God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: A Booker Prize-Winning Tale of Childhood Family Secrets and Political Struggles in Kerala

Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" is a literary masterpiece that is as rare as it is gripping. From the moment I picked up this book, I was captivated by Roy's intricate storytelling and the profound depth of her characters. It's no wonder this novel won the Booker Prize, and my journey through the works of Indian Booker Prize winners feels especially rewarding with this gem in my collection.Book Quality:The quality of this book is outstanding. It arrived in perfect condition, with a sturdy cover and crisp, clean pages. The print is clear and easy to read, making for a comfortable reading experience. Additionally, the book came with a transparency scanner to check its authenticity, giving me peace of mind that I had received an original copy. This attention to detail in ensuring the authenticity of the book is much appreciated.Timely Delivery:I was incredibly impressed with the delivery speed. I received the book within just 4 hours of placing my order. This prompt service is commendable and added to my overall satisfaction with the purchase. Knowing I could start reading this highly anticipated novel almost immediately was a delightful surprise.Story and Writing:Set in the lush landscape of Kerala, India, the novel delicately weaves together the lives of its characters with a narrative that oscillates between the past and the present. Roy’s prose is both lyrical and precise, painting vivid pictures of the socio-political landscape while delving deep into the emotional and psychological realms of the protagonists. The story of Estha and Rahel, the tragic events of their childhood, and the enduring effects on their lives are depicted with a poignancy that is both heartbreaking and beautiful.One of the novel’s greatest strengths lies in its attention to the “small things” – the seemingly insignificant moments and details that cumulatively shape the lives of the characters. Roy’s ability to highlight these nuances makes the narrative incredibly rich and textured. Her exploration of themes such as forbidden love, family secrets, and societal norms is handled with such finesse that it leaves a lasting impression.The structure of the novel, with its non-linear timeline and shifts in perspective, might be challenging for some readers, but it is precisely this complexity that makes the book so engaging. Each chapter adds a new layer to the story, gradually revealing the full picture in a way that is both satisfying and thought-provoking.In conclusion, "The God of Small Things" is a book that demands to be read and re-read, each time offering new insights and emotions. It is a rare work of fiction that combines a compelling narrative with exquisite writing. If you are on a journey to explore works by Indian Booker Prize winners, this novel is an absolute must-read. Arundhati Roy has crafted a masterpiece in the truest sense, and it’s a book that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page. Highly recommended!Overall Experience:My overall experience with this purchase has been excellent. From the superb quality of the book to the incredibly fast delivery, I couldn't be happier. This level of service and product quality makes me confident in continuing my literary journey with similar purchases in the future.

The story is flowing and engaging throughout the book . The descriptions of nature , events and of characters are truly brilliant . The main themes revolve around the issues of untouchability, and of the need to pay heed to the essential protection of vulnerable and precious childhood of offspring . Adult selfish gains should not be achieved at the cost of a child's innocent childhood. There are two negative points . One , the story 's time frames suddenly keep switching back and forth , without specifications . Secondly , except for the middle of chapter 4 , excessive detailing of the scenes describing physical intmacy don't appear needed. Still , it's a great book to read .

I loved the quality and content of the bookWell the book is beautifully written by the author. Well , not beginners friendly. But the climax, the bond between characters are filled with small joys , sorrow and what not . A must read . I loved it.

