The God of Small Things
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The God of Small Things is a semi-autobiographical novel by Arundhati Roy that won the Booker Prize in 1997. It is about the childhood experiences of a pair of twins who become victims of circumstance. The book is a description of how the small things in life build up, translate into people's behaviour and affect lives.
The God of Small Things was a first book of the author, and till date (as of 2004) has been her only novel. The book, completed in 1996, took four years to write. Its potential was immediately realized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received half-a-million pounds in advances, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.
The story of the novel is set in a place called Ayemenem, in Kottayam district of Kerala. Major timelines of the novel are 1969 when the twins are 7 years of age, and 1993 when they are 31. Sequences in the novel constantly shift between the past and the present. Much of the story is written from the view-point of a 7-year old child. Malayalam words are liberally used in conjunction with English. Prominent facets of Kerala life that the novel captures are Communism, the caste system and the Syrian Christian way of life.
Characters in the novel :
- Rahel
- Estha (Esthappen Yako), Rahel's twin brother
- Ammu, Rahel and Estha's mother
- Chacko, Ammu's brother, son of Mammachi, divorced first husband of Margaret.
- Baby Kochamma, Rahel and Estha's grandfather's sister--their grand-aunt
- Sophie Mol, the twins' cousin, daughter of their Uncle Chacko and Margaret Kochamma.
- Velutha, the title character
- Mammachi, blind grandmother of Rahel, Estha, and Sophie Mol, founder of the family pickle factory. Chacko's mother
- Pappachi, Chacko's father
- Margaret Kochamma, Chacko's ex-wife
- Comrade Pillai, Leader of the local communist party
- Joe, second husband of Margaret