The God of Small Things

Name: The God of Small Things
Author: Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy · 1997

Roy's 1997 debut (her only novel for two decades) has physical texture in every sentence; the prose bends and repeats like memory. A love story that cannot be told straight because it destroyed everyone it touched. Caste, history, and the cruelty of small injustices haunt every page. It won the Booker.

The case against

on Velutha’s portrayal
“sketched by savarna artists in colours that reek of tragedy”
Chanchal Kumar · Round Table India, 22 September 2023
on the length
“It’s too long, with a massive scope in terms of time as well as characters”
a book blog
on the repeated phrases
“The story could have done without repetitions of “spoilt puff”, “fountain in a Love-in-Tokyo””
a book blog
on the pace
“it’s slow and it struck me as a dense study of character and culture”
a book blog