Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Der Gott der kleinen Dinge by Arundhati Roy

27 reviews

hannah_cogo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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tahsintries's review against another edition

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kibiiiariii's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5


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miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Oof

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steveatwaywords's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A mesmerizing and distressing work, with a plot which nearly gives away its ending at the start but then reverses its way through a labyrinth of relationships and childhood impressions to reveal itself at last. Just a remarkable telling, with adversaries who are broken and real, silent personal histories which work themselves too powerfully, and the delusions we all share about ourselves and our potentials. 

While Roy's early work has its occasional missteps (an awkward metaphor or seeming senseless aside rarely), her weaving of the smallest innocence (for instance, a refrain from Popeye the Sailor) into a more tragic signaling slowly trains readers to understand the nuances of perception working upon the tragic events which unfold. I have seldom read anything quite so unique and powerful in its originality. 

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shiva568's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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ireeeeeene's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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awsams's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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emzireads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

5.0


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marisacarpico's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Wasn’t connecting with this for most of it, but found the last 15 or so pages incredibly effective. I’ve not liked stream of consciousness for nearly 2 decades at this point and this didn’t change my mind. Lots of repetition here that didn’t work for me. Often found certain imagery effective the first time and rage-inducing 100x in. Probably deliberate on some level, but made this less of a stimulating read than I was hoping.

That said there are certain descriptions that were striking in their beauty or specificity. A description of a house as being like a sunken thing near the end especially made me pause. Mostly, though, the language is in service of a sort of grotesquery, a bluntness about life that’s as impossible to deny away from as what happens here.

I guessed the central family secret incorrectly (though it’s perhaps more accurate to say I placed it in the wrong part of the story), but the eventual reveal is such a powerful mix of both tragedy and cultural/historical specificity. And those last chapters are a big part of what give that central trauma and the surprisingly beautiful note. The books ends on its impact.

I will say, though I still don’t like stream of consciousness from moment to moment, I do think the structure here is astounding. Not just the way it ends, but the whole theater-going section, for instance, or they way things just build and build so that when everything is revealed, it all feels so inevitable, all of it flowing brilliantly from the characters and world Roy has shown us.

Truly, I did not enjoy the act of reading this book almost at all, but I certainly can’t deny the craft.

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