My rating:

add to my books

The God of Small Things

by Arundhati Roy

3.86 · rating details · 47,082 ratings · 3,839 reviews

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 ostensibly 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-...more

Hardcover, 321 pages

Published August 31st 1999 by Random House (first published January 1st 1997)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Best Books Ever

201st out of 17,113 books — 57,567 voters

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Booker Prize Winners

2nd out of 46 books — 626 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 69,157)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 22, 2007

Mandy rated it

Recommends it for: those who thrive on tragedy

I picked this book up at a book fair with my friend. I had heard wonderful things about it, but the lesson I have learned is to do your research if the book you choose to read is without a synopsis on the back.

I'm not giving this book a one-star rating because of the quality of Roy's writing - on the contrary, her work is incredibly moving and beautifully poetic - but my rating is the result of disappointed expectations. As an optimist, I had picked up this book hoping that it would...moreI picked this book up at a book fair with my friend. I had heard wonderful things about it, but the lesson I have learned is to do your research if the book you choose to read is without a synopsis on the back.

I'm not giving this book a one-star rating because of the quality of Roy's writing - on the contrary, her work is incredibly moving and beautifully poetic - but my rating is the result of disappointed expectations. As an optimist, I had picked up this book hoping that it would be densely packed with theme of hope and overcoming struggle, a la 'The Alchemist' but perhaps with a subtler message. Yet Roy's novel is about a family - specifically, two small twins - and how their lives revolve around one horrific moment which the author aptly calls 'The Terror.' In fact, all 321 pages are a compilation of tragedies, disappointments and loss that all culminate in 'The Terror.' I finished this book in a week and a half on a packed schedule, and I believe that I finished the novel as quickly as I did because I constantly hoped that the next page would provide some sort of salvation for the protagonists. Yet as the plot develops, the lives of two innocent children unravel into a history of abuse, hurt and neglect that leaves them as empty and hopeless as traumatized war veterans.

Roy's writing is incredibly effective in the sense that the reader cannot help but form strong opinions about each character- you love, hate, and pity them strongly. The very worst (and sometimes the best) of human nature is revealed. I would compare Roy's writing to abstract art and her story to the artist de Kooning's portrayal of women: her words are sharp, graphic and broad. They wander and you wonder how they can make sense, yet her writing strikes at one's deepest emotions. At the same time, her writing is a portrait of the worst and scariest life experiences. As a whole, reading the book feels like dreaming a nightmare that is too realistic and personal to dismiss as "just pretend."

So to sum up, certainly not a holiday book. And not a book for the optimist. But for someone who wants to read a great and tragic work of art? Absolutely. :) (less)

like 43 likes

· see review

Apr 08, 2008

Adrianne Mathiowetz rated it

Recommends it for: adjective-lovers, women who sometimes fantasize about Going A Little Nuts

Recommended to Adrianne by: Jan

Lush, gorgeous prose: reading The God of Small Things is like having your arms and legs tied to a slowly moving, possibly dying horse, and being dragged face-down through the jungle. I mean, like that, only nice. You can't stop seeing and smelling everything, and it's all so foreign and rich. Potentially ripe with e coli.

The similes and metaphors Roy employs are simultaneously tactile and surreal, like an overly vivid dream, and her storytelling style is somewhere between Joseph Con...more

like 54 likes

· see review

Dec 17, 2007

Tim rated it

Recommends it for: Everyone who can handle it

Okay, it won the Booker prize and everyone has said it before - but god damn is this one melancholy piece of work, and that's actually why I like it.

It's melancholy, not depressing, and it answers more questions about the characters than it first seemed to, although, I have to say, the characters on the whole are quite two-dimensional. Then again, so are a lot of real people: this is an indictment of human life if ever I saw it.

The language is brilliant, the running toget...moreOkay, it won the Booker prize and everyone has said it before - but god damn is this one melancholy piece of work, and that's actually why I like it.

It's melancholy, not depressing, and it answers more questions about the characters than it first seemed to, although, I have to say, the characters on the whole are quite two-dimensional. Then again, so are a lot of real people: this is an indictment of human life if ever I saw it.

The language is brilliant, the running together of words to form themes, the lack of any explanation when shifting around in time that isn't needed, because the style and/or perspective is changed so fluidly that it takes only half a second to readjust yourself. I think perhaps the pacing in the final quarter, leading up to The Incident, was the best piece of work I have read although one or two things seemed out of place, allowing us to guess too early what happens, once or twice.
Still, that adds to the picture we build, and assists the final drama in being oh-so-very dramatic.

