The God of Small Things: Summary and book reviews of The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, plus links to an excerpt from The God of Small Things and a biography of Arundhati Roy.

"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 year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Esthappen, and so begins their tale. . . . Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family--their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts). When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, arrive on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river "graygreen." With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night, the broken yellow moon in it. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it. The God of Small Things takes on the Big Themes--Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite Joy. Here is a writer who dares to break the rules. To dislocate received rhythms and create the language she requires, a language that is at once classical and unprecedented. Arundhati Roy has given us a book that is anchored to anguish, but fueled by wit and magic.

Media Reviews

USA Today Offers such magic, mystery and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It's that hauntingly wonderful.   USA Today Offers such magic, mystery and sadness that, literally, this reader turned the last page and decided to reread it. Immediately. It's that hauntingly wonderful.   New York Times Book Review The quality of Ms. Roy's narration is so extraordinary -- at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple -- that the reader remains enthralled all the way through.   Washington Post Book World A splendid and stunning debut.   New York Times Book Review The quality of Ms. Roy's narration is so extraordinary -- at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple -- that the reader remains enthralled all the way through. John Updike A novel of real ambition must invent its own language, and this one does.... A Tiger Woodsian debut. John Updike A novel of real ambition must invent its own language, and this one does.... A Tiger Woodsian debut.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by IreneB
Glad I am not the only one who disliked this novel
I read this for my bookclub and only finished it for that reason. It could have been written in a linear way and been a better story for that. Towards the end if the book I ended up having to reread some earlier chapters because I couldn't fit...   Read More

Rated of 5 by SVM
Subtle
Those who have rated the book a 1 or 3, should stay away from such material in thier lives since such material is not for thier 'frog in a well' minds. Those who think that the book is a broken down story line should not read nonlinear storylines...   Read More

Rated of 5 by yrratykcim
Godless book
I really wanted to enjoy this book and feel like I am bad for not having had a good time at a party without not really knowing why - is it me? The book is really a series of loosely connected short stories which could probably be shuffled...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Marianne V
Love and betrayal
The God of Small Things, the first (and so far, only) novel by Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, was written between 1992 and 1996. This (semi-autobiographical) story takes place in the village of Ayemenem and the town of Kottayam, near Cochin in...   Read More

Rated of 5 by geeta
Reality of society
Roy's TGOT is outstanding.it arouses the feeling of sadness on the other hand it makes us to feel the reality of society.condition of women in India and dalit........

Rated of 5 by roy
terrible book
Worst book I have read in a long time, couldn't even finish it. Most parts didn't make sense and it was so wordy it was unbearable.

...49 More Reader Reviews

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Books with similar themes

• Asia 
  
• India 
  
• 1960s & '70s 
  
• 1st Books/1st Novels 
  
• Physical & Mental Differences 
  
• Asian Writers/Themes