The other day while just browsing through Mouthshut.com, I found some severe critiques of THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS and was really shocked to learn how learned people underestimate and tarnish a good book. Of course, a book like THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS is not for the prejudiced minds.
I read the book three times. First, out of curiosity. Second, to enjoy it. And third, to appreciate it. When you compare THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS with the junk of titles that appear in English every year you may realize its value.
As a person who lives in Kerala and who spends much time in the very city of Kottayam, I can assure you that the book depicted the truth. Keralites are bogus people with much hypocrisy. A genetic flaw.
Can anybody deny the poetic language of Ms. Roy? After all, any work of fiction is the soul (not sole) property of the writer. What the writer says in it is his or her impression (a very personal one). Everything is created to quench the writer’s thirst. If it conveys the same feeling to the others, it is well and good.
Under any norms, THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS is not a bad book. We must respect the imaginative power of Ms. Roy and her bluntness in expressing her ideas. Of course, it is not an ordinary book. The images she has employed and the metaphors she has coined to beautify her descriptions are simply superb.
A good reader doesn’t read a book just for the story but goes through it to listen to the throbs of another heart. Only a sensitive person can really appreciate a work like THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS.
It is true that in her book Ms. Roy has ridiculed some people and certain ’isms’. I think a good reader should forgive her for writing those few pages on account of the beauty of the other pages.
When you read this please don’t get into the misconception that I’m a firm supporter of Ms. Roy. I’m not. However, this is a comment in defence of a good book but not a classic book.