Arundhati Roy: Beyond The God of Small Things

Preface The God of Small Things (1997), a highly acclaimed prize-winning debut novel and The Algebra of Infinite Justice (2001), a compilation of well-researched, authentic and topical path-breaking essays by Arundhati Roy have ushered in a new era in Indian Writing in English. From these two works of fiction and fact, it has become evident that Roy is a committed novelist coupled with an uncommon zeal for championing the popular causes, not only in writing but also in life and living. Her solo novel has invited critical attention, largely complimentary, from writers and critics, foreign as well as Indian. As an original and innovative writer, she takes utmost care in designing the structure of her writings. Unconventional time-shifts, elliptical, chronological sequence and circuitous narrative lend the story of the novel, The God of Small Things, a rare sparkle. With her lively, original rhetorical devices, linguistic inventiveness, sparkling symbolism, ever-fresh similes, connotations, intonations, deliberate distortions of diction, magical realism and sensitive poetic style, she keeps the reader glued to her writings from first to last. Her book, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, examines her causes and concerns that range from pressing national issues to international ones concerning the threatened future of mankind, curiously enough, not from the forces of Nature, but from the ‘devil’ in man himself. As an enlightened and global citizen, she authors six remarkable essays bubbling with startling revelations and future possibilities. Social alienation, class-division, caste-oppression, gender bias, male dominance, poverty, illiteracy, nuclearisation, privatisation and above all, global terrorism, have been her chief concerns having great contemporary relevance. In her essays, one finds a healthy equilibrium between the harsh truth and the poetic truth. At the very outset, like a skilled scientist, she diagnoses the problem in hand, introduces it in all its ramifications, builds up a convincing hypothesis, employs all possible rhetorical devices, pilots invincible arguments, dwells on its possible repercussions, builds up a sane resolution and finally, draws a convincing conclusion. Above all, like a proficient lawyer, she equips her arguments with well-researched facts and figures, data and details so as to give a sharp edge to her point-of-view. Her mercurial imagination aided by linguistic skills and rich vocabulary minimises the gap between her thought and expression. Shelly Mannan