God of Small Things is a deeply immersive read from Arundhati Roy. The story of Rahel & Estha, two children, and their divorced mother Ammu and their other (Marthoma Syrian Christian) relatives and Velutha, a skilled worker from an untouchable caste, and other characters from Kerala's Kottayam (Aymenem). The novel is built on an excellent, complex structure, woven in its own language, unashamedly inventing new words, often to express the inexpressible (like Joyce). You read through the story as if you swim through an enormous river with powerful streams. Well! The author takes you through the river, each stream at a time, thus exposing you to a complex narrative. There is a dark, deep whirlpool somewhere in the middle of the water. The author builds the story around that part, that singularity: a death and a murder. Only to expose it towards the end of the story. To build anticipation. Though not for long. It gets predictive very early although the anticipation still builds to get to know the other details.
Often, events that are coming at the later part of the novel are introduced early. Through hints. Through symbols. Through sentences that appear suddenly out of context. The hints, symbols and the out-of-context sentences are repeated. Revisited. Beautifully! Building more and more meaning until the context gets finally clear as the story deepens.
Like Flaubert, the writing belongs to the realism genre. That means too much of details, sometimes irrelevant and banal at times. But it suits the book to expose the the complex socio-political structure lying underneath. Those Casteist, Marxist, Aristocratic, Imperialistic elements. The technique is brilliant, though not one of my personal favourites.
But I have a major problem with this book. Namely, the lofty moral position that the narrator takes up. The looking down at everything and everybody. Even mundane natural things. Even the way a character eating chips or dressing up. Even the way a character stands or walks; opens her mouth! A major part of literary realism is expended to explain how filthy everything is, how evil people are, how morally corrupted society is and how dark life is. The darker part of human nature being singled out and exaggerated. This makes the book too grim.
In the whole story, you find only Rahel & Estha as people of pure souls. And then Velutha, another pure soul. Only because he was betrayed and murdered? Ammu is portrayed in slight darkness. All other characters are evil, greedy, cunning or snobbish. Which is strange. Grim.
And at the end, unlike Flaubert, no redemption offered. As grim as it is! But, to repeat, a excellent, deeply immersive read!
