The God of Small Things: a Book Review by John Colin E. Yokingco

“…loves by night the man her children love by day.” A story written about life, boundaries, and forbidden love, “The God of Small Things” has become a New York Times Bestseller and has also won the Booker Prize. Written by Arundhati Roy, this book tells of how small circumstances can instantaneously govern and affect one’s life hence the title.

Rahel and Estha are twins born into a world where pain and suffering are no strangers. Tracing back to their mother’s roots, a strain of abuse and infidelity can be found. Their grandfather used to beat their grandmother, their own mother wedded to an alcoholic and abusive man who even tried to sell her just to keep his job, their uncle an excellent mind yet foolish to what his heart dictated, and their grandaunt an ex-nun who betrayed her own father’s religion to chase after a scholarly priest. With such a tragic and forlorn world they were born in, the twins try to form a childhood with the wreck of a family they had. But, a simple visit from a relative forever changes the twin’s lives.

Written and told from a different perspective and style, this book reinvents how novels are ultimately told. The story’s events that are seemingly unrelated and jumbled up, gracefully piece together as the reader finishes the book.

Social and moral boundaries are seemingly crossed in this novel as it exploits human being’s seemingly inevitable quest for love and happiness. With the setting placed in a communist era India, character’s conflicts range from the boundaries of the caste system to beliefs in a government systems. Such boundaries are still question today. Should we or shouldn’t we eliminate such boundaries.

Greatly written and excellently told this book keeps readers turning the pages. The style of the other is unique in the sense that I have not read a book that had a story told in such a direct, yet puzzling manner. It was told like how an innocent child would see the world.

But, I have a few complaints about the whole thing. Some terms in the book are so unheard of, it might confuse readers. Also, the thing that makes the book great is what also drags it down. The storyline is so jumbled up and confusing you can easily get tired of reading the book if you don’t really appreciate what the book is telling.

A great read, “The God of Small Things” is an insightful book with an interesting style. A must read if you want a book that would make you rethink how your life turned out this way.