The God of Small Things

The novel revolves around the family tree of a Syrian Christian family in Ayemenem,Kerela. A family of variety of shades of characters. Reverend Ipe, the Blessed was a well known man. The novel details how his daughter Baby Kochamma falls in love with Father Mulligan and becomes a nun, only to come back some time later. How Ammu falls in love with a Bengali, bear the egg-twins, only to get divorced later. How she falls in love again but with an 'untouchable' this time. How Chacko marries Margaret, an English, while at Oxford and divorces a year later. How their Mol, Sophie, dies during Christmas Holidays. How Pappachi discovers a moth but couldnt name it after him.

But the description of the egg-twins Estha and Rahel top it all. The novel vividly describes the spontaneity of Estha as a child and his passivity when he grows up. The quietness that became a comatose. How they were physically separate, but had joint identities. They love each other more than anyone else. The last pages of the novel is exciting. Read it for yourself.

Roy gives a picturesque description of the things we see,Small Things, but do not notice. Scenes whose imprints are only ephemeral. But these are the finer details which make a memory more lively. A mental sketch worth recalling. Worth reliving. Like your slackness when you first met 'her'. Your first puff of cigarette. Your first visit to the theatre when you were six. People around you when you went to receive that special someone at the airport.

She also discusses scenes you dont want to remember. Like the act of balancing in air while pissing in the toilet at the cinema. Or your Mam spitting on your face. Or your wife asking for a divorce because she has met a better man. Or your Hubby asking you to sleep with his Boss to secure his job. Or you being molested by a sharbat-walla when you were six. Or the policeman tapping on your breasts with his stick as if he were choosing mangoes.

Roy nags at on the scourge of cateism even in Christian community in Kerela. Where the 'untouchable' Velutha is being totured to death because he made love to 'touchable' Ammu. The novel also points how the communists leaders, in the name of fighting for the poor, actually fight for their own bourgeoning.

Roy's treatment of love varies between couples. Between Rahel and Larry it is hollow but has a sort of enforced optimism. Between Chacko and Margaret love is a means of self discovery, a relationship where neither had any expectations nor anguish with the other. Between Baby Kochamma and Father Mulligan love is something worth changing faith, something which the couple cherishes 'till death separated' them even though they never got married. Between Ammu and her husband its a sort of infatuation which has a sudden demise. And between Ammu and Velutha love is nothing more than the means to satisfy the sexual needs.

There are way too many divorces in the story. The plot traverses so many subplots that sometimes the author looses the spontaneity that is visible elsewhere in the novel.
All in all, a good read with a fresh style and minimal surprises.