"They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much." The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu, (who loves by night the man her children love by day), fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt). When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river....
Format: Trade paperback
Category: Classic
Genre: Historical Fiction, Contemporary
Ratings: 4 stars
Review: This books is our assigned novel reading for our literature class this term and with that knowledge in mind I have already prepared myself to read the usual 'i-cant-relate-with-it-damn-this-book-is-boring' ideology that always comes to mind whenever I read assigned novels, not to mention that I don't read such genres. I'm usually more inclined to young adult dystopian or contemporary novels but I'm so glad I gave this book a chance and that our professor assigned this to us.
This is a wonderfully, for the lack of any more fitting word to use, written book. Arundhati Roy's writing is flawless, its poetic and so incredibly moving that I just felt like I was there with the characters as they as they lived, lived a life full of hopes. I was there as they struggled to keep holding on to that tiny fibre of hope that things would soon, somehow get better for them.
The journey that this novel told is a story of a family and how they lived, how they’ve passed and what made them who they are, and Arundhati Roy made sure that I was there with them through it all.
At first, reading this novel gave me this heavy feeling, because I know how things would turn out in the end, how all the little tragedies in their lives would somehow end up as just that, tragedies.
I breezed past this book because the optimist in me kept saying, go on and keep on reading, believing that somewhere in the pages lie a happy ending for all of them. Yet as I kept going I just kept feeling that this heavy weight just keeps getting heavier and will somehow manage to pull my glistening droplets of tears that are threatening to fall for the poor unfortunate characters of the book. Then as I reached the end I realised, some stories really are meant to end with the realities of life, with the harsh truth that sometimes things are bound to happen and unfold like the way they do. The reality that sometimes it isn’t even people who or our decisions which leads us to our doom, its just the way life bound for things to happen without us knowing, without us having any control over it. How big things happen in our lives and small things are given to us to somehow be able to make up for them.
As this book came to an end, I can say that I’ve grown to love it. It may not be something that I usually enjoy reading, being the optimistic happy ending seeking person that I am but it is something that made me see life with its sharp edges, its harsh parts and dark endings.
If you enjoy a tear jerker book that would help you see the realities of life, well this one's definitely for you.
rating: ★★★★
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