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Old 15th Oct 2003, 11:32   #11
pandop
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I was somewhat surprised to finish the book last night (I wasnt expecting so many pages of adverts in the back ) especially as it didnt seem to 'end'. Was it just me, or was it unclear when the events in the last chapter took place, and why exactly the twins mother died?

most of the characters in this book annoyed me for one reason or another, as did the backwards reading/writing and the Capitalisation of Significant Words - all in all I felt that Roy was Trying Too Hard to be Clever, and it just didnt work for me. :(

apologies to whoever suggested this, but I have never been so glad to finish a book, as it was having a negative effect on my other reading (felt guilty reading anything else, as I knew I should be getting on with this, but lack of engagement meant I didnt care what happened, and so didnt have a burning desire to pick up the book)

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Old 15th Oct 2003, 11:52   #12
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If Columbianus Rex is around, it'd be good to hear what they made of it, seeing as everyone else has given it an unqualified thumbs-down. I warned my RL bookgroup off it last night - rather prejudicially so, but I couldn't bear to think of any of them suffering as we did.
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Old 15th Oct 2003, 15:37   #13
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Hazelweller wrote:
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it was having a negative effect on my other reading (felt guilty reading anything else, as I knew I should be getting on with this, but lack of engagement meant I didnt care what happened, and so didnt have a burning desire to pick up the book)
Perfect summation of my feelings. I'm blasting through a crappy crime novel now (almost finished in just two sittings) just to try and forget. Dorian still hasn't turned up from QPD, but somehow I don't think that'll put the brakes on like TGoST did.
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Old 15th Oct 2003, 15:47   #14
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I am ducking out of the next book, should be back for the next one though

personally I have returned to fantasy, although it is a new book, to try and get TGOST out of my head, nearly had to resort to a re-read!

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Old 19th Nov 2003, 14:43   #15
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DefaultThe God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

As a story I thought, for the most part, it was great. As a work of accomplished artistic writing I thought, for the most part, it was pants.

I found the backwards and forwards flow of past and present hard to follow, as the plot jumped all over the place in the first half - I normally like novels that play with time in this way but Roy doesn't seem to have mastered it. And what on earth were those terrible gratuitous sex scenes there for, messing up the ending? To throw me off balance? Why?

Though I enjoyed the plot itself, I won't be re-reading this. It just didn't meet the mark, and Roy seemed determined to show off at every opportunity.

A good story ruined. Such a shame.

Anyone know why it won the Booker Prize?
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Old 30th Nov 2003, 2:02   #16
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Hooray Lucoid,

i agree utterly, i hate to say i told you so, but i told you so.

Horrid isn't it; jarring, loosely held together, manipulative. The small section on casual child abuse was handled with a particular eye to palming an evil act off as a normality, therefore highlighting it's filthiness. This, in my opinion, smacks less of social awareness, and rather more of shock factor lazy art.

Maybe it could have worked if it wasn't all coupled with her appalingly florid style.
As for why it won the Booker, well just look at it's pedigree: style over substance, young attractive indian author (i can see the judges patting themselves on the back as they imagined deigning to invite her to a dinner party in Islington so they could marvel at her), and hey, just look at that cover man!
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Old 1st Dec 2003, 14:40   #17
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With regards to your comment that it was 'loosely held together', I'm guessing you're referring to both the past/present time thing and the several fashionable themes that were running about all over the place in a big old scribble (at this point I am imagining a drawing of Mr Messy).
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Old 2nd Dec 2003, 12:27   #18
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Discussion here, in fact. We liked Dorian considerably more.
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Old 2nd Dec 2003, 14:21   #19
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I did look at the discussion for Dorian as I read the original last year. I will get round to reading Self's version at some point as it sounds interesting, but probably not for a while.
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Old 28th Jul 2011, 13:11   #20
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DefaultRe: Book 4: THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS - Arundhati Roy - discussion

I abandoned The God of Small Things after 50 pages on the principle that it was everything that gives literary fiction a bad name. Arundhati Roy, first-time novelist, was in desperate need of a patient and experienced editor, but had her book thrust into the world in such a rough state (and Col's comments above really nail most of what's wrong with it) that it's almost unreadable.

And then, bizarrely, she won the most prestigious prize in British and Commonwealth fiction.
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