Reviews - Bůh maličkostí

5.93k reviews for:

Bůh maličkostí

Michaela Lauschmannová, Arundhati Roy

3.94 AVERAGE

toristyles's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

prosemoor's review against another edition

4.5

The God of Small Things isn’t just a simple family drama. Arundhati Roy dives deep into the darker sides of India, from caste discrimination to patriarchy and social hypocrisy. Here, you can see how a rigid social system can completely destroy someone’s life just because they broke the “rules” set by society. In terms of writing, Roy is brilliant at weaving social criticism into a story that jumps back and forth in time yet still feels connected. The Kerala setting feels alive, but the atmosphere is heavy and tense. What really hits is the main message—sometimes the smallest, seemingly trivial things can have huge, irreversible consequences. This isn’t exactly a light read, but it’s absolutely worth it if you want to see how personal wounds and social wounds can intertwine and slowly tear everything apart.

wanderaerrr's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

garlic2940's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

irelyyyyyy's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

srishjain's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

shubham_maurya's review against another edition

5.0

Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is about fine lines between love, pain, joy, madness, jealousy, hierarchy, human intent and nature. It shows the intricacies of familial love, set against the lush, politically charged landscape of Kerala, India. This novel, Roy’s debut, 1997 Booker Prize winner is a blend of emotional depth and innovative narration.

The story is set in Ayemenem, Kerala, with a disjointed narrative shifting between 1969 and 1993. Estha and Rahel are fraternal twins whose lives are irrevocably altered by a hostile political climate, love laws, a family tragedy, and a series of ‘small things’ that collide to alter the course of their lives.

In this novel, Roy criticises the rigid social hierarchies and moral codes that govern Indian society, and the destructive power of these structures through the tragic love affair between Ammu, the twins' mother, and Velutha, an Untouchable. Their doomed relationship highlights the brutality of the caste system and how it perpetuates inequality and suffering.

The portrayal of lush Kerala landscape, monsoon, and communism, mirror complexities of human emotions with lyrical prose, jumps between periods, rich with imagery and symbolism advocates Roy as a powerful voice in contemporary literature. Though, in some places, the book was criticised especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality and obscenity.

The story is tragic, but it never promises to be anything else. Sadness and loss weave through the story right from the start. It’s not for everyone. If you are a literary enthusiast, or you enjoy dense flowery writing, or you like to experience different cultures through books, this will be worth your while.