10 Captivating Insights into Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’

At the core of Arundhati Roy’s revolutionary 1997 novel, The God of Small Things, lies the tale of Estha and Rahel, twin siblings grappling with the cultural complexities of their Indian heritage. Through their youthful perspectives, the narrative explores their mother Ammu’s challenges and the dynamics of their extended family. As adults, the siblings reunite, confronting their past and shared sorrow. Discover the essential details about Roy’s iconic work.

Arundhati Roy debuted as a novelist with The God of Small Things.

Roy initially pursued architecture, viewing it as a practical career choice to gain independence and avoid societal expectations. However, she shifted her focus to India’s film industry, scripting the award-winning movie In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1988), which earned her the Best Screenplay award at the Indian National Film Festival. In 1992, she began drafting The God of Small Things, completing it five years later.

The creation of The God of Small Things was sparked by a single vivid image.

Roy spent over four years crafting The God of Small Things, writing it non-linearly. As she revealed in a 1997 Salon interview, the novel originated from a mental image of a sky-blue Plymouth carrying twins, surrounded by a Marxist procession. She admitted that the unconventional writing process was something she wouldn’t have believed possible beforehand.

Roy’s architectural background played a significant role in shaping her writing style.

“In architecture, recurring design motifs like patterns and curves create a sense of comfort in physical spaces,” she explained to Salon. “I’ve discovered that the same principle applies to writing.”

For Roy, writing is a form of design, where even the placement of words, punctuation, and paragraphs matters. She described it as the “graphic design of language,” which is why the twins Estha and Rahel’s thoughts and words appear playful on the page. She creatively manipulated their design, breaking words apart or fusing them together, such as turning ‘Later’ into ‘Lay. Ter.’ or ‘An owl’ into ‘A Nowl.’

Roy incorporated many real-life elements into the book’s details.

Although The God of Small Things is fictional, Roy drew heavily from her personal experiences. The story is set in Ayemenem, India, her childhood village, where she witnessed the rigid caste system. The pickle factory owned by Rahel and Estha’s family mirrors the one her grandmother operated.

The novel introduces Velutha, a factory worker from India’s ‘untouchable’ caste, who becomes entangled in a doomed relationship with Ammu, the twins’ mother. Like Ammu, Roy’s mother faced societal judgment as a divorced woman.

The family’s repeated trips to watch The Sound of Music were inspired by real-life events. Roy shared in an interview that her family would drive two hours to Cochin to see the film about seven times during her childhood. However, as readers of the book will know, she wasn’t particularly fond of Julie Andrews’s iconic movie.

The book’s title was decided at the last moment.

In a HarperCollins interview, Roy disclosed that the novel’s evocative title wasn’t part of the initial plan. The manuscript remained untitled until the final stages.

“The novel didn’t have a title until the very end,” Roy explained. “I struggled to name it, receiving numerous ideas and suggestions. I remember printing the manuscript and adding the title at the last possible moment.”

Despite the title being a last-minute addition, the themes in Roy’s writing led many to assume it was carefully planned from the start.

“One of the chapters was titled The God of Small Things, though I’m not sure how that came about,” she remarked. “Looking back, I’m amazed by the numerous references to small things in the book, but I certainly didn’t start with the title and structure the novel around it.”

Roy received an unprecedented advance for The God of Small Things.

Roy secured a combined $1.6 million advance from global publishers for The God of Small Things, setting a record for an Indian author at the time. Despite the pressure, she remained confident, telling London’s The Independent, “It’s their business risk ... I trust my book.”

The novel achieved immediate success, both critically and commercially.

The substantial advance proved worthwhile for the book’s global publishers. Within six months, The God of Small Things sold 350,000 copies worldwide, achieving bestseller status in the U.S., the UK, and India. The novel also won the esteemed Booker Prize and has since sold over 6 million copies globally.

Roy faced obscenity charges due to the book’s content.

The God of Small Things addresses India’s social and political issues, including the caste system, gender inequality, and perspectives on British influence. While the book garnered international acclaim, its reception in India was mixed, particularly among politicians. A lawyer filed obscenity charges against Roy, citing the depiction of a relationship between a Syrian Christian woman and a lower-caste man.

The lawyer, Sabu Thomas, filed the charges in Kerala, India, the setting of the book and Roy’s childhood home. Initially, Roy was deeply troubled by the charges, but she later reflected, “This is what literature is about. This is the fallout of literature.”

The legal battle lasted a decade, requiring Roy to attend numerous court hearings. Missing even one could have resulted in her arrest. Eventually, a new judge took over and dismissed the case. More recently, Roy has faced potential prosecution in India for her 2010 comments on Kashmir.

A television adaptation of the novel was produced.

In 2007, Roy described The God of Small Things to The Progressive Magazine as “a stubbornly visual but unfilmable book.” She even instructed her agent to reject Hollywood studios’ requests for the rights. Despite this, a Pakistani TV series loosely based on the novel aired in 2013, with character names altered. The book also inspired a song.

Roy took two decades to release her next fictional work.

Readers anticipating a quick sequel to The God of Small Things had to wait patiently. Instead of fiction, Roy focused on non-fiction, publishing political essays and interview collections after the novel’s release.

Roy’s second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, released in 2017, delves into India’s cultural landscape through the lives of Anjum, a transgender woman, and Tilo, an architect transitioning into activism. A decade in the making, the book received widespread critical praise and earned a spot on the longlist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Mirroring her earlier trajectory, the novel was followed by her 2019 non-fiction compilation, My Seditious Heart: Collected Non-Fiction.