The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Published in 1996, The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy’s first novel, became a bestseller and later won the Booker prize. It is the story of Estha and Rahel, ‘two egg’ boy and girl twins who recount the story of their childhood in India. After a separation of 23 years, the twins are finally reunited through a story of recollection and traumatic events. Governed by traditional customs, they face a society underpinned by a culture of discrimination as they try to rebuild their lives.
In the character of Ammu we see the beautiful, gentle mother who has tried to run away from the strictures of her middle class Syrian Christian upbringing. Meanwhile, the injustice of the story is often led by the embittered Baby Kochamma, the twins’ great aunt, who casts a spiteful eye on all happenings in the family, seeking to take advantage of Ammu’s “mistakes” to ingratiate herself to the matriarch. The dilemmas of post-colonial India play a key role in the book with an emphasis on the caste system and how it touches their lives.
Roy makes a point about the suffocating nature of family and environment, making the book incredibly dense. The past is weaved into the present with startling revelations, and Roy’s use of language is effortless yet thick. This prose reaches out to all the senses portraying graphic images while alluring to the ‘sicksweet scent of the warm jellyandjam-laden breezes.’ A very stimulating novel.
