This is very controversial book in world across specially in India. This was first published in 1997, it hasbgot man booker prize in 1997.
Arundhati Roy is such a magician, she has made such a controversial topics so beautiful and so intriguing. The language of the book is so amazing. Some people told me this book is about beating about the bush but it was just increasing the literary richness of this book and that's where I love the book most.
The God of Small things is in a word is very complex. It's a very emotional complex novel about a family with very complicated dynamics set mostly in India in 1969 where there was so much going on politically, culturally, religiously, economically yet there is still a core and narrative that runs through of the novel that manages to be moving and engaging and also very heartbreaking.
The book is primarily about two twins asha and raffle and it feels like we experience much of the story through their eyes even though there is a third person narrative and we are told many things are that they could have not happen to know. A childn is just trying to make sense of a very complex world and live with their mother amu in her family home which she tried to escape by marrying young and now lives with her mother, brother and her aunt. It truly the story of forbidden love and tragedy it reminded me a lot of the unbearable lightness of being because it has this very complex political setting and yet what you care about and what the characters care about their relationships to each other.
This book pools in a lot of historical facts and cultural critiques that give you a sense of the westworld and help you understand who these characters are and what they are doing and yet it never gets bogged down in any of that but it didn't make me think that there are many levels on which you can read this book it might introduce you to certain things that are happening in India at this time you may know about them from starting them in history for instance but you would never have understood how they might be experienced by real people or maybe you are so family familiar with what has happening in this particular town at this particular time and you are getting all of these references that are just going over the head of the rest of us.
I talked about this meaning and emotionally complex novel and what I meant by that is that the motivations of the characters are so clear and yet they feel so authentic you understand by each character does what she does even when its cruel and to some degree you also empathize because you know that character is operating with very limited number of possibilities open to her you can see it as you do in real life that people don't always be here rationally that they connect things that can really connected if the act out and you know some small act of rebellion results in something bigger than they could have possibly anticipated and early almost bigger than they should really be held responsible for because the thing that it was just so small what I mean by that is not clear it something that actually comes in theology a lot is that certain people are responsible for their actions but they are small actions that you can take which has such huge consequences and then either you should be held responsible for this huge that you couldn't have anticipated.
So there is still so much I am leaving out of this review but I will be the comment that you read this book I really enjoyed this.