The God of small things: A reading experience.So, why should you care to read or consider picking up a 340-something paged book published in 1997 which is about a tragedy that veils over a perfectly functioning dysfunctional family over three generations full of either divorces, deaths, or oppressions like a dark cloud. Nothing new. A family full of scholars, educated men and women, with degrees from Oxford, ex-nuns, blessed religious men with a lineage that is highly reputed and looked up on in their tiny village in Kerala, who are busy beating their wives leaving physical and emotional scars behind, planning on how to inflict pain to one another but are concerned only to correct their children to say 'thank you' instead of 'thangyou'. Simply following laws laid down by society on who should be loved, who should be privileged, who should be spared, who should not be touched. Nothing new. Politicians being politicians; small or big. Children being children, naive and unable to foresee the consequences for the actions they took. And adults, who used them as pawns to get what they deeply desired. Nothing new. Caste-based, gender based discrimination. Nothing new. Sex and death. Nothing new. An inventive art of human hatred, that no beast can ever match. Nothing new.But, what's new is (or was) the incredible structure it is mounted up on. Author Arundhati Roy not only weaves a story of small things beautifully, but also craftily with utmost care bringing her architect training to it's full power. A terror that happened over one night, the cost it paid in two lives dead and other lives living dead thereafter. Scattered rather carefully and skillfully the cues of the impending doom, each time you get lost in it's eerie yet highly descriptive and beautiful world of prose about other things, big and small. Each time only to unveil a little more. To keep you hooked, giving one detail at a time. Glittered with happiness and innocence, here and there; only to be stolen. Inevitable, perhaps. The narration jumps swiftly from present to past to somewhere in between assuming it's reader's higher mental functioning to be as good as the derailed family's. 'Thank you', it is. And in the end, when the dust settles down you get to sit back, not relaxed but perplexed and connecting all the dots in the story scattered over timeline, reframing and reorganazing as it must have originally took place, event after event. Thought after thought. Character after character, dissecting each detail only to realise that it's a story you've already known. You already heard. But, only then we start to appreciate the sheer brilliance of writing, and it's master Arundhati Roy. It's a completely rewarding process. Complex, layered is it's story telling and it's characters; not bad, not good but somewhere in between, human. The events that follow doesn't come out as a surprise or shock but a nuanced continuum with a perfect rationale of why they did for what they did. Thanks to an amazing character and story build up.An eye opening saga that mandates you to think of what's fair, what's not. What's human, what's not. Of whom should be loved, and how. And how much. Who are them to lay down laws? And Should you abide to them? It allows reader to form an opinion, completely unbiased, and free which is a rare achievement in itself in an era of preaching and judgemental men, books, and media. In other's hands, this would be as dead as a fish picked out of water; lifeless, but in the hopeful hands of Arundhati Roy who breathed a life into this fish, dead as we know it to be. But, the attempt is what counts, and an outstanding achievement in the world of literature is what counts.A true masterpiece! - Dr. Jeshu Adhikam

The print is perfect, no mistakes there.

Roy trabalha tópicos importantíssimos de forma muito sensível e delicada. Apesar de a intercalação dos episódios poder causar alguma confusão, a escrita é muito fluida. Recomendo muito!

I wasn’t expecting such an extraordinary piece of writing. A novel that invents its world through a unique use of language that echoes and sings through the whole book, creating a flow of imagery, atmosphere and characters unlike anything I have ever read. What’s more the narrative voice is at once entertaining, irreverent, moving, vulgar, vivid and utterly involving. As with many great novels the crescendo of events and emotions comes through traveling through a book that builds in layers rather than chronological events, so that by the end you not only know what happened but have experienced it in the complexity of destiny lived out in the context of culture, family, society and the individual choices of human beings. Absolutely recommended.

This was such a good book! So touching and heartwrenching! The characters really grow on you and even stay with you after you've finished the book. The author also does an amazing job at taking you into a child's mind. Very well written and original!

