ManBookering discussion

Decided by you all, with 15 votes is Arundhati Roy's 1997 Booker-winning The God of Small Things!

We will be starting this on November 1st, so you have a little over 1 week to pick up a copy! Once we have started reading, this thread will be open to discussion. But please, if you are going to share spoilers, give fair warning in the comment so that others are not spoiled.

Can't wait to begin!

Great! Happy reading everyone. Looking forward to the discussion.

Looking forward to it. Copy downloaded to kindle. But first there is the small matter of Slade House being released on Tuesday. I've wanted to read The God Of Small Things for ages, so can't wait to get started!

Neil wrote: "Looking forward to it. Copy downloaded to kindle. But first there is the small matter of Slade House being released on Tuesday. I've wanted to read The God Of Small Things for ages, so can't wait t..."

Slade House is absolutely incredible. Seriously I can't recommend it highly enough.

Excellent! But we should probably stop talking about it on this discussion!

Yes! I'm so excited for this. I have this book on my shelf and have been meaning to read it for some time :)

Neil wrote: "Excellent! But we should probably stop talking about it on this discussion!"

True... Well message me if you'd like to talk about it ^_^

I'm excited for this book, though. I've been meaning to read it for such a long time ^_^ Looks so good.

Kerry wrote: "Neil wrote: "Looking forward to it. Copy downloaded to kindle. But first there is the small matter of Slade House being released on Tuesday. I've wanted to read The God Of Small Things for ages, so..."

Looking forward to reading this - will pick up my copy from Mum's when I go down in the week. Oddly enough, I'm currently reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Still have The Bone Clocks after that, and will hope for Slade House at Christmas! :)

The beauty of Man Booker winners is that they can be read many times and you'll discover something new. This will be my third reading of God of Small Things and I can't wait to see if there's a detail which may have escaped me.

Slade House is on the way!!!!

"The God of Small Things" was recommended to me years ago on my comment thread in Listology. I picked it up and read it; was not sorry. Will be happy to make this one a 'repeater.'

Got my copy from the library tonight! Only a few more days until our group read begins. Hope everyone is as excited as I am :]

Got my copy on my Kindle yesterday. Very pumped!

Am ready for the group read, exciting! (And shamefully admit: this book has been on my TBR for seventeen years, yes: SEVENTEEN years. Oh dear!!)

I made a mistake and started Americanah and then realised I won't have time to finish it before the group read starts! Decisions, decisions! Finish Americanah or mix two books? It is rare for me to read two books in parallel. I guess we have the whole of November for the group read, so not starting until the 2/3 of the month won't be a problem. But I wanted to start it at the same time as everyone else! Doh!

I'm going to be mixing two books as well. The Shadow of the Wind and God of Small Things fun times!

Got my copy last week Wednesday. God of Small Things was collecting votes fast, and it was clear it would end up being the November read. So I got it before Maxwell announced it as the winner. I read the 1st chapter already because I couldn't help myself, but I exercised restraint and hid the book away. I'm so glad I can continue on Sunday!

I guess I'm sorry for starting before the due date.

Neil wrote: "I made a mistake and started Americanah and then realised I won't have time to finish it before the group read starts! Decisions, decisions! Finish Americanah or mix two books? It is rare for me to..."

Enjoy Americanah! There's no rush to read the book immediately. Like you said, you have the whole month.

Robert wrote: "I'm going to be mixing two books as well. The Shadow of the Wind and God of Small Things fun times!"

Enjoy both! The Shadow of the Wind is an all-time favorite of mine.

Can't wait!

I love Americanah! Hope you are enjoying it too. I will also be reading two books as I am still reading The Blood of Flowers, which I may finish first.

Looking forward to this. I have my copy ready - there are a few scribbles and underlinings from when I read the first 50 pages or so while I was at university in 2010, but I ended up not pursuing it further for the dissertation I was working on (ended up being mostly Rushdie).

I will be juggling this alongside The Girl with All the Gifts and A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. I have three weeks until the latter is due at the library and will probably finish Gifts by the end of next weekend. It's been a while since I've multibooked, but it can throw up interesting points for comparison, and it'll be helpful to be working within different time-frames. I've generally got through books quite quickly this year, so I'm glad to have a structure for slowing down and savouring some of my reading.

