I picked up The God of Small Things from my daughter-in-law's bookshelf. I would be speaking at a women's retreat where the theme of the weekend was "Keeping God in the Small Stuff" -- I wondered if the book might be helpful. I didn't use Roy's novel in my talks; hadn't finished it by then. The story is steeped in a sense of resignation to the inevitable. Set in India, during the political struggles of the late 1960s, the novel traces the circumstances in the lives of twin siblings Rahel and Estha, leading up to the drowning death of their cousin Sophie. The family is irreparably shattered. Near the end of the novel, Velutha, one of India's untouchables, dies after a brutal beating by the authorities. