The God of Small Things

Arundhati Roy was born in India in 1961. She studied architecture even though she was actually interested in writing. She wrote the screenplay for the film In Which Annie Gives It to Those Ones (1989) in which she also starred. She went on to write the scripts for the film Electric Moon (1992) and television productions.
In 1995 she wrote some newspaper articles which caused a lot of controversy. She decided to go back to writing a novel which she had started some time before. She published The God of Small Things in 1997. It became a best seller and won the Booker Prize for fiction. It sold over 6 million copies and has been translated all over the world.

After this first novel, Arundathi Roy mostly published non-fiction in which she tackles political issues : Power Politics (2001), The Algebra of Infinite Justice (2002), War Talk (2003), etc. In 2017, she published another novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Roy was active in various environmental and human rights causes, often putting herself at odds with Indian legal authorities and the country’s middle-class establishment". A Guardian journalist wrote in 2018 "Her political writing often lands Roy in hot water in India."

In a 2019 Guardian interview, a journalist wondered why "After The God of Small Things made her a global star, the novelist turned to political writing and activism", she explained "I don’t want to become this interpreter of the east to the west […] I don’t think it has to do with fiction or non-fiction, it’s to do with the politics." She calls her non-fiction political writing
"urgent interventions". She adds : "So more than ever, the point of the writer is to be unpopular. The point of the writer is to say : I denounce you even if I’m not in the majority."

VOCABULARY

screenplay : scénario
the Booker Prize : prix littéraire très prestigieux en GB.
to tackle : aborder
an issue : un problème
at odds : en désaccord
to land someone in hot waters : s'attirer des ennuis
to wonder : se demander
the point : le but, l'intérêt

The novel revolves around the Kochammas, a wealthy Christian family in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where they own a pickle and jam factory. The story focusses mainly on Rahel and her twin brother Estha and the traumatic events they lived through as children.

It starts with Rahel who "left America gladly" (chapter 1) after a failed marriage. She comes back home to Ayemenem where she spent time with her twin brother Estha and their mother, until "he had been sent away" to live with his father who was divorced from his mother.

When the book starts, "Rahel had come to see her brother, Estha" (chapter 1) and she starts remembering the past, the people who were close to her : "Now, these years later, Rahel […]has other memories too that she has no right to have". We are told that Estha's return takes place 23 years after the death of Sophie Mol, the twins' cousin.

Shifting back and forth between the past and the present, the story will reveal the family's secrets and how "They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved…" (chapter 1).

We learn under what circumstances Sophie Mol died , how the twins "broke the love laws" (chapter 20) and "shared hideous grief" (chapter 20), why Ammu divorced her husband and  had an affair with Velutha, an untouchable, and how together they admired "the small things" (chapter 20).

Quotations about The God of Small Things
"The book truly overflows with its rich writing style, complex family events relationships, and of course, the internal struggles of a post-colonial India." (Betty H Kim)

"With sensuous prose, a dreamlike style infused with breathtakingly beautiful images and keen insight into human nature, Roy's debut novel charts fresh territory in the genre of magical, prismatic literature." (Publishers Weekly)

According to Uttara Choudhury in the Financial Times The God of Small Things is "a gripping tale of love and loss."

"Arundathi Roy is also rooted in the post-colonial literary tradition of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie" (Jean-Pierre Durix)

 
Arundathi Roy in a Guardian interview said that "The God of Small Things is about the small village where I grew up in south India – a very specific culture in that sense. And it has been translated into 42 languages." 

VOCABULARY

to revolve around : porter sur
wealthy : riche
to own : posséder
to focus : porter sur
failed marriage : l'échec de son mariage
to shift back and forth : faire des allers et retours
rule : règle
to cross into forbidden territory : s'aventurer en territoire interdit
affair : liaison
to tamper with : enfreindre
to lay down : établir
grief : chagrin
to overflow : déborder
struggle : lute
breathtaking : à vous couper le souffle
keen : perspicace
insight : examen
to chart : tracer
gripping : captivant
to be rooted : s'inscrire, être ancré