Weekly Classics Discussions

Arundhati Roy

"...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets...you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again. That is their mystery and their magic."
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Suzanna Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, India in 1961. In 1997 Roy published her debut novel, The God of Small Things, a semi-autobiographical work. The story focuses on the childhood experiences of two fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book largely explores how 'small things' ultimately affect people's behavior and their lives. Roy's novel became the biggest-selling book by a nonexpatriate Indian author and won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1998.

Aside from her novels, Roy's literary work largely consists of politically oriented nonfiction, aimed at addressing the problems faced by her homeland. 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. In recognition of her outspoken advocacy of human rights, Roy was awarded the Lannan Cultural Freedom Award in 2002, the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004, and the Sahitya Akademi Award from the Indian Academy of Letters in 2006.

This week's questions:

Roy chose to write The God of Small Things in a non-sequential narrative style, utilizing a patchwork of flashbacks and lengthy sidetracks to weave together the history of the family in the story.

Do you feel like non-sequential storytelling can strengthen a reader's understanding of the characters and the events that transpire, or can it be too confusing?

What other stories have you read that contained social criticism or taboos?

We also welcome any other discussion or comments about Arthundati Roy or her works.

If you have another author you'd like to see a discussion on, please leave it in the comments below for a chance to be featured in a future chapter!

Have fun!

Resources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arundhati-Roy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundhati_Roy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_of_Small_Things