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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Incredible.
It requires a great deal of patience, as the primary characters and their settings change frequently and with little warning. About three quarters of the way through, the connections between the characters come into view - it's a sprawling novel that comes together if you're prepared to provide the patience it deserves.
It requires a great deal of patience, as the primary characters and their settings change frequently and with little warning. About three quarters of the way through, the connections between the characters come into view - it's a sprawling novel that comes together if you're prepared to provide the patience it deserves.
I loved the characters, the writing, and Arundhati Roy's voice (I listened to the audiobook). I found I had to read it a second time to really sort out the full arc of each character's journey. Once I did that I found myself so deeply moved by their heroic, though small, lives.
In the Atlantic, a reviewer said "Roy has imagined an inverse of the Garden of Eden—a paradise whose defining feature, rather than innocence, is experience and endurance."
I love that the characters in this inverse garden of eden live very challenging lives, but never become victims. They find each other and create that eden despite all of the insanity inside and outside of their garden.
In the Atlantic, a reviewer said "Roy has imagined an inverse of the Garden of Eden—a paradise whose defining feature, rather than innocence, is experience and endurance."
I love that the characters in this inverse garden of eden live very challenging lives, but never become victims. They find each other and create that eden despite all of the insanity inside and outside of their garden.
What a sprawling metropolis of a book. So many corpses and maimed bodies. So much love and tenderness. Too much suffering, not enough respite. Everything, everything...
Depressing and too many characters to feel invested or engaged with. Not what I was expecting
I have been a fan of Arundhati Roy since reading The God of Small Things back in 2003, so I was excited to see she finally produced another novel. However, this book was quite disappointing. It was difficult to connect with the characters or to even stay on top of who's who in the novel because the narration jumps from one seemingly unconnected point of view to another. Yes, the characters do come together in the end, but it's a long, forlorn journey before finally achieving any sense of unity in this novel.
I think, in part, Roy's audience is people quite familiar with Indian and Pakistani politics, and, of course, why should she not be appealing to this demographic? I understand that; I just went into this reading experience based on what I had read of hers before, and it was a very different experience. For me, Roy's characters in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness get lost in her attempts to connect them with broader political concerns. There is much precedence for this; I see her very much in the style of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children minus the Magic Realism, but the danger is losing the specific, human connection that generates our investment in the novel.
Lastly, one of the attributes of The God of Small Things was Roy's lyrical writing style, which also seemed absent from this novel.
I think, in part, Roy's audience is people quite familiar with Indian and Pakistani politics, and, of course, why should she not be appealing to this demographic? I understand that; I just went into this reading experience based on what I had read of hers before, and it was a very different experience. For me, Roy's characters in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness get lost in her attempts to connect them with broader political concerns. There is much precedence for this; I see her very much in the style of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children minus the Magic Realism, but the danger is losing the specific, human connection that generates our investment in the novel.
Lastly, one of the attributes of The God of Small Things was Roy's lyrical writing style, which also seemed absent from this novel.
This is a complex story with many layers, some of which I got confused about. I think most of the themes went over my head due to my lack of knowledge of the context or history.
I really wanted to like this. We waited a long time for Roy to write another work of fiction.
However, this just has too much going on and so many characters that it is hard to know who to focus on or if the storyline will even continue. It was impossible for me to "get close" to any one character, the story was hard to follow and nothing really happens, there is no plot. The book is a lot of pretentious, situational telling.
Some might enjoy this, if just for the intellectual activity of reading it. But I did not enjoy my quick foray into this book.
However, this just has too much going on and so many characters that it is hard to know who to focus on or if the storyline will even continue. It was impossible for me to "get close" to any one character, the story was hard to follow and nothing really happens, there is no plot. The book is a lot of pretentious, situational telling.
Some might enjoy this, if just for the intellectual activity of reading it. But I did not enjoy my quick foray into this book.
This was hard and soft and sometimes too much, too real, too unreal. I don't usually read books like The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, but this had me captured. Although I often didn't want to continue reading it, I kept getting pulled back into the story. I feel like this is going to stay with me for a while.
This book is a hard slog, which in a weird way seems appropriate for the historic journey of messy politics and lives it takes us through. But I'm a fan of Roy and might be biased. I'm amazed at the characters. And you have to allow yourself to get lost a bit to come out on the other side. If you want something clear and linear, this is not it. This book requires patience.
“Enemies can't break your spirit, only friends can"