Topic started by Suresh (@ nsit-s229-187.uchicago.edu) on Tue Aug 22 15:29:50 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I thought the "God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy a wonderful book. Not many of my Indian acquaintances have read it and the few that have are not candid about their feelings regarding the book. What do you think?

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: anoop (@ 203.199.213.5) on: Sun Mar 3 11:15:52
  
  The God of Small Things makes for some awesome reading, to put it mildly... As Roy herself put it, it was a very sad, almost depressing book though (whoever said literature has to be all about nice happy stories anyway- ). One feels the tension in the air throughout of the dreaded waiting to happen, knowing it's happened...
  
  The language is so evocative... True, mallus I'm sure would stand to appreciate/understand certain things better. It is also very interesting to note how run of the mill, ordinary things can be turned at the wave of the creative writer's wand into stuff that has the makings of literary immortality.
  
  As for the question of incest, I agree with aditi who sees it as part of the larger love-laws-and-how-they-are to-be-broken concept, but I am surprised at the fact that everyone is plagued by its appearence in the novel... I think such issues are best left to the writer herself-
  
  Anyway, great narrative technique, wonderfully evocative playfulness with the language... such creativity is indeed commendable... Many of her articles on socially relevant matters that appeared in magazines too have such a characteristic... In short, I stand in awe of her style. Period. And I am not the only one.
  
  
• From: Keyna (@ adsl-67-121-95-69.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net) on: Tue Nov 18 02:53:47
  
  Hello~ I'm from california, I read the book and I'm going to write a research paper on caste and the god of small things. wondering if you guys could of any help~ How's the caste system in india actually? is she exaggerating? or telling the truth? is there anything that she's missing out mentioning? thanks~ i read all of the responses and they're all good~ :) email me at keynachow@yahoo.com or message me at ICQ: 31325560
  
  
• From: Wasana Egodage (@ lc4.learn.ac.lk) on: Thu Mar 11 07:50:52
  
  Actually it's an interesting book to know about "Huminity"
  
  
• From: Lash (@ quebec-hse-ppp3615525.sympatico.ca) on: Sat Apr 24 21:18:43
  
  I am doin a project on "The God Of Small Things". I read it..and it is a teerific book!!(exept for the lat chapter..which kinda made me feel awkward) It would be really helpful if you guyz could give me some ideas about the theme of the story!
  thnx :)
  
  
• From: lash (@ quebec-hse-ppp3615525.sympatico.ca) on: Sat Apr 24 21:20:16 EDT 2004
  
  I am doin a project on "The God Of Small Things". I read it..and it is a teerific book!!(exept for the lat chapter..which kinda made me feel awkward) It would be really helpful if you guyz could give me some ideas about the theme of the story!
  thnx :) My e-mail add is: lakshmi_india_smart@yahoo.ca
  
  
• From: cd (@ pcd303243.netvigator.com) on: Tue Oct 19 07:06:49
  
  Iam no literary critic, or an expert on style and narrative, but the `incest issue ' that has preoccupied many readers on this forum and elsewhere, is very simple to understand on a very basic human level.
  The key is to reexamine our own views about the man woman relationship. The book talks about the `love laws', `who should love whom and how much '... that siblings do not enter into carnal relationship is a diktat enforced by the keepers of society and religion to maintain the sanctity of the family as a unit and hence maintain its raison de eter as it were.
  However incest, as adultry does occour across cultures and societies.
  In the context of the novel however, there is no other conclusion possible...for the two scarred individuals, carrying the cross of unexpressed devastation, for two entities joined together in a bond which goes back before life began...the deepest succour can come in going back to the original state of oneness, to shrink and unite into each other, back into the womb from where they sprung, hence the conclusion......which the readers based on their perception and conditioning lable `incest'... for the rest, by the novels own reckoning ` what they had shared that night was not hppiness, but hideous grief'..
  
  
• From: cd (@ pcd303243.netvigator.com) on: Tue Oct 19 07:09:50
  
  Iam no literary critic, or an expert on style and narrative, but the `incest issue ' that has preoccupied many readers on this forum and elsewhere, is very simple to understand on a very basic human level.
  The key is to reexamine our own views about the man woman relationship. The book talks about the `love laws', `who should love whom and how much '... that siblings do not enter into carnal relationship is a diktat enforced by the keepers of society and religion to maintain the sanctity of the family as a unit and hence maintain its raison de eter as it were.
  However incest, as adultry does occour across cultures and societies.
  In the context of the novel however, there is no other conclusion possible...for the two scarred individuals, carrying the cross of unexpressed devastation, for two entities joined together in a bond which goes back before life began...the deepest succour can come in going back to the original state of oneness, to shrink and unite into each other, back into the womb from where they sprung, hence the conclusion......which the readers based on their perception and conditioning lable `incest'... for the rest, by the novels own reckoning ` what they had shared that night was not hppiness, but hideous grief'..
  A better way to understand the book would be to stop judging and reasoning with what happened and why, much of life is not very logical and decipherable anyway.
  
  

Want to post a response?