Much of the novel is spent drawing a distinction between the Big Things and the Small Things. The story describes the emergence of a number of minor woes which accumulate into a couple of large tragedies. Velutha is murdered at the History House by the Touchable police who are under the impression that he attempted to rape Ammu and coerced the children into accompanying him across the river. Tragedy strikes when Sophie drowns in a nearby river whilst accompanying the twins on a journey to the History House across the water during their attempts to run away from home. Over the next few days, Ammu begins to have an affair with an Untouchable, Velutha, which creates conflict within the house. When the twins are 7 years old, Chako’s English ex-wife, Margaret, and their daughter, Sophie, move to the Ayemenem house following the death of Margaret’s recent husband. In their early years, both twins live with their mother, Ammu, their uncle, Chako, and their spiteful great-aunt, Baby Kochamma. Most of the novel is framed through the perspective of the dizygotic twins, Rahel and Estha. The cast of characters predominantly belong to the Ipe family who live in the village of Ayemenem in Kerala, India. The God of Small Things is a novel by Arundhati Roy which both criticises India’s obsession with the West as well as its own cultural perpetuation of classism through the caste system. On the cover of the book is imprinted the digits of a stranger’s name and phone number after they had evidently rested upon it whilst writing a note. She had found a copy of it in one of those street libraries – the kind where you swap one book for another – and picked it up for me hoping that I would read it and write a review. The friend who gifted me this book described it as her second or third favourite book.

The god of small things review