Mini-Reviews: The God of Small Things

Mini-Reviews: The God of Small Things

If I were to ever choose a favorite book, this one would be among the top contenders. The prose is eloquent and raw. It can be simple and complicated at the same time. (It’s extremely quotable.) Much of the story is told through twins — children trying to understand the way the world works, and later adults dealing with the repercussions of their earlier actions.
“The God of Small Things” is set in Kerala, India in 1969. You’ll learn some things about the social culture at the time, with what Roy describes as the Love Laws: “That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much.”

Here’s an extended quote from “The God of Small Things”:

“It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because kathakali discovered long ago that the secrets of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones that you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.

That is their mystery and their magic.”

This book has everything on from heartbreaking romance to philosophy on life. You won’t regret reading it.

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