A review by sminismoni
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

1.0

Arghhh, it's been a long time since I read a book with so much anticipation, and was so disappointed. First let's start with the plot, which was slow and meandering. It was Boring. And it was written in such an affected style, full of Creative Writing 101 overwrought metaphors and imagery that were repeated with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer. Why use three words when ten will do? I felt like pulling my hair out the seventeenth time I heard about the sickly sweet smell of old roses, or the painted silver jet in the blue church sky, or the sourmetal smell of a steel bus-rails. My God it was annoying. Admittedly the characters were well rounded, but I couldn't bring myself to like or care about any of them. The adults all seemed self-righteous and narcissistic, and the twins apparent "one-soul" connection never convinced me as all that meaningful. The only one I cared about was the Untouchable Valutha, and it was predictable what would happen to him. In the end, I just Didn't Care and felt resentment that the book was so poor.