My favourite/least favourite aspect of the story is the same exact thing: Baby Kochamma's fate. If you've read it you'll know that what she deserves she would deserve only at the hands of a gang of cops, but the way she spends the vast majority of her life, her unbending belief and continued pathetic existence, is actually her just punishment.
But by god I wanted to lean into the pages and throttle the hell out of her come the finish.

Anyway, yes it really is a magnificent book, fully deserving of all five stars, but while it isn't actually depressing, it is melancholy as hell.

Can't say enough about some of the characters because they are painted so richly, the two protagonists especially, but even though the actual events, while brutal, tragic and realistic in their consequences, are important and could very well devastate so many lives as the lives in this book were so devastated, they were hardly `epic` as so many reviewers like to claim.

Worse things happen at sea, still.(less)

like 21 likes

· see review

Feb 13, 2010

Choupette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: own-or-access

I still love this book unreservedly, but would like to note (for posterity, and fun, and procrastination) some strange, or possibly not so strange, inconsistencies.

- All the bad guys are ugly and/or fat, while all the good guys are beautiful.
- Velutha has no personality. He is a screen on which other characters' desires are projected.
- This novel won the Booker in 1997. Coincidence much? (this was exactly fifty years after Indian independence). Not having read the other ...more

like 16 likes

· see review

Jun 19, 2009

Siria rated it

Shelves: 20th-century, indian-fiction, by-poc

Please excuse me while I go sit in this corner and be dreadfully underwhelmed.

The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize in 1997, and I'd heard very good things about it. And yet I really didn't like it. It's not a bad book - far from it. The characters she has created are really wonderful, and she has succeeded in evoking all the noises and sights and smells of Kerala, even for someone like me who's never been further east than Poland. The narrative structure is disjointed, wander...more

like 26 likes

· see review

Feb 20, 2008

Maggie Campbell rated it

"Nothing mattered much. Nothing much mattered. And the less it mattered, the less it mattered. It was never important enough. Because Worse Things had happened. In the country that she came from, poised forever between the terror of war and the horror of peace, Worse Things kept happening."

"Perhaps it's true that things can happen in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcomes of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the sa...more

like 18 likes

· see review

Jul 28, 2007

Don rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, india, to-read-again, favorites, cantfindthisbooknow

It's interesting that Roy said in an interview that she'd never read Rushdie when compared to him. In retrospect that makes sense. I'd been struggling with "The Moors Last Sigh" when a friend from India gave me this book. I didn't pick it up for a few months and then fell into it, doing little else for days while I read it. At first I found that hard to believe, because she plays with language in ways that I thought Rushdie did, but later I could see that the way he works language i...more

like 10 likes

· see review

May 23, 2011

Barbara rated it

Recommended to Barbara by: Diane D. DeJoie

My biggest problem with this book is how to rank it. I did not enjoy a good part of it. It is bleak, dispiriting and evokes a sense of impending disaster through much of the story. The reason I am in a quandary about my sense of this novel is that I was, simply stated, delighted by Roy's unique and wonderfully creative style of writing.

A brief synopsis of the plot will provide many examples of my ambivalence. This is the tale of a pair of near-genius, two-egg twin children and their ...more

like 8 likes

· see review

Jun 10, 2007

Alec rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literature

Rhythm and repetition are as powerful in prose as they are in poetry and music. Arudhati Roi's writing in The God of Small Things is hyper-aware of that. Rhythmic structures dominate the novel at all levels, from the riffs and variations of "If he touched her he couldn't talk to her, if he loved her he couldn't leave, if he spoke he couldn't listen, if he fought he couldn't win," to the larger rhythm of foreshadowing backed by detailed reminiscence that drives the narrative while not...more

like 10 likes

· see review

Apr 24, 2011

K.D. rated it

Recommended to K.D. by: Man Booker, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, pulitzer, india

This is about the sad, poignant breakdown of an illustrious family in the 60’s in a place called Kerala, a state in India. It revolves around a woman called Ammu who has twins called Estha and Rahel and a lover called Velutha. She and her twins reside in an old house with her mother, Mamachi and her cunning aunt, Kochama. Her twins are not Velutha’s but of Baba’s. However, Ammu has left Baba because he is an alcoholic and tries to prostitute Ammu to his employer. Her mother and aunt are not in ...moreThis is about the sad, poignant breakdown of an illustrious family in the 60’s in a place called Kerala, a state in India. It revolves around a woman called Ammu who has twins called Estha and Rahel and a lover called Velutha. She and her twins reside in an old house with her mother, Mamachi and her cunning aunt, Kochama. Her twins are not Velutha’s but of Baba’s. However, Ammu has left Baba because he is an alcoholic and tries to prostitute Ammu to his employer. Her mother and aunt are not in favor of her marrying her lover Velutha because he is an “untouchable.”

