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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Arundhati Roy could've spent the past 20 years writing more literature. I don't know where she'd be by now, but it would probably be a century or so ahead of her contemporaries. Instead she spent the past twenty years as an activist. It shows. The writing is excellent, but a little worse than what I expected from the author of The God of Small Things . And she hammers you on every social problem in India – especially Kashmir. By the time you finish this book, you will know exactly which forms of torture get used in Kashmir.
It's not exactly a mystery, what this book was about. To quote Roy's stand-in: "I would like to write one of those sophisticated stories in which even though nothing much happens there’s lots to write about. That can’t be done in Kashmir. It’s not sophisticated, what happens here. There’s too much blood for good literature".
Roy didn't quite disprove this. But she's come much closer than anyone else who writes about terrorism, state violence, and the people who perpetrate and are victimized by it. She cares about those people, and not the violence, though she doesn't shy away from the violence either.
She gets a lot of flak for her willingness to excuse Muslim terrorism. I have little more sympathy for Hindutva than she does, so I don't much care, but it is true that she's always on the side of the powerless. Which is great, until those people end up in power.
Still, at the end of the day, I am glad she spent those twenty years as an activist. Even if we lost a much better book – it was worth it.
It's not exactly a mystery, what this book was about. To quote Roy's stand-in: "I would like to write one of those sophisticated stories in which even though nothing much happens there’s lots to write about. That can’t be done in Kashmir. It’s not sophisticated, what happens here. There’s too much blood for good literature".
Roy didn't quite disprove this. But she's come much closer than anyone else who writes about terrorism, state violence, and the people who perpetrate and are victimized by it. She cares about those people, and not the violence, though she doesn't shy away from the violence either.
She gets a lot of flak for her willingness to excuse Muslim terrorism. I have little more sympathy for Hindutva than she does, so I don't much care, but it is true that she's always on the side of the powerless. Which is great, until those people end up in power.
Still, at the end of the day, I am glad she spent those twenty years as an activist. Even if we lost a much better book – it was worth it.
Started well but quickly became a trudge to get through. This was all tangents and no plot and, while the writing was excellent, the characters got drowned in the political message.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
We get it, Arundhati Roy. You are a brilliant writer. You like to play with language. You like world building. India is a mess; Kashmir is a violent, horrifying mess. People are horrible to one another in myriad horrible and disgusting ways.
This book needed editing.
Do NOT listen to it. I kept speeding it up. 1.10, 1.15, 1.2. I finally got up to 1.3 and made it through the end.
It was SO hard to figure out who the characters were and how they were connected. It felt like reading a wikipedia page with clickable links that I couldn't click while listening.
I honestly kind of hated it. I only finished it for Seattle Book Bingo.
This book needed editing.
Do NOT listen to it. I kept speeding it up. 1.10, 1.15, 1.2. I finally got up to 1.3 and made it through the end.
It was SO hard to figure out who the characters were and how they were connected. It felt like reading a wikipedia page with clickable links that I couldn't click while listening.
I honestly kind of hated it. I only finished it for Seattle Book Bingo.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This is one of the books that are so hard to review because it is good and bad at the same time; enjoyable and tough to read at the same time. It took me months of 'on and off' reading to finish it yet I'd still recommend it.
The writing is intense and beautiful, and Roy has an unprecedented style (for me at least).
I struggled through the first half but once I got more at ease with the style it started to leave its marks on me with each page.
I'd say definitely the book could have been way shorter. But on the other hand the book is so rich with content be it political, social, or personal. It's a profound and intense read.
The writing is intense and beautiful, and Roy has an unprecedented style (for me at least).
I struggled through the first half but once I got more at ease with the style it started to leave its marks on me with each page.
I'd say definitely the book could have been way shorter. But on the other hand the book is so rich with content be it political, social, or personal. It's a profound and intense read.
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
slow-paced
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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:
Complicated
Surprisingly funny for how dark this book is! There’s a quality of ridiculousness in the way Roy writes that stands at such sharp contrast to the seriousness of the events in her novel. Reading her prose is almost hypnotizing. I love her depictions of the various mess of characters, good and bad (the Amrik Singh chapter reminded me of reading the Count’s POV in the Princess Bride). There were some sections in the middle that dragged, and this novel didn’t feel as tight as the God of Small Things but thoroughly enjoyed this
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated