A Book Review: The God of Small Things

"Some things come with their own punishments"

This is a lambent piece of art - very sharply articulated which have been accentuated by the to and fro jumping of things from 1990s to the fateful year of 1969 and from beyond to afar and between days and nights. This bouncing on space and time made this micro-opus a terribly enjoyable one. The story is about Big Things, yet while reading one could get bored easily by the minute details of Small Things that has been occurring around the stages of short arcs. There are reflection of nature in tailfin, the simplicity of coffin, the dance of light and shadow, the colors, playfulness of the plants, the intricacies on things, the insects and life forms going about their life, the breeze, the Meenachal river, the lives on it, the factory, the fruits, the people, their thoughts in the deepest chambers - are all dug out and painted in the realm of the book so vividly and closely that one admirer would remain awestruck, certainly.

The God of Small Things (Winner of Booker Prize 1997)
Source: The Book Addict 

The language of the book is fluid yet crafty at times. The sarcastic tone at which the whole premise is unveiled, one can surely check the reality and their own mindset. The author has successfully created the vibe of seven-year-old charms in it. The simplicity in thoughts. The linkages. Yet the appeal, meter and rhythm of the book can hardly be fathomed by a child or even a teenager. Dum Dum.


The book deals with the characters as much as the premise it stands upon. The main leads are two fraternal twins, Dizygotic, Esthappen and Rahel, apparently. Their Ammu (Every character's name is given by the way they are addressed by these twins, mostly) driven by her passion does an act which brings about serious repercussions for everybody involved. The History punishes and the Terror becomes necessary to be subsided.


Although discrimination based on the caste is prohibited constitutionally in India, we come to see a horrible enaction of the gruesome reality and the hideous face of it in this book. There are ancient traditions that still govern the country. The Touchables and Untouchables. The boundary. The lucidity of the Blessed and the contrasting murk of the NOTs. Even conversion can not save them from this Us and Them. The definite Love Laws that govern who should be loved and how much. This tradition of thousand years shouldn't be quelled. Even a communism driven authority can not defy that. Community comes first. Party members are always expendables. The interest comes first, ahead of humanity. Ahead of anything. That's how the nature rules. The HUMAN rules.


Why one should read this? The summary is compacted and presented beautifully in the following video by Ted-Ed. (Some major spoilers given)

The story is set in Ayemenem, a small township in Kerala, God's own country when Indira Gandhi's 'Green Revolution' and Naxalites are happening. A Syrian Christian family takes the center stage of the unspooling. A forefather who is personally blessed by the Patriarch of the Antioch, a wife-bashing Pappachi (Grandfather) who is an Imperial Entomologist, a blind and patriarchy-loyalist Mammachi (Grandmother), a Rhodes Scholar-Marxist-Owner of pickle factory Chacko, the official grand aunt, ex-nun, sexually frustrated Baby Kochamma and along with them a Paravan family, Velutha's family (The backwalkers; walk backwards and remove their footprints so that elites don't step on those and pollute themselves).

The story unfolds with the nuts and bolts of this family's foundation, interactions, beliefs, eccentricity of the individuals and most importantly their insecurities, their darkest thoughts and the implications. The children are merely the viewers of the History and Examples that set on that little town.
The whole tale is based on a fateful day when a series of events occur that changes the paths of lives of everybody on the set. The thing has to deal with death and sex. It gets soon forgotten by the people but it tears apart lovers, a few families and fatefully reshapes History and Politics.


A coercive change in nature in order to gain security of people is captured while the subtle nature of politics getting shape in Kerala is also highlights of the book. The big picture consists of Caste, Religion, Rules, Tradition, Politics, Class Segmentation while the little ones include the life, the pedophilia, the nature, the Love, the Madness, the Hope and the Infinnate Joy.

The narration is what attracted me the most. The way of peeling out the essence. The funny and childish way of seeing a thing or two. And then suddenly hitting the readers with a sucker-punch of reality. We are consistently awaiting the big moment and big revelations. Yet we got to know that it was unfolded in the very first chapter. The finesse of the pen outwits the premises easily. We get to see the mischievousness of the two innocent children, their tantrums around the house, the silliness of their thoughts, yet the adult interpretation often deals between twilight and darkness.

We get to see the knolls and dolls of imaginations, the Sunbeam that lent to us too briefly, the curious observation of a persisting memory of death outliving the memory of the life it stole away, the manifestation of the age old saying: Big Man Lantern and Small Man Tallow-stick, the naturalization of poverty, the decay of culture, the centerpiece of being 31-Not Old. Not Young. But a viable age to die, the atrocities born out of unacknowledged fear - civilization's over nature, men's over women, power's over powerlessness.

We get to appreciate the tenderness of the love shared between fear and dread, yes and nos. We get to see the fear overcame and got folded into a perfect rose which was offered to the lover and wore like a jewel. And above all the beauty of the God of Loss, the God of Small Things. 
That's what it is all about.