This novel won the 1997 Booker Prize and it was Roy’s first novel and she wrote this for a period of 4 years when she was 32-36 years old. She never had another book published and she is now 51 years old. An architect by profession, she, however, wrote essays and articles about her advocacies: anti-globalization movement, anti-neoimperialism and anti-global policies of the United States. Suffice it to say, that she may have only one bestseller and critically-acclaimed novel the whole of her life (unless she writes another one) but she is definitely not a flash-in-a-pan as she is a woman of substance. But still, just like Harper Lee with her To Kill a Mockingbird, my suspicious mind still asks this question: did Roy actually write this alone or was there somebody who helped her? In To Kill, Lee’s friend Capote said to have “helped” in writing that novel.

But this is none of my business. She said she wrote it and I liked it so who cares. Every new novelist needs all the help he or she can get.

Reading this book reminded me of the following:

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels for the fragmented, episodic and shifting narration. I think the idea is to mimic human mind: when you remember a story that happened in your life, you don’t think of it from the beginning to the end. The human brain does not work that way. In fact, the way Roy presented the story is like an well-arranged song where each part has its own highlight that kept me hooked and glued until the last pages where each character seems to contribute to the rising crescendo: the betrayal of Velutha by Estha after the accidental drowning of Sophie Mol followed by Velutha’s death and peaking to its climax with the almost-obscene lovemaking of Ammu and Velutha (that gave me headache for lack of sleep when I woke up this morning).

Beloved by Toni Morrison for the dark, poignant social or racial discrimination told beautifully through poetic and lyrical. The innocent playful words of the fraternal twins, Rahel and Estha are, for me, just a step further from that Morrison’s characters, Denver (the mother) , Sethe (the living daughter) and Beloved (the ghost daughter) singing together beautifully towards the end of this Morrison’s 1987 Pulitzer-winning novel.

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushie for the political tone of the novel particularly on Velutha’s involvement in communist movement and the historical bits and pieces of India incorporated in the story.

This book really seems to me like a excellent concoction of imported excellent ingredients. However, as it tastes strangely nice, it is still worth reading. Just content yourself as you cannot go back for a refill.
(less)

like 15 likes

· see review

Aug 18, 2011

Lamski Kikita rated it

· review of another edition

A story from real life (even though it's fiction)about the struggles of the diffeent classes and castes in a polarized, politicized, and mysticised Kerala of South India.

The story told about two-egg twins and their family caught up in a whirlwind of coincidences that all conspired to create the biggest event: the death of two people at the very opposite extremes of the social continueum (the little white girl who was loved by everyone even before arriving, and an untouchable communis...more

like 6 likes

· see review

May 19, 2009

Choupette rated it

Recommended to Choupette by: Angus & Robertson

Shelves: own-or-access, studied, indian, ab-fav, 2009

This poor book has it tough. It is pretty famous, but it is so, so underrated. Firstly, it has this odd reputation for being one of those 'literature-for-the-masses'-type books, one of those that is literary, in a way (the critics will admit it only grudgingly), but is nonetheless designed for mass consumption by the type of people who buy the complete works of Shakespeare to sit on a shelf in the living room and who are only a couple of steps up from the Picoult fans.

Secondly, no on...moreThis poor book has it tough. It is pretty famous, but it is so, so underrated. Firstly, it has this odd reputation for being one of those 'literature-for-the-masses'-type books, one of those that is literary, in a way (the critics will admit it only grudgingly), but is nonetheless designed for mass consumption by the type of people who buy the complete works of Shakespeare to sit on a shelf in the living room and who are only a couple of steps up from the Picoult fans.

Secondly, no one can seem to look at it as separate from Salman Rushdie, or more specifically, as anything more than a direct, but slightly inferior, descendent of Midnight's Children. I've been studying this in class and yesterday's lecture was more about Midnight's Children than The God of Small Things, and all the criticism I've read about it is all like Rushdie Rushdie Rushdie (Roy)!

