x dismiss this message
Did you know you can edit this page?
-
Sign Into Shelfari
-
Choose something to edit
-
Save your contributions
see page history
Description edit
Southern India 1969. Here, armed only with the invincible innocence of children, Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, who loves by night the same man her children adore by day...their blind... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
One accident forever changes the lives of twins Rahel and Estha, who are separated soon after it occurs. The story takes place many years later in their hometown of Ayemenem in Kerala, India, when the twins are reunited and try to build the childhood they never had together.
Characters edit
- Rahel: Twin sister of Estha, daughter of Ammu. She returns to India to find her brother when he returns to their home town.
- Esthappen Yako: Brother of Rahel, her dizygotic twin. AKA Estha. He is silent for a lot of the novel after what happened, but he is described by Baby as the more practical of the two children.
- Mammachi: The matriarch of the family, she dominates with an iron force, despite her blindness.
- Dr. Velutha: A Paravan, or untouchable. He works at Paradise Pickles and cares deeply for the Ipe children, and secretly for their mother.
- Chacko Ipe: Ammu's brother, Oxford Rhodes scholar, former husband of Margaret and father of Sophie. He is described as having 'men's needs' by his mother, and so his communist leanings give way to his sexual usage of the factory workers.
- Chacko Ammu: Mother of Esthappen and Rahel, she is an emotionally troubled woman.
- Comrade K. N. M. Pillai: The hopeful political aspirant of the neighbourhood, this communist is more involved in the mysteries surrounded the small family that the story follows than you might first think.
- Baby Kochamma: Grandaunt of the twins. AKA Navomi Ipe. She is a cruel, jealous woman, probably as a result of her unrequited love of Father Mulligan.
- Margaret Kochamma: English mother of Sophie Mol and ex-wife of Chacko. She previously worked in a cafe in Oxford until she later became a teacher.
- Inspector Thomas Mathew: The police officer looking to solve the mystery of the story - as corrupt as you would expect, despite his saintly names.
- Sophie Mol: Deceased daughter of Chacko and Margaret Kochamma, cousin of Esthappen and Rahel. She is said to love her step-father more than her biological father.
- Father Mulligan: The Catholic priest, and object of Baby Kochamma's teenage desires, and reason for her faith.
- Vellya Paapen: The untouchable village man who has known the Ipe family for his entire life. He is Velutha's father.
- Pappachi: The patriarch of the family, only seen in flashbacks. He used to savagely beat his wife with a brass vase.
- Kuttappen: Velutha's paralyzed brother
- Kochu Maria: Family cook and ill-bred, ill-educated woman. She forever threatens to complain about Estha until American television takes over her life.
- Lenin: Son of the resident 'comrade', named after the Russian leader.
- Orangedrink Lemondrink Man: The man who works behind the snack counter at the local movie theater.
- Dr. Verghese Verghese: The local physician. Terrifying sounds are known to come from his office.
- Kochu Thomban: The elephant used for display in the local temple.
- Comrade E. M. S. Namboodiripad: The leader of the governing communist party of India in the 1960s and 1980s.
- Kari Saipu: He was the English who had 'gone native'. He had shot himself and his house had become a tourist rest house.
- Modalali Mariakutty: The name given to Baby Kochamma by a mocking communist marcher who also made her wave the flag. Modalali means 'landlord.'
- Larry McCaslin: Rahel's architect husband, from whom she divorced later
- Reverend E. John Ipe: Pappachi's father, Ammu's grandfather.
- Miss Mitten: A teacher who believed she saw the devil in Estha and Rahel when they read backwards.
- Murlidharan: a level-crossing lunatic
- Edi Kalyani: The village in which the story takes place.
- Chella: Veluth's mother; she died of tuberculosis
- Latha: Comrade Pillai's niece
- Pathachen: Add a description of this character.
- Mathukutty
- Pathi Ammai
- Dr. Muthachen
- Thampi Chachen
- Aleyooty Ammachi
- Khubchand
- Peter Mon
- Sosha
- Dushasana
- Kelan Paravan
- Mrs. Eapen
- Kama
- Mrs. Rajagopalan
- Stuart
- Mr. Thomas Mathew
- Caesar
- Kunti
- Nehru
- Adoor Basi
- Joseph
- Mr. Hollick
- Chacko Saar
- Kama Shabadam
- Raudra Bhima
- Mrs. Pillai
Quotes edit
-
“Ammu looked at them. The Air was quiet except for the sound of Baby Kochamma's throbbing neckmole.”
-
“Rahel never wrote to him. There are things that you can't do - like writing letters to a part of yourself. To your feet or hair. Or heart.”
-
“It didn't matter that the story had begun, because kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don't surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again.”
-
“In the year she knew him, before they were married, she discovered a little magic in herself, and for a while felt like a blithe genie released from her lamp. She was perhaps too young to realize that what she assumed was her love for him was actually a tentative, timorous acceptance of herself.”
-
“She knew exactly what he meant, her son with the spoiled puff. The simple, unswerving wisdom of children. If you eat fish in a dream, does it count? Does it mean you've eaten fish?”
-
“It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined. Over the years, as the memory of Sophie Mol ... slowly faded, the Loss of Sophie Mol grew robust and alive. It was always there. Like a fruit in season. Every season. As permanent as a government job.”
