing tended to lean towards being flowery and over-done. The writing itself is, I think, a reflection of the writer's culture but there was also something very self-conscious about the book and its style - as if Roy were really trying to make it a literary novel, and not just another commercial read.

In the Book Club it received mixed reviews, 7s, 8s and... a 2. I went for 7/10 because, pleasant surprise or not, I did enjoy the book and appreciate that Roy is a talented writer.