Now, I loved Midnight's Children, but it was by Salman Rushdie, which means it suffered from the same problems as the rest of his work, namely that it is largely impenetrable and largely insufferable. Basically, The God of Small Things is better. It's a lot better. I'll accept that it was probably inspired by Rushdie and that Midnight's Children paved the way for its existence and popularity. But it's just as beautifully written, with just as many brilliant insights and wonderful turns of phrase, and it is just as profound and symbolic and important and meaningful and engageful with the pertinent issues, but it is also entertaining and easy to read and enjoyable and you don't feel like you're drowning in a mixture of pulped paper and ink and molasses. It is so good! Rushdie should learn a lesson or two from it before he gets assassinated, preferably before he publishes another book.

I'm a big fan of Arundhati Roy. She's very smart, extraordinarily talented, and her political essays (or at least the single one I've read) are of an excellent standard. And she had the crazy strength of will to abandon writing after this, her first novel, for political activism. When she could have written any other book and sold millions of copies the world over.

Token discussion of literary technique: the weird, fragmented plot structure irritated me this time around. The constant hints and excerpts from scenes that would take place at the end of the story were annoying in the extreme. But they meant that when events finally came to a close, they had an eerie, tragic sense of inevitability. As if they had been foretold, which indeed they had, from the moment the love laws were broken. And from then fate proceeded in all its unstoppability with the machine-like precision of the Greek gods. And you know that there is no other way, because thus is the world in which we live. And there is a feeling that it will all happen again. That it has been happening, over and over, since the beginning of time and that it will continue happening, until the end of time.

Chilling, beautiful, profound. Superb.

(except the sex scene at the end).(less)

like 16 likes

· see review

Oct 29, 2007

Amytyr rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: No-one.

Shelves: have-read

This is, without a doubt, the single worst book ever written.
It makes virtually no sense, jumping from past to present tense so often and without warning that you have no idea whats going on. Out of nowhere the writer mentions filthy disturbing sexual things for no reason. I could not even find a story in there, just meaningless jibberish.
The thing that amazes me most though, is that while i am yet to meet a single person that LIKES this book, it makes it onto all the top 100 lists ...more

like 19 likes

· see review

Feb 05, 2012

Layaal Hage rated it

Until now, I find The God of Small things very interesting! I really like how every word in the book has a specific metaphorical meaning, and how they each contribute to the overall theme. I also really appreciate all the imageries, metaphors, and the use of literary devices. Despite the fact that the chronological order is very confusing, I think it is quite original, and that it allows the author's message to be portrayed in a more effective way. To its advantage, the chronological order makes...more

like 5 likes

· see review

May 20, 2011

Teresa rated it

4 and 1/2 stars

I admire this book: its structure, descriptive prose and portrayal of the children. One of the 'Two Things' (that's an allusion to the book) I heard about the novel before reading it was how sad and depressing it is. It is, especially in that the adults fail the children so spectacularly and, for the most part, intentionally (plus it's always hard to read of children as victims) but perhaps I've read so much sad, depressing fiction in my life that this one didn't sta...more4 and 1/2 stars

I admire this book: its structure, descriptive prose and portrayal of the children. One of the 'Two Things' (that's an allusion to the book) I heard about the novel before reading it was how sad and depressing it is. It is, especially in that the adults fail the children so spectacularly and, for the most part, intentionally (plus it's always hard to read of children as victims) but perhaps I've read so much sad, depressing fiction in my life that this one didn't stand out as more so. Or maybe it's because of the structure that states from the beginning that certain things have happened but leads you to the descriptions of these events slowly, as if it's bracing you for the intensity as you approach the 'Heart of Darkness.' Any time I wondered if the author was ever going to get to the alluded event, she did, and at the perfect time. Her wordplay (the other of the 'Two Things' I heard about the book beforehand) greatly alleviates the tragic elements. While we already know what ultimately happens to the couple at the end, I feel that the book ends on a positive note, as if these 'small things' are what need to be cherished.

In the first chapter an image of Velutha in Rahel's mind stayed with me throughout and had me paging back several times to reread it. A simple mother-son allusion near the end to something in the beginning was perhaps more heartbreaking to me than anything else. The different viewpoints are done well, and seamlessly.

