A review by kahaaniwali_09
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

A very unique novel about age-old concepts of casteism, inter-caste love,  patriarchy, chauvinism and social boundaries. The book is very craftly written indirectly attacking these social evils being practised yet till now in our society being unnoticed. The book represents the stories of its each character so that we are well acquainted with their personalities and can be the judge to classify each consequence as fair or unfair on our part. The three main characters of the novel **Estha, Rahel** ( single egg- unidentical twins) and **Ammu** ( mother of the twins) have a balance of an ecstatic and a traumatic life leading to a melancholic end. Rahel and Estha has the strongest relation among all as they consider themselves as one unit and knows about each others feeling without even directly confessing them, hence they know how to comfort each other. Unfortunately they two goes through many ups and downs as Estha is molested as a child and is traumatized by it since. On the other hand Rahel lives being a total fool and is tormented during high school.

Their worse nightmare comes true when the fraternal twins are separated from each other and their only source of comfort is snatched away. Ammu being the lady who crosses every patriarchal boundary to outgrow from the trauma of abusive marriage and devotes her life to grow her beloved children into a more respectful, intelligent and caring beings — a complete opposite of their father. The mature Ammu too one day gets swayed away by her feelings and commits an unthinkable thing which is considered a heinous crime by our society- getting involved with a man of a lower caste. Her this steps makes her and her children’s life fall into abyss of forever despair.

We  can see the time switching between past and present in a very rhythmic and poetic manner that it wants to tell us how pain of past has inflicted and changed the humans of present . Some light hearted puns are used to make the story more exciting.

"The God of Small Things" is possibly one of the most remarkable works of Arundhati Roy. I completely adore this book and I love Arundhati Roy's writing beyond all aspects of Literature. This is profoundly amazing and the most exceptional books of all time and I would like to praise Arundhati Roy for her masterful skills in creating this book and bringing it to life.

That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.

... the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.

That is their mystery and their magic. 

Change is one thing. Acceptance is another.

Perhaps it’s true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house—the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture—must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.

People always loved best what they identified most with.