I read the first chapter last night and am also really enjoying the language. I think my favourite phrase so far might be "hips and hymnbooks" as it just sounds so poetic.

Estha smiles right out loud. I love that visual. I'm going to steal...er, I mean BORROW that line.
This is my second time reading the book. Enjoying the repeater.

I remember very much enjoying this book (back in the previous century when it had just come out ... goodness I am getting old!). Sadly I think my copy has left the building in one of my over-zealous decluttering exercises or I would happily read it again! I will see how much it is on Kindle.

Also as an additional recommendation for anyone interested in Indian literature, you may well enjoy the exquisitely written A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (shortlisted for the Booker in 1996, the year before The God of Small Things won). We were not taught anything about Indian history at school so reading a novel set in The Emergency was a real eye-opener.

A Fine Balance is an AMAZING book - in my all time top time

I'm spacing out the book by reading a chapter a day. So far it's marvelous, right now I'm focusing on the political aspects of the book and how Roy cleverly integrates it with the plot.

I decided to read The Great Gatsby before reentering The God of Small Things. I can't even believe my reaction to The Great Gatsby. I've continued where I left off with the book. I like the writing most of all, I'm still trying to get a feel for the characters.

I've now read the first four chapters. The writing was inventive and absorbing in the first three. But the fourth (trip to the cinema) blew me away. I like the way the story is developing, too.

I've yet to start it--busy with work, NaNoWriMo and other reading--but hopefully will get a chance to start this weekend! I'm enjoying reading everyone's responses thus far though! And just remember, if you're going to share something spoilery, give fair warning. No one has spoiled anything so far, but I wanted to give a quick reminder as different people will be reading throughout the month. Happy reading!

Neil wrote: "I've now read the first four chapters. The writing was inventive and absorbing in the first three. But the fourth (trip to the cinema) blew me away. I like the way the story is developing, too."

Neil, I just got to this point and boy, were you right? This is not what I thought was going to happen - the novel was going so slowly and quietly along...and then, bam, total change, even though still told in the same style...Looking forward to discuss further as we go along.

I was pacing myself but couldn't resist Chapter 4 after these comments and have to agree: it's brilliant. I was anticipating something along these lines after this:

"She remembers, for instance (though she hadn't been there), what the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man did to Estha in Abhilash Talkies..." (p.2)

I love the stylised prose. It reminds me of the flourishes you get in a Tarantino film.

I read this book less than a month ago and I'm waiting for everyone (or the most part) to finish it so that I can read everyone's comment. And so that I can give my opinion too, I don't want to spoiler anything!

The best thing about this book so far is how seamlessly the story goes from being funny and making me laugh out loud to being devastatingly sad.

I'm exactly halfway through the book and I'm am amazed at the amount of details which escaped me during my first and second reading. I'm also realising how Roy can change tone so deftly (I just noticed that Kay said the exact same thing in the above post) . Anyway I'm looking forward to the discussion!

I'm about a quarter of the way through, and I have to say that so far I'm not impressed. There's way to much historical set-up & a huge cast of characters that are difficult to keep track of, I'm just not motivated to read this one. Nevertheless, I will press on, hoping it improves.

Brief timeline

1947 - India Independent from British Rule
1947 - Pakistan is 'created'which leads to Partition, which leads to a lot of religious wars and brutal killings.
1948 - Ghandi - who tried to eliminate the caste system (which features heavily in the book) is killed
1950 - Nehru is elected Prime Minister
1964 - Nehru dies
1964 - Members from the Communist Party of India split and form the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
1965 - Nehru's daughter Indira Ghandi is elected.
1967 - Members from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Naxalbari region form the Naxalites, a group using guerrilla tactics to overthrow the caste system.


It's very simplistic and if there are any mistakes please correct me.

Family timeline:

Pappachi and mammachi - Ammu and Chacko's parents - born during the british rule of India.
Baby Kochamma - Mammachi's sister
Ammu and Chacko are both divorced.
Sophie Mol is Chacko's daughter.
Estha and Rahel are Ammu's children.


No spoilers as this all explained in the first two chapters.

Hope this helps :)

Good job :)

Good job :)

Maxwell - I don't how the others feel, but I am sort of glad someone not convinced is posting in the discussion. I am still loving it, but keen to hear from anyone with different viewpoints.

I just finished the book a few days ago. For me, I would say that the story itself was fine, but the style of the writing was beautiful and will be what I will remember!

This book did not convince me in fact. Just as Maxwell said, I thought there were too many details that kept us away from the actual story.
I enjoyed the last 50 pages or so though, in which I believe there is the cornerstone of the plot.

Hmmm maybe those details are actually essential to those last 50 pages?

Maybe it can be seen as a sort of build up? Roy is leaving clues but developing them and then in the finale we readers finally can piece everything together.

I am just over half way through and I think I agree with Robert. It feels to me like the author is dropping clues on either side of something big (before it and after it) and I have been assuming that the end of the book will pull it all together for me.

Yes, I agree they are essential, but there were too many I couldn't keep track of and I did not enjoy when she kept saying something about a certain future event we still did not know nothing about.
I just felt discouraged while reading it, though I did appreciate her writing. I pushed through to read those last few pages indeed and, of course, I thought it was worth it.
I was like drowning in the sea of little clues she was giving hints to and I did not like it, but that's probably me and my liking.

Robert wrote: "Brief timeline

1947 - India Independent from British Rule
1947 - Pakistan is 'created'which leads to Partition, which leads to a lot of religious wars and brutal killings.
1948 - Ghandi - who trie..."

Unbelievably helpful. I've come back here like 5 times in the past 30 minutes to reconnect dots as I'm going along with the help of this little breakdown.
It's not even funny.

Partly spoilers!! Marked **

I am about half way through now and I don't really get into it.
Most of the characters (apart from Estha) are still not moving me enough. And the going back and forth in time and dumping (historical & character) info on me made me itchy. Plus: the jumping prevents me from staying with a character long enough to start caring for him/her.
I did enjoy parts of it, e.g. the part with Sophie, Estha and Rahel in the car.

(**spoiler alert*** But other scenes didn't carry the emotion that they were supposed to, like the scene in which Estha is abused by the LemonOrangeMan. I was appalled by what happened but that was a reaction to the fact as such (the same way I would be appalled when I read a similar story in the newspaper), but the scene itself didn't move me **end spoiler**)

Maybe I just don't know enough about Indian history and the class system to be able to enjoy this novel? Any other readers having similar difficulties??

Neil wrote: "I read the first chapter last night and am also really enjoying the language. I think my favourite phrase so far might be "hips and hymnbooks" as it just sounds so poetic."

Neil, did you notice this at the airport (p.139 in my copy)?

"She was hemmed in by humid hips (as she would be once again, at a funeral in a yellow church)..."

I get such a kick out of this kind of thing - parts of a novel calling to each other across the pages. It's one of the things I love about David Mitchell's writing: he repeats phrases and variations on phrases in a way that's symphonic. It really reminds me of Salman Rushdie as well, who has talked about this kind of thing in the context of the oral tradition of storytelling. I think that might speak to the digressive, meandering structure as well (for those who are puzzled/frustrated by the backwardsandforwardness of it). And maybe again this is a style of storytelling which doesn't value "moving" readers in the same ways that the "Western" tradition (influenced by visual media?) has conditioned us to expect(?).

I haven't gathered all of my thoughts on this, but I think it will be an interesting talking point later on...

Yeah I'm a big fan of that as well. I kept on thinking of Rushdie while reading God of Small Things, I had read his latest novel a couple of weeks ago. Naipaul, Khakpour, Allende and Garcia Marquez use that technique. Well in the Western world there's Anthony Burgess, Will Self and Martin Amis.

Yes, I nearly commented on that last night, but forgot! I like those kinds of details: that made me smile.

I am intrigued by the comparisons with Rushdie. I have only read one Rushdie book and I disliked it so much that I have never tried another. Perhaps I need to re-think?

Oh interesting. Which one?