The God of Small Things

Author: Arundhati Roy

Rating: ⭐ 5/5

Date Read: 2014/01/16

Pages: 321

I finished this book over a week ago but couldn’t figure out how to write a review of it. I decided to wait: after all, the book was absolutely extraordinary, so it deserves a good review. A week past, and I began to realize that I still hadn’t come up with any review fodder, and it started to weigh down on me. After ten days, I decided to just start writing and see what happened. Mea culpa.

It’s hard to write about The God of Small Things because it’s non-linear. What’s more, the most remarkable thing about it is it’s literary style, which manages to be completely different from anything else I’ve ever read (and I’ve read quite a bit). The setting is the southernmost tip of India, and Roy’s writing takes the reader there completely. It’s just so evocative: of a time, of a place, of a particular feeling. The narrative centers around a family, which has been broken apart by a terrible tragedy (I can’t tell you what this is, that’s part of the fun). Ostensibly, the main character is Rahel, one of a set of two-egg twins who returns to her childhood home and re-experiences her past in a way that’s so psychologically real that I’m tempted to call it Proustian. Don’t be fooled, though: the real protagonist is the writing itself.

I can’t say anymore. Just read it, you won’t be disappointed.