kindle版　ASIN : B0051UH6W4出版社 : Fourth Estate; New Ed版 (2011/5/26)ファイルサイズ : 435 KB　本の長さ : 355ページ　のレビュー　20世紀英語文学の掉尾（ちょうび）を飾る傑作。　登場人物（双子の子からみた）Estha；　双子の男の子　1962年生まれ。Rahel；　双子の女の子Pappachi；　元英領インドの官僚で昆虫学者。シリア正教クリスチャン。おじいさん。Mammachi；　一家の漬物工場を切り盛りする。おばあさん。Baby Kochamma；　同居している独身の大叔母。過去にカトリックに改宗。Ammu；　双子の母。両親に反対されてヒンドゥーの男と結婚するが、ろくでなし男につかまった結果になる。離婚して二人の子を連れ実家へ戻っている。Chacko；　長男でオックスフォード卒。イングランド人と結婚したが子どもが大きくなる前に離婚。Margaret ；　Chackoがイングランドで結婚した相手。後に離婚。別の男と再婚するが、その相手が死去。Sophie Mol；　MargaretとChackoの娘。双子と同世代。クリスマス休暇を過ごすためケララを母と訪れる。Velutha；　おばあさんの漬物工場の技術者で不可触賤民。こどもたちがなついている。　最初に読んだ時は、ちょっと技巧が鼻につき、それに子どもを使ったあざとさが気になったけれども、再読して、あらためてねじ伏せられました。もちろん、完全に理解できて、納得したわけではありませんが、20世紀を代表する英語小説でしょう。　インドのケララ州を舞台に、家族の闇を、双子の兄・妹を通して描いた物語。差別された者がさらに差別し、裏切られた者がさらに他人を裏切る、という構造が絶妙に描かれています。三つの宗派のキリスト教、マルクス主義、カースト制、性の抑圧など、子どもたちを囲む残酷な現実が描かれます。　もっとも、そうした重いテーマよりも、全編にちりばめられているのは、幼い子どもたちの言葉遊びや歌。インドの上流家庭で、英語を話し、英語の歌を歌って育つとは、こういうことなんだなと納得しました。もっとも実は家族みんなの母語はマラヤーラム語であるようですが。　一家ばかりでなく、まわりの人々も英語を話しています。わたしが一番可笑しく、残酷だと思ったのは、共産党（ケララ州の与党です！）の印刷業の息子、なんと名前がレーニンという子が、意味もわからずシェイクスピアの『ジュリアス・シーザー』の一節を暗唱するシーン。‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your—?’‘lend me yaw YERS; ’　あはは。そういえば、わたしがya-yasという語をおぼえたのはローリング・ストーンズのアルバム・タイトルからですが、この小説のクライマックスでもラジオからストーンズの歌が流れます。その作詞作曲クレジットは、ジャガー=リチャーズになっていますが、実際の作者は1969年に溺死したメンバーのブライアン・ジョーンズらしいという噂もありますね。そのへんのところまで暗示しているのでしょう。　そこまで細かい引用にこだわらなくても、ミュージカル映画『サウンド・オブ・ミュージック』は知っておいたほうがよいでしょう。何度も歌のフレーズが出てきます。一見楽しい映画のようで、実はオーストリアでは嫌われている映画であって、その理由はウェブ上でも検索できます。さまざまな裏切りがテーマのこの作品で、映画のストーリーと重ね合わせた部分もありますから、このアマゾンのビデオででも見ておいたらいかがでしょうか。　Audible版の朗読も聞いています。女性の朗読は聞きやすいはっきりした発音です。すぐに気づくのは、会話部分がインド英語のアクセントでよまれていることです。わたしはインド英語のアクセントがちゃんと判別できるわけではないのですが、身分や年齢によって訛りが強かったり弱かったりと、区別をつけているようです。作者のインタビューなどをyoutubeで聞くと、ロイも堂々とインド英語で話していますから、かなり適切な朗読だと思います。あまり長い小説の朗読を聞くのはたいへんですが、この程度の長さならおすすめです。　最後に蛇足ですが、翻訳について。わたしは現物を見ていません。DHCという現在は化粧品やサプリ食品のメイカーとして有名な会社から出版されていました。もともと翻訳出版から出発した会社ですが、翻訳権を他に譲渡する例はないようです。新潮社か白水社、早川書房か岩波書店あたりから翻訳が出てもおかしくない作品なのに、文庫化もなく困ったことです。ちゃんとした翻訳家に新訳を出してほしいのですが、原書を読む以外ないでしょうね。

I have to be honest, even though this book is a masterpiece I found 'The God of Small things' difficult to read the first time round. The clever writing style, moving back and forth in time and the unfamiliar Indian names made it a challenge. One other review I read likened it to a song or an album claiming the book had an undercurrent of rhythm, phrasing and structure and like lyrics to a favourite song, the phrases Ms. Roy repeats in the novel became short-hand... conjuring emotional impact, so when it appears later it brings full emotion with it. I think that is a great description... either way don't expect this book to fit into conventions of previous books you've read... it is utterly unique and very moving and worthy of many reads.Set in India, this well written tale of love and relationships provides insights on the human condition, place and family. Relationships get even more complicated by societal pressures and taboos. The beauty of it rests in the fact that only the small things are ever said.... the Big Things remain unsaid ....This is such a remarkable novel that focuses on the small things and moments that shaped the lives of two children. With politics, the injustice of the caste system and who determines who should be loved as the backdrop the end result is astounding.Having read it once I have kept going back for more, it is so cleverly written it's like an onion every time you re-read it you peel back another layer. The flash back scenes slowly reveal the secrets that underpin the narrative.This is a very sad and moving book, all in all, it's worth reading a second time. The story of Velutha was heart touching and the way the tragedy came together especially the last scene with the final words Ammu said to him were simply amazing...I would recommend you persevere as it really is a very beautiful read.