The God of Small Things
April 30th 2006 06:16
I decided to read this book a while back because it was a Booker prize-winner and I was feeling bouyed after my highly positive experience with 'The Life of Pi' - another Booker prize-winner that I had read just beforehand (more on that at a later juncture). Not completely illogically, a part of me thought that "Hey, if I loved one Booker prize-winner I might love another!" It was an optimistic assumption... one that wasn't completely grounded in the way the world works.
I'm not saying that 'The God of Small Things' is a bad book. On the contrary, it would be a strange day indeed that any Booker prize-winning novel turned out to be 'bad'. I just didn't really dig it. Sure, it's a beautifully-written book full of quirky characters and an even quirkier rhythm in it's prose, sure it has tragic foreboding and simple humour in spades, sure it's exotic and fresh in it's foreigness to this Western Sydney suburbs boy... I just couldn't help but feel the dreaded 'meh' at the book's end.
'The God of Small Things' is the only fictional novel written by Arundhati Roy. Roy had written some film screenplays prior to her novel, and has since focused on political writings and activism in India - especially in regards to nuclear weapons and the destructive influences of certain technologies on the environment. I can't help but feel that if she were to write a follow-up fictional novel that it would not stand up as well as her first. Much of 'The God of Small Things' praise can probably be attributed to the previously mentioned beautifully-written prose... it's a peculiarly poetic style, relying on repitition and a childlike restructuring of narrative. I think it would wear thin if it were to be revisited. And were it abandoned in favour of a different style, I fear that there wouldn't be much in the way of story or characterisation to hold up another Booker prize-winner.
I don't wanna poo-pooh this book too much because it is entertaining and it will resonate with people who are inclined towards literature (or even Indian literature in particular). Some bits shocked me, and the Hindu caste-system will always fascinate me, so maybe there's something for everyone here. But it aint no 'Life of Pi'!
PS. I think what also made me want to read this book so much was the author's name 'Arundhati Roy'... say it out loud over and over, sounds lovely doesn't it? It sounds better if you do it in a Shaggy-style ragga voice to the tune of your favourite reggae song.
The 1997 Booker prize-winner.
'The God of Small Things' is the only fictional novel written by Arundhati Roy. Roy had written some film screenplays prior to her novel, and has since focused on political writings and activism in India - especially in regards to nuclear weapons and the destructive influences of certain technologies on the environment. I can't help but feel that if she were to write a follow-up fictional novel that it would not stand up as well as her first. Much of 'The God of Small Things' praise can probably be attributed to the previously mentioned beautifully-written prose... it's a peculiarly poetic style, relying on repitition and a childlike restructuring of narrative. I think it would wear thin if it were to be revisited. And were it abandoned in favour of a different style, I fear that there wouldn't be much in the way of story or characterisation to hold up another Booker prize-winner.
Arundhati Roy
PS. I think what also made me want to read this book so much was the author's name 'Arundhati Roy'... say it out loud over and over, sounds lovely doesn't it? It sounds better if you do it in a Shaggy-style ragga voice to the tune of your favourite reggae song.
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