Thursday, September 13, 2007

God of Small Things

The next book I read was 'God of Small Things' by Arundhathi Roy.

 

I think of myself as a Goddess of small things, Ok ok, not a Goddess, may be a demiurge, I mean, I am kind of obsessed with small things in life. Small, nevertheless gratifying things. one of my favorite quotes is, "Small things make perfection, but perfection is not a small thing". Well, I am kind of obsessed with perfection too, even though there is no such thing as perfection in reality.

 

Coming back to the book, it had a slight framework of gloom woven over the entire book. The real human emotions about even the most insignificant things of life have been rendered. Roy strikes the truth about human values right on the face, no deception, no closed pages.

 

The book goes back and forth in time, which was a little irritating at times, even though the author connects the seemingly anachronic incidents pretty well and to the minutest of the details.

 

The characters were like, they remind you of someone you have seen somewhere, sometime. If you have been brought up in South India, it is more so. I was brought up in Coimbatore, which has strong Keralite connections. So it was all very realistic for me.

 

The strange mystique around Estha, and Rahel's girly chirpiness, the bonding the twins share are all so very well written.

 

A lot of times, I think words are superfluous in explaining emotions in real situations, emotions should talk for themselves. In explaining the situations so meticulously, the emotions are clearly depicted in this book, that explaining the emotions become unnecessary.

 

This book won the booker prize too. A good one.

3 comments:

The Black King said...

I tried reading it once... but gave up very soon. Maybe I need to get into the right mood to do so. But yes, your review does make me want to do so! :)

Lak said...

I think you missed a key aspect of the book -- it's about incest, and that really put me off it when I read it years ago:

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bridge/1771/Sane/grchrvw.html

AruneM said...

naanum book reviewkku nallathor comment adikkanum yosippen. apparum 'indha book'nnu koduthhu padikka solliteenna problem aayidumnnu onnume solradhillai..!