Book Review of ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy.

When Gods are born on Earth

Book Review of ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy.

You take a book just because you don’t want to read it but because you want to catch sleep. But what happens when you start reading it is that it does not let you sleep and you don’t notice how many pages have you turned so fast. This is the first quality of the novel ‘The God of Small Things’ written by Arundhati Roy. One interesting feature of a good fiction is that it must be a good page turner. The innocence of Rahel, Estha and Sophie Mol catches us so fast that we become one like them and live in their crazy curiosities of the childhood.

One gets an eerie feeling when one starts reading the death of Sophie Mol. Roy describes her death very cruelly that anyone with a tender heart will not be able to stand such cruel descriptions. But it is interesting to see how the tender heart of Rahel sees her cousin’s death. She notices the yellow walls of the churches and wonders at the fact that she was not killed on a road in order to get benefits from the government. This kind of cruel but childish imagination can be seen maintained in the chapter where Roy describes Ammu, their mother’s death. The description of that chapter is followed through the perspective of her children, Rahel and Estha. The narrative style of the book is a little complicated. Despite with the non-linear style of narration the reader gets engaged so soon.

The grown up characters other than Estha, Rahel and Sophie Mol, are representatives of a changing culture. The obsession of Baby Kochamma and Kochu Maria with satellite TV and its programs shows how a new culture is alienated with the ideas of a foreign culture thereby becoming slaves to the economic agendas of them. Throughout the novel we see Baby Kochamma is trying to identify with the children who have lost their father and she, her husband (Though never in her life she got a husband in the conventional sense). The characters of Pappachi and Mammachi are representatives of a bourgeoisie class who classified themselves as the touchables of a highly privileged Christian community. Pappachi who does not share much space like other character in the novel, nevertheless

 is unquestionably a significant character in the novel. The anger which he vents upon Mammachi sometimes acts as a symbol of the moth of which he could not get the credit of

spotting it for the first time in history. The ‘Pappachi’s moth’ appears again and again also as a symbol of fear. This can be seen felt in Rahel during the time of Sophie Mol’s disappearance.

Kari Saip acts as a symbol of deceased white dominance is a strong presence in the novel. The history house which is connected with him maintains a very large amount of enigma around it. Another important thing that is seen repeated in the novel is a ‘____ shaped whole in the universe’. It can be cognized as a very noble attempt of the novelist to give each thing in the universe its own space.

The core characters of the novel Velutha and Ammu are silent in a unique way. This silence of theirs is maintained very beautifully by the novelist so as it does not act contrary to the divine love of theirs. Their relationship is the kernel of the novel. Yet that does not get revealed explicitly until the last sections of the novel. The character of Rahel can be seen as a double of Ammu. Because Velutha  has the same kind of affection with Rahel (when she is young) he had with Ammu. Velutha, an untouchable of the society enjoyed all the liberties that one of his sect would not be able to enjoy. He was given a little education and was allowed to follow his profession. He was also a trusted worker of their factory. But Pappachi, Mammachi and Chacko gave him all these liberties at an unsaid agreement that he will not breach the societal laws prevailed in the community. When they noticed that this untouchable did something that cannot be agreed by them, one of the most treacherous thing, wishing to possess one of them (Ammu), we see they revert all the liberties they gave him. And they treat him just like how an untouchable of their time should be treated. Arundhati Roy is so objective in her language except when he uses the term ‘untouchable’. She does not make any comments, everything is left to the readers. The novel thus successfully concludes its saga leaving behind a large group of readers who are unable to recover from the shock of a wonderful novel.

-Anjoe-