The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Really memorable read. I really enjoyed the book but not as much as God of Small Things. As usual the writing is beautiful and her prose really sets the scene in our minds.

This book is set in the backdrop of the kashmir rebellion and in a way I can say it's like a non fiction written as a fiction.

I read this just after a trip to Delhi and the reading about the places there was a good experience. Like I was so excited when a specific landmark I saw was featured in the story, but meanwhile I also missed not being able to visit some of the other mentioned ones.

Overall I really recommend this book if you have read any books by Roy before. As a first book from her it's always God of Small Things for me.

Miss Roy has her own distinct style of writing. Combined with vibrant plot it leaves an aftertaste, somewhat bitter and melancholic in my mind. It has happened for ‘The Gods of Small Things', and it did for this book to a certain extent.

The plot (or plots?), as I've mentioned earlier is vibrant, in geography, politics, and culture. In a whole it describes, in my opinion, a dystopia that is being denied in India.

I'm not sure my memory is accurate, but I recall loving “The God of Small Things” more. Still, plenty here to savor and reflect on in this pleasurable novel. It's a truly a sweeping story in terms of scope, traversing much of India both historically and geographically. Roy is very skilled at integrating political realities into this work in ways that don't feel pedantic; I realized quickly that I was going to need to learn a lot more about the history of Kashmir to really appreciate some elements of the story, and I'm glad to have done so. There are so many main characters that I sometimes felt I didn't care enough about each of them as I might have if there were fewer, and a few of them were interesting but lacking in interiority. Overall, a good read well-suited for traveling.

Gave up on page 235

The more I think about this book, the more I like it. I may come back and award it another star later, but right now I'm giving it 3. At first read, it can seem like the book has no central plot—just a huge cast of characters, some of them quirky and lovable, some of them creepy and evil, some of them noble heroes, meandering around and getting caught up in the conflicts of the day. That's not exactly wrong. But I am caught by the realization that the story begins in an abandoned graveyard that is a lonely, desolate place, and ends in that same graveyard that has become a haven, a place of safety for people who were at the end of their ropes.

Also, the meandering between the beginning and the end is so enjoyable to read. The many stories that are told are rich, sad, but hopeful. Some of the strands are about transgender women and their place in India, Muslim/Hindu relations, the disputed region of Kashmir, the caste system, environmental degradation. There's more, and there's even a character on a hunger strike who is adopted as a symbol for almost every protest cause there is, even causes that conflict with each other.

So, it might feel like The Ministry of Utmost Happiness has no plot, but it does. It has many plots that lead to the same place: a place of safety and hope for those who have been through heartbreak and despair and need a place to rest.

Tried to like it, loved her previous work, couldn't finish.

Oof, this was a slog - I realized that I was enjoying the last chapter quite a bit more than all the previous ones, and then I was like, wait - is that just cuz I know we're close to the end?

Which is a shame! Cuz I'm all about modern/recent Indian political history etc, and this book has that in spades. It follows two main threads (or, like, two dozen) but all the character-lives wrap up together in a Love Actually/two degrees of separation deal. First main thread is about Anjum, an intersex woman living as a hijra in Old Delhi. Much MUCH is made of the glories of Old Delhi, and this was maybe my favorite part of the book: oh SNAP, I almost forgot, here's some mood music for ya.

Anyway, indeed, Anjum lives in a raucous hijra community somewhere near the Jama Masjid, and we have a rich, loving portrayal of Old Delhi's heritage in a modern, fast-changing India. There are such wonderful hits as how great Mirza Ghalib is (so great!), how great Mughal-e-Azam is (I personally prefer Umrao Jaan), and generally these scenes feel like a 1980s Naseeruddin Shah movie. I say that with much affection. This is about ~30% of the book.

The second thread centers around a group of university students, a love quadrangle with a moody lady named Tilo at the center. The quadrangle folks end up getting wrapped up in the bloody fighting in 1990s Kashmir, and much horrors are observed. This takes up ~70% of the book.

Sooo. Yeah. I found this a mighty, mighty slog. I found the writing really self-indulgent and a little too self-aware/self-enamored. Never did I forget the presence of ARUNDHATI ROY, or her views or the Important Points she was making. This was similar to the feeling I got when reading Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 - another accomplished, much-lauded author whose latest book is full of indulgent, gimmicky schticks like alphabetical lists of words (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ARUNDHATI, I GOT THE POINT AT C, WHY MUST YOU CONTINUE). Main difference here is (1) Arundhati Roy is clearly on a mission to tell an important story about What's Up With India, and (2) I love KSR, he so great (I never read Roy before).

Another weird gimmick - one that really bothered me - was that Roy refers to several important Indian politicians and public figures: namely, Narendra Modi (the current PM), Anna Hazare (who led a wave of Bernie-style “political revolution”/anti-corruption movements in 2012), Manmohan Singh (former PM), and so on. Yet she doesn't name any of them - Narendra Modi is “Gujarat ka Lalla” (Gujarat's beloved? I forget), Hazare is the “baby” (cuz of his looks, not behavior), etc etc. And I was like, wait, why? Who is the audience of this book? It's written in English (and, notably, it's mentioned how most of the characters DON'T speak it), so it's pitched more towards upper class Indian readers - and, of course, international readers. But how many international readers know Anna Hazare? And can recognize him by roundabout descriptions of his movement?

And this annoyed me. Like, clearly Arundhati Roy is waving the flag of social justice and left-wing outrage at the ascendency of far-right Hindu nationalism since the last election, and I think it would be nice and educational and important to, for example, publicize the Gujarat riots of 2002 (and Narendra Modi's role in them) to an American audience. But... she doesn't? She's weirdly coy about it, weirdly smirking/wink wink about it. And I'm just like: WHY? Just tell the story! Or better yet (since, damn, she does do a lot of telling), SHOW us the story!

And now, my beloved Shashi Kapoor, playing a Kashmiri goatherd type, noting how foreigners are nothing but trouble and one must stay away from them.

Very political and incredibly dense (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) but it took a long time to wade through and was tough going.

Difficult to review on the basis of not knowing enough about India to understand the references. This is quite a challenging, dense novel, nevertheless the warmth of the author shines through in the way the characters are depicted, and the language and poetry is beautiful. It is difficult at times, however, particularly in the way that the timeline jumps around and is from multiple perspectives. I think I probably should have devoted more time to reading it, but it was a quick read at the library and had to go back. I think it may be appreciated better a second time.

Loved every bit of it. Having visited Kashmir just a couple of months ago made reading this book even more special. It's a book both brutal and funny in equal measure.