I know a bit about the history of India, but I wish I knew more, as I believe this book can be read on more than one level. The pivotal year in the novel is 1969, which is when the Indian National Congress split into two factions (like two-egg twins?). Times are changing (with Marxism and Communism making some inroads) but not enough, as government, religious and political organizations continue to fail individuals, the 'small things,' paralleling the adults' failing the children.

As I finished the book, I was reminded of a conversation I had the other day with a GR friend, in which I quoted Richard Ford. He was talking of racism in Mississippi, but it could apply to the caste system in India as well. He said, [Mississippi] "has so many writers, because it has so much to explain." At the same talk, he also said this of Faulkner's work: It "burns with the absurdity and incongruity of racism." I think Roy's novel also burns with this.(less)

like 10 likes

· see review

Jan 04, 2010

Nojood rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: arabic-books, translations, 2010-readings

أحد تلك الكتب التي تبقيك خارج الصورة بلا تعاطف مع أي من الشخصيات حتى تجد نفسك فجأة، وبدون سابق إنذار، تعلقت بصوفي مول وطعنك موتها، الذي عرفت عنه منذ البداية، حتى أنك لتتمنى لو تمد يدك من بين الصفحات لتنقذها. لتجد نفسك وبكل قواك أحد الشخصيات الواقفة في قلب الصورة، قد تكون ذلك الصديق الخفي لتشاكو! هل من الممكن أن يسبب حب طفلين وامرأة ناضجة للشخص الخطأ لمدة قصيرة أن يقلب كل موازين الحياة بهذه الطريقة.
تمنيت لو ألغت الكاتبة الفصل الذي يجتمع فيه التوأم. قررت أنه جزء ليس له علاقة بالشخصيات الت...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Jan 02, 2008

Molly rated it

· review of another edition

I first read this book several years ago, but I've since revisited it many times. I think I keep coming back to it because it solicits such strong emotion from the reader. This is due both to the socially relevant and duly complicated story, and the intuitively realized characters. Narrated in retrospect, the novel spins the tale of the the manner in which Estha and Rahel, child twins living on the very edge of a still-socially respectable and economically-stable family in Ayemenem (in the Ke...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Nov 09, 2007

César rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

i know i'm alone on this one. i've never heard a single negative comment about the good of small things. plus, i love arundhati roy. i've read several of her books of essays, heard her speeches, read her occasional newspaper colums, never without utter amazement at the beautiful arrangements she composes with words.

when i finally got around to reading the god of small things i had high hopes. that might be part of the reason why i was so disappointed with this novel. maybe i'd pla...more

like 8 likes

· see review

Aug 14, 2007

Lysia rated it

· review of another edition

The author talks about the God of Big Things and the God of Small Things, but it seems to me that the more important of the two is Small Things. The little things that are said in passing, a look, a perception - all of these things are usually the trigger for the Big Things... the culmination of the events leading up to it. That is what this book is all about.
As with most books that I love, I finished it with a feeling that I wanted just a bit more. I wanted to know whether Rahel and Es...more

like 5 likes

· see review

Jun 22, 2007

Heather McInnis rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: the open-minded

This book blew my mind. The story itself is a little bit ... um ... dingy, I guess. It's very raw and paints a picture most people probably wouldn't sympathize with that much. The writing, however, is absolutely superb. The story is told in a ver poetic prose that shifts dramatically in tone to highlight character and scene differences. It does this so effectively in some places that transitional phrases and punctuation aren't even particularly necessary. For example, when the story flashbacks t...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Oct 19, 2007

Maya rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: myfavorites, desireads, 2007

I literally long for Arundhati Roy to write another fiction book, even if it will only be half as beautiful as "The God of Small Things." This is one of those books that has left an indelible mark on me. I never thought one could realistically portray childhood innocence while also depicting haunting tragedy, that a book filled with so many "grown-up" issues could be narrated by a child. This isn't a book that you barrel through to find out what happens next, this is a book...more

like 11 likes

· see review

Apr 15, 2011

umberto rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I bought this viably readable novel last week and wondered why this one seemed familiar to me. Later I found out from the internet it was the 1997 winner of the Booker Prize, that is, its cover has kept haunting me since more than ten years ago and I wasn't aware of its formidable literary acclaim and honour. One of the reasons is that I've never read Arundhati Roy before since this is her debut worth reading critically and enjoyably.

I kept on reading, liked it and agreed with the re...moreI bought this viably readable novel last week and wondered why this one seemed familiar to me. Later I found out from the internet it was the 1997 winner of the Booker Prize, that is, its cover has kept haunting me since more than ten years ago and I wasn't aware of its formidable literary acclaim and honour. One of the reasons is that I've never read Arundhati Roy before since this is her debut worth reading critically and enjoyably.

I kept on reading, liked it and agreed with the review that it's her "richly textured first book" since she's described in both tragic and comic narratives with the following styles I came across:

1) Her ways of repetitive texts, echo-like for each one, for instance,
Only that once again they broke the Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much. (p. 328) vs.
That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how.
And how much. (p. 33)
This implies one of the key themes - love sharing - of the novel.
2) Her shifted plot, that is, we'd find that the shameful episode at the end should've been placed somewhere before the episode of Ammu's death (p. 161), traditionally speaking.
3) Linguistically, she's revealed her knowledge and experience on language teaching/learning in Chapter 6 (Chochin Kangaroos) and other chapters [passim] of course. Therefore, reading them is amusing to me, for instance,
Margaret Kochamma told her to Stoppit.
So she Stoppited. (p. 141)
'Thang God,' Estha said.
'Thank God, Estha,' Baby Kochamma corrected him. (p. 154)

Technically, I prefer a page or more of "Glossary" of many unfamiliar Malayalam terms/words since they should help clarify general readers (I'm sorry they're Greek to me, I could guess some meanings vaguely) to better understand and more appreciate the texts related to their particular terms/words.

In brief, I think, the tragedy has been dictated by love presumably unfairly shared to the twins Estha and Rahel who have planned/executed their unthinkable adventure leading to Sophie Mol's drowning.

I look forward to reading Arundhati Roy's new novels and other writings.(less)

like 5 likes

· see review

Nov 16, 2008

Bonnie rated it

Shelves: reviewed-books

If this book hadn't been recommended to me to read, I doubt I would have finished reading it. But I did finish, and in the end, was glad I had read it; found it praise-worthy. (It has been a while now, though, so can't recall any more than that to offer!)

like 5 likes

· see review

Jun 12, 2008

Andrea Fortwendel rated it

Okay so I just finished The God of Small Things. It is a truly excellent story written in the most beautiful language. The words dance, melt, and imbibe such sad memories lingering in bright colors. The story is tragic, but hopeful in a way. The hopefulness rests in the possibility of new beginnings. It brought up questions about love and how I prescribe it and it what doses. The God of Small Things serves as a mirror reflecting my fears concerning motherhood, the poignancy of my words to my c...more

like 6 likes

· see review

Mar 30, 2008

Carmen rated it

Recommended to Carmen by: Claire Schagerl & others

This book has sat on my shelf for close to ten years. Well, it has sat on various shelves of various bookcases in seven different homes of four different cites in three different states. Ten years ago (yes, really!) when I was an undergrad and worked at a bookstore I brought home book after book after book (weekly, at least) and slowly over the years I have read through what seemed like an endless supply of unread books. Often distracted by new releases, library loans, and must-purchases-from-in...moreThis book has sat on my shelf for close to ten years. Well, it has sat on various shelves of various bookcases in seven different homes of four different cites in three different states. Ten years ago (yes, really!) when I was an undergrad and worked at a bookstore I brought home book after book after book (weekly, at least) and slowly over the years I have read through what seemed like an endless supply of unread books. Often distracted by new releases, library loans, and must-purchases-from-independent-bookshops, I do always return to my supply of books from the bookstore days and get to reading their now-yellowing pages. There are now exactly only seven unread books from the bookstore days, waiting for someday to be read. But today I have completed this one.
I am unsure exactly how many times it has been recommended to me, several, from older readers and readers my age (both now and ten years ago) and book reviews in magazines. Even after I started reading the book, I received home a full slam recommending that I choose this book to read.
So I finally chose it, and it was indeed a beautifully written book. If anything, the God of Small Things refers not to a character or plot point in the book but to the author's incredible gift for description. The details are rich and abundant, but alas, perhaps it was not the right book for me at the right time (and after so many years!). My mood in life has been too joyous and adventurous lately to completely welcome this melancholy circular story. I felt the need to pursue the story, to read to the last page, to ponder all of the Small Things in the text, but always thinking about how I would like to finish this disconsolate tale and move on to other tales that are waiting for me (perhaps less patiently than this one has). Nonetheless, I am glad I read it, but not sure I fully appreciated it.
A quote: "The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. The don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don't surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't."(less)

like 5 likes

· see review

Jan 28, 2008

K Z rated it

Shelves: 2008, owned

Arundhati Roy
The God of Small Things
1997, Flamingo
340 pages

Seldom while reading have I found my heart aching and my eyes watering when only at page 5.

