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God of small things

Author : Arundhati Roy

Pages: 321
Source : Crosswords / Fountainhead ( at Crossroads, Mahalxmi)
Price : Roopa stays in the US nowadays and hence doesn't know the price..none of us has read this book... if anyone of you does know the price, please drop us an email at books@kemates.com 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who have already read the book, its name will conjure up an array of scenes, a host of well etched characters and a heavy heart. Strangely the novel is complete in all ways yet leaves you with a sense of incompleteness. I am in no way suggesting that the feeling of incompleteness is a deterrent in enjoying the book.

Believe me, you will enjoy it, you will enjoy the child’s narration of the story, you will enjoy each of its characters described from her point of view, you will enjoy the language which is totally different from what we have read before, you will enjoy the way it heavily descends on you, transporting you to a world which you may never have seen, but will be able to imagine entirely, thanks to Arundhati Roy’s powers of narration. I, for one have become a big fan of hers and I am eagerly waiting to pounce upon her next book.

The story is very simple- the story of a pair of twins- rahel and estha. They are inseparable in soul and their minds seem to be intermingled in a sinister fashion. Rahel is a talkative, observant and intelligent girl who remembers vividly the incidents from their childhood which have shaped their lives cruelly. Estha is different. He sees all that she does, but we never know what he is thinking. He speaks little, Rahel acts as his mouth. Their childhood events are like any other story, typical of children’s pranks, worries, joys, hopes and innocence, but read the book and you will know what won it the Booker prize. The book starts with the present. Rahel is now a grown up woman who has come back to their village Ayemenem to meet Estha. But she finds that he has drifted faraway from the real world, unfathomable to all but herself. She knows the reasons. One incident in their lives had taken away everything they loved. All in a sweep. Roy takes us rapidly back and forth in history. There is a foreboding of tragedy throughout the novel. And it culminates in a scene which captures the essence of the book.

To say the truth, it is a depressing book. But if depressing books can make you feel the way this one does, I would like to read them all my life.

- Dr. Roopa Nishi
(1995 batch)