If I had to choose a book, I would stick with this one, which I have reread on more than one occasion and it always manages to make me feel different things. The motives? India, a few metaphors that never exceed, a simple story but full of nuances and tragic characters, tormented in the middle of paradise. Today I bring the review of The God of Little Things by Arundathi Roy, the particular 100 years of solitude of India.
In a village in India. . .
Kerala, the state of India where the novel is set.
The god of little things is set in the village of Ayemenem, not far from the city of Kottayam, in the southern Indian state of Kerala. A place that we can count as one more protagonist of the story since, as the title of the novel says, those little things that are born in this place shape the way of thinking, evolution and even the destiny of its protagonists.
The novel starts in 1993, when Rahel, 31, returns to town to meet up with her twin sister, Estha. From then on, the story goes back to 1969, the year in which his life changed forever, and also that of his family, a Syrian-Orthodox saga housed in Kerala. The novel constantly travels in time to narrate the lives of Pappachi and Mammachi, the two grandparents, he entomologist and she the main engine of the company Coservas y Encurtidos Paraíso.
Shortly after, we witness the story of her children, Ammu, a battered woman who returns to her parents' home with her two children - Rahel and Estha -, and Chacko, a brother who after studying at Oxford married an English woman, Margaret, with who had his daughter Sophie Moll.
Moll is the key character in the novel, as it will be during his visit to his father's land that his relationship with Rahel and Estha leads to a dramatic episode with which the unfinished business, misfortunes and hopes of the rest of the family seem to merge. .
Chronicles of a troubled paradise
The god of little things feeds on a certain magical realism that the author has always rejected but whose presence is obvious throughout the novel. His descriptions and metaphors outline new sensations that only contemplation can capture, and with it, the fantasy of a world that does not seem aware of these little things.
Although metaphors tend to slow down the rhythm of the story, in this novel they propel it, accompany the treatment of the characters and make it unique, being able to delve even more into their experiences, in that Ammu who lives with a dark man in her guts, in that Pappachi in whose heart a butterfly still flutters. . . Each and every one of the characters seem to dance with that narrative power that not only penetrates the characters, but also the environment of a convulsive paradise such as Kerala, whose marshes have been conquered by tourism, where the night is supported by elbows and witnesses furtive loves the black crows that binge on lustrous mangoes. Everything becomes a delight not suitable, yes, for all palates.
As the novel progresses, especially during the last third of the book, all "those little things" become more important, and what began as a contemplation becomes a different experience, a suspense that, like those children, it drags us through the marshes towards a final resolution whose consequences will not be pleasant for all.
A conscientious author
The author of The God of Little Things, Arundhati RoyHe conceived this novel after four years of work, although he assured on some other occasion that it had taken him his whole life to write it. The author, born in Kerala and belonging to a Syrian-Christian family, grew up in that paradise crossed by marshes and observed by coconut tree eyes, the same one that would be disturbed by communism or the caste system, a social division that conditions one or other inhabitants of India based on their descent and, therefore, their role in society.
Completed in 1996 and published in 1997, The God of Little Things was a bestseller, especially after the writer was awarded the Bookers Award in the same year. This is the only novel by Roy, a screenwriter, writer and activist from an Indian subcontinent whose injustices he has championed for decades.
This review of The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy try to summarize the essence of one of the most recommended books of contemporary indian literature. Influenced by James Joyce, Salman Rushdie or we would even say that some Latin American authors like Gabriel García Márquez, Roy transports us through that south of India where old grudges, new changes and an irreversible destiny come together under those clear and listless nights to offer us a feast for the senses.