The God of Small Things, set in India, is a story of a family torn apart by the wish to love, but more so, the desire to be loved.

Seen through the eyes of Estha and Rahel (twins, one soul), the story, which starts off with the funeral of the twins’ cousin Sophie Mol, unravels through memories and the p...more

like 9 likes

· see review

May 28, 2008

Myra rated it

· review of another edition

This book is absolutely moving. This was Arundhati Roy's first novel, and she set the bar quite high for herself with it.

The God of Small Things is set in India and is a story about a pair of fraternal twins and their experiences being victims of circumstance. The setting/time shifts back and forth between 1969 and 1993. Rahel and Estha are seven in 1969, and they are thirty-one in 1993. Their lives were changed so drastically by one event, and they must figure out how to deal wit...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Apr 02, 2008

HappyHippo rated it

Shelves: fiksi

Basically this book doesn't offer anything but emphasized misery and tragedy. Nothing more and nothing less. If you considered yourself as an optimist there's a big possibility you'll be disappointed at the moment you turn the last page. But if you wanted to put yourself to the test. I mean, how far can you handle misery and tragedy.. Well, this book may suit you just fine or even maybe you'll adore this book.
Well, i'm just trying to put myself in between:D
I gave 3.5 stars but i dec...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Oct 17, 2011

Femmy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-and-literature, multi-cultural

3.5 stars - I rarely read "literary" novels, especially in the past, and this book was one of the first that I got my hands on. It was the Indonesian version, and it received rave reviews from my friends at work, so I decided to take a peek. It was filled with long, convoluted sentences that I thought, no wonder people don't like to read literature!

But then I got curious with the English version, so I looked it up on Amazon to read the first few pages, and what a difference...more

like 5 likes

· see review

Jun 12, 2007

neil rated it

· review of another edition

From the beginning, set at a funeral, the reader knows the book will end in tragedy. The only question is - how? Arundhati Roy does a pretty good job of telling an ever-so-slightly magical story about a family in India struggling with many things (the caste system, the intrusion of Western culture, class conflict, etc.) but mostly with themselves.

That's kind of the funny thing about this novel - underneath its hip, post-colonial mode of storytelling, it's really just a novel about h...more

like 2 likes

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 2305 2306 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
A Divine Madness: October 2011--The God of Small Things	11	4	Jan 12, 2012 06:10am
Super Happy Fun T...: Hope for Tomorrow.	6	4	Dec 30, 2011 12:41pm
Spoilers are a click away, but please help!	5	172	Aug 18, 2011 10:38am

combine
Other Editions (87)

More editions...

Videos About This Book

Arundhati Roy Quote: "To love, to be loved....."

1 comment

Genres

Cultural > India

323 users

Literature

122 users

Asian Literature > Indian Literature

106 users

Novels

102 users

Contemporary

76 users

Book Club

71 users

Cultural > Asia

44 users

Adult Fiction

31 users

Literary Fiction

36 users

Historical Fiction

38 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is an Indian writer who writes in English and an activist who focuses on issues related to social justice and economic inequality. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays.

For her work as an activist she received the Cultural Freedom Prize awarded by the Lannan Foundatio...more

More about Arundhati Roy...

Books by Arundhati Roy

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About The God of Small ...

17 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The God of Small Things

“That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.” — 1,152 people liked it

“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.

That is their mystery and their magic.” — 173 people liked it

More quotes…

Groups That Shelved The God of Small ...

Mythic Fiction

710 members

last activity 1 hour, 49 min ago

shelf: currently-reading

Boxall's 1001 Books You ...

10998 members

last activity 19 minutes ago

shelf: read

Challenge: 50 Books

3938 members

last activity 27 minutes ago

shelf: read

title link	preview: The God of Small Things
avg rating	preview: The God of Small Things Goodreads rating: 3.86 (47082 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9777.The_God_of_Small_Things?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166054170m/9777.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9777.The_God_of_Small_Things?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy[/url]

The God of Small Things

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website