“That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”
'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy was a novel I first heard about at university. A literature professor mentioned it while talking about something else - to make a point, I believe - and later one of my classmates did her diploma paper on it. Even though I was intrigued as this particular professor was a favorite of mine - and an inspiration when it comes to teaching - I did not have time to read the book as I was too busy reading textbooks and assigned novels.
“If you're happy in a dream, does that count?”
Time passed and I didn't think on it much, but it was still lurking in my subconsciousness. Still, ever since I've graduated I have wanted to read more, read books that I like, books I've heard about, books that were not assigned reading (I was sick of those). I've been buying books for a while now but I have not been feeling like reading. I was in a slump.
Suddenly, this past weekend, as I was watching a vlog one of my favorite booktubers doing a 48 hours readathon, I got inspired. I was excited, I wanted to read, I needed new stories in my life. First, I finished 'Northanger Abey' that same day (120+ pages that were waiting for me for 4 months). Then, the next day I finally picked up Arundhati Roy.
“And once again, only the Small Things were said. The Big Things lurked unsaid inside.”
I quickly realized that this book would not be read in a day. It had almost 300 pages and it dealt with very heavy subjects. The writing was poetic and there were so many details - I read slowly for I didn't want to miss anything. Of course, I also had to write down some quotes, so that took some time as well.
This novel deals with love in the Indian caste system. It tells us what happens when the society prescribes laws about who to love, how to love them and how much to love them. The main characters are fraternal twins Estha and Rahel who live in their grandparents' house with their divorcee mother. Their grandmother is old and blind, their mother's aunt is a bitter spinster who once upon a time fell in love with a priest, their uncle is also bitter and a divorcee with a daughter in London whom he never sees, and their mother... Their mother is a wild spirit, stifled by the laws and prescribed behaviors, a woman who wanted to escape her abusive household by getting married, and then escaped her abusive husband by coming back home. There are other important characters as well, and they all play a significant role in what transpires, but I would like to mention Velutha, a Paravan who works in their grandmother's factory.
“This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.”
The story jumps between 1969 and 1993. Estha and Rahel were separated for 23 years and have come together in their old house in Ayemenem. Quietness and Emptiness, as Roy calls them. The story is told through their eyes so that I felt like a voyeur, intruding upon their lives and thoughts. These two innocent lives were forever tainted by what happened that summer when Sophie Mol, their English cousin, came to visit. Beware, there are some really tough subjects to get through *spoiler* Estha is sexually molested, Valutha is savagely beaten up, Sophie Mol's corpse is described, incest is implied *spoiler*. But the prose is so beautiful, delicate, it sometimes reads like poetry. The descriptions had me spellbound that I felt as if I was here, living the story with the characters.
Even though we are told what the big, life-altering event is very early on in the novel, the suspense is still there throughout. When did it happen? How? Who did it? Why? Who did they blame for it? What happened to that person? I felt such suspense in the last 30 pages or so, my heart was beating wildly. And despite the bleak story and outcomes, the ending felt hopeful. The ending did not end at the end of the story, but the beginning. The beginning of the end, in fact. It ended with the event that led to so many lives' downfall.
In the end, I would warmly recommend anyone to read this novel. Knowing these characters will have an impact on you, will make you see life differently, will make you appreciate your existence and your freedom - because you do have much more of it than they do.
