“He folded his fear into a perfect rose… She took it from him and put it in her hair”. The God of Small Things
Written by Arundhati Roy and published in 1997, The God of Small Things is an extraordinary story with its own beautiful and creative language centered around two twins, who have a very especial connection between them, and three generations of a family in the India of the 1960s.
A woman named Rahel, returns to Ayemenem, a city in the southern region of Kerala, the city of her childhood, after a long time living abroad to look for her twin brother, Estha, who was separated from her in 1969.
An Indian woman
Then, we are submerged into a beautiful and tragic family story. We meet a slew of fascinating characters starting with Estha, a quiet and thoughtful boy, eighteen minutes older than his sister, who loves movies, singing, taking long walks in the neighborhood and who, at the end of the 1960s, still dresses like his idol, the Elvis Presley of the 1950s. On the contrary, his twin sister, Rahel, is a restless and talkative girl; she is thin and always wears dresses and ties her hair with a tie called “love-in-tokyo”. Ammu, the beautiful young mother of the twins, divorced of their father, who is kind and has a good heart which manifestoes itself in the holes that form in every cheek every time she smiles; she has a secret romance with a man of a lower caste. Pappachi, the patriarch of the family, grandfather of the twins, an educated public servant whose passion for butterflies leads him to even discover a new species; after a violent incident he will never speak to his wife again and buys a brand new blue Plymouth and doesn’t let anybody of the family ride in it. Mammachi, a nearly blind old woman, is the grandmother of the twins; she’s the owner of a factory called Paradise pickles and preserves who loves to play the violin. Chacko, brother of Ammu, uncle if the twins, an Oxford educated Marxist. Margaret, the practical English woman, divorced of Chacko. Sophie Mol, an uppity half- British, half-Indian girl, daughter of Chacko and Margaret, whose dressing style, “Made in England”, astonishes the twins when they meet her for the first time at the airport. Velutha, a communist activist and employee of Mammachi, who is very good friend with the twins. The TV addicted and handmaid of the family, Kochu Maria. And finally we meet Baby Kochamma, the gossiper, treacherous younger sister of Pappachi, aunt grandmother of the twins, who will become the antagonist of this story.
An Indian boy at sunset
“He had memories from that place. Memories he had no right to have”. The God of Small Things
After Rahel’s return to Ayemenem in 1993, the story goes back in time to the end of the 1960s, narrating the last days the twins spent together.
An innocent family outing to a movie theatre to watch The Sound of Music ends up becoming a bad memory for Estha and Rahel. A despicable fat man we will know as The Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, who runs the refreshment counter at the movie theatre, does something terrible to Estha, but the rest of the family is unaware of it; only his twin sister, due to the very special connection between them, can feel about it. The fat man even threatens Estha, in a very subtle way.
An Indian girl
"Anything can happen to anyone and it’s best to be prepared" The God of Small Things
Later, the family, inside their blue Plymouth, is caught up in the middle of a communist rally where they realize that Velutha, the beloved friend of the twins and employee of the family’s factory, Paradise pickles and preserves, is a secret communist militant. This fact unleashes the fury of Mammachi and Baby Kochamma.
When Margaret and her daughter, Sophie Mol, come to India to visit Chacko the family is very excited to meet them. It will be during this visit that a mischief of the twins will end up with an accidental death, the horrible murder of an innocent man and the separation of the family itself.
After the terrible consequences the family will conclude that bad things happen when the twins are together. The twins are therefore separated. Estha is sent to Calcutta to live with his father, while Rahel will move with her mother to another city. The twins will spend twenty three years apart until, in 1993, Rahel returns to Ayemenem to look for her bother.
A typical Indian street
“They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much”. The God of Small Things
The novel also explores India, a land that is fascinating as it is terrible. A scooter as a status symbol. Dirt-poor little kids begging in the streets. Ethnic cleansings. A rigid caste system that, although abolished in the 1950s, still prevails to this day and will continue to do so in the future. Touchables and Untouchables. Cows in the streets. Bananas clusters hanging; plantain jams. Clothes hanging. Big birds, strange birds. Wild plants, banana plantations. Insects, wasps, blind bats, night butterflies, worms. Hollywood movies, Bollywood movies. Hallucinating dreams; strange nightmares. Religious temples, religious celebrations. Electric cremations of poor people. Gossiper villagers. TO WORK IS TO FIGHT, TO FIGHT IS TO WORK. Milk smells, fish smells, curry smells, piss smells. Shit in the streets. An elephant with big long tusks as a mascot. Black chickens. Stir fry tapioca. A radio in the form of a tangerine. Prostitution. Child molestation. Fire wood smokes. Droughts. Contaminated rivers. A Suffocating heat, humidity in the air. The pouring rains of the monsoon. Malefic spirits and demons like a rakshasa. Books of Rudyard Kipling. Crowded tramways, crowded train stations, little kids pissing in front of people in an airport. Deafening noises. Corrupt police men. Coconut oils. Spicy foods. Rubber trees. Exercise notebooks. Alcohol abuse. Bright and loud colors. A long slew of gods. Dancing groups that perform for tourists. Incestuous relationships. Women in saris; men in mundus. The wisdom of children. Blue darkness. Sandalwoods. The transgression of the laws of love. Love-in-tokyo. The god of small things.
Arundhati Roy winning the Booker prize for The God of Small Things in 1997.
Thanks to its unique and magical language The God of Small Things has been compared to Salman Rushdie’s Midnight Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It has also been compared to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockinbird. It won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and it was Arundhati Roy’s only novel until 2017. It was praised by John Updike and received positive reviews from The New York Times, Le Monde,* L’Expresso* and El País.
Suzanna Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India, in 1961. She studied architecture in New Delhi and worked in television, writing screenplays. Her debut novel, The God of Small Things, gave her world recognition and financial security. She has combined her work as a writer of essays on contemporary politics and culture and as political activist, focusing on human rights and environmental causes. She has been criticized for her left-wing views and separatist work in India. She currently resides in Delhi.
Roy in 2013
She has said she will never sell the rights for a film adaptation of The God of Small Things. About this she said: “Every reader has a vision of the novel in his or her head and I do not want it to be fashioned into one film. A lot of Hollywood producers approached me, but I do not want to sell the adaptation rights for any amount of money. I do not want the novel to be colonized by one imagination.”
A shy Indian girl
“It didn't matter that the story had begun, because kathakali discovered long ago that the secrets of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones that 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”. The God of Small Things
An Indian river at sunset.
“Naaley”. (Tomorrow) The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things: A book that will touch your soul and break your heart. Its characters and its flavors will stay in your memory forever. It’s a book that can’t be left out of your personal library. It’s the perfect travel book. It’s brilliantly written melancholy. I hope this post will make you read it and make you love it as I do. Remember: Life is short, so don’t waste it. Start reading more fiction books and stay away from TV.
Final verdict: 8.5/10
Burning incenses
“To me there is nothing higher than fiction. Nothing.” Arundhati Roy.
You can also watch this video for further references. The animations are amazing:
So, what do you think? Have you read this wonderful novel? Do you have another book recommendations you want to share with us? If so, leave them in the comments below. Don’t forget to like this post, it helps me a lot since I’m new in this community. Thank you for reading.
Until next time.
Take care.
The reading man.