-
“If you're happy in a dream, does that count?”
-
“This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.”
-
“Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things one could get used to.”
-
“Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house, must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.”
-
“Our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves.”
-
“On their shoulders they carried a keg of ancient anger, lit with a recent fuse.”
-
“Centuries telescoped into one evanescent moment. History was wrong-footed, caught off guard. Sloughed off like an old snakeskin. Its marks, its scars, its wounds all fell away. In its absence it left an aura, a palpable shimmering that was as plain to see as the water in a river or the sun in the sky. As plain to feel as the heat on a hot day, or the tug of a fish on a taut line. So obvious that no one noticed.”
-
“And if you care to look, you could see Satan in their eyes.”
-
“She developed a lofty sense of injustice and the mulish, reckless streak that develops in Someone Small who has been bullied all their lives by Someone Big. She did exactly nothing to avoid quarrels and confrontations. In fact, it could be argued that she sought them out, perhaps even enjoyed them.”
-
“Feelings of contempt born of inchoate, unacknowledged fear--civilization's fear of nature, men's fear of women, power's fear of powerlessness. Man's subliminal urge to destroy what he could neither subdue nor deify.”
-
“He wondered what people who had more than four corners in their houses did with the rest of their corners. Did it give them a choice of corners to die in?”
-
It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined.
Highlighted by 126 Kindle customers -
“When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”
Highlighted by 108 Kindle customers -
It is after all so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of thought. To ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully like a piece of porcelain. To let it be, to travel with it, as Velutha did, is much the harder thing to do.
Highlighted by 89 Kindle customers -
She viewed ethnic cleansing, famine and genocide as direct threats to her furniture.
Highlighted by 72 Kindle customers -
That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.
Highlighted by 67 Kindle customers -
And the Air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside.
Highlighted by 67 Kindle customers -
It seemed so absurd. So futile. Like polishing firewood.
Highlighted by 62 Kindle customers -
And once again, only the Small Things were said. The Big Things lurked unsaid inside.
Highlighted by 61 Kindle customers -
This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.
Highlighted by 60 Kindle customers -
And there it was again. Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature.
Highlighted by 51 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month.
Table of Contents edit
1. Paradise Pickles & Preserves
2. Pappachi's Moth
3. Big Man the Laltain, Small Man the Mombatti
4. Abhilash Talkies
5. God's Own Country
6. Cochin Kangaroos
7. Wisdom Exercise Notebooks
8. Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol
9. Mrs. Pillai, Mrs. Eapen, Mrs. Rajagopalan
10. The River in the Boat
11. The God of Small Things
12. Kochu Thomban
13. The Pessimist and the Optimist
14. Work Is Struggle
15. The Crossing
16. A Few Hours Later
17. Cochin Harbor Terminus
18. The History House
19. Saving Ammu
20. The Madras Mail
21. The Cost of Living
Glossary edit
- Ammu: Mother
- baba: Father
- Kochamma: Standard female honorific title
- Mol: Girl
- Mon: Boy
- Mammachi: Grandmother
- Pappachi: Grandfather
- Jackfruits: A very large sweet fruit common in South and East Asia.
- PWD: Public Works Department (local utilities department).
- zebra crossing: Striped pedestrian crossing.
- Crimplene bell-bottoms: Wrinkle-resistant knit polyester jersey fabric which can be woven and impressed with various textures. The main action of the novel is set in 1969, when bell-bottomed pants were popular.
- go-go bag: "Go-go" started as an expression in mangled English used by French speakers to express the idea of "without limit," as in "Whisky à go-go." In English it was associated with the sort of dancing done in "go-go bars," and--by extension--with the clothing worn by the dancers, e.g. "go-go boots," etc. Sophie Mol was hip to the current fads.
- Ende Deivomay! EEE sadhanangal!: My God! What creatures!
- Curly beards: Orthodox Priests, unlike their Roman Catholic counterparts, wear full beards.
- veshya: Prostitute.
- Aertex vest: An inexpensive brand of undershirt.
- mundu: A single piece of cloth arranged as a sort of loose pair of trousers, tied at the waist, worn by both men and women (though women add upper garments to it). Longer than the dhoti.
- The old omelette-and-eggs thing.: Napoleon famously justified his uses of violence by saying "You can't make an omlette without breaking eggs." Violent revolutionaries of all stripes are fond of repeating this slogan.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 128 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 104 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 147 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 139 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 147 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 85 of 200 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
This book is in Book Lover's Cook Book, The. (authoritative list)
This is book 1997 of 47 in Booker Prize Winners. (authoritative list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Harper Flamingo
Country: India
Publication Date: June 9, 1998
ISBN: 0060977493
Page Count: 321
Publisher: Harper Flamingo
Country: India
Publication Date: June 9, 1998
ISBN: 0060977493
Page Count: 321
Awards edit
- Man Booker Prize (1997)
- BBC's Big Read (April 2003, #85)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 828'.914
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Young AdultsContains odd sexual situations and human brutality.
Popular Tags
See all 50 tags
More Books Like This edit
Books Cited by This Book edit
We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book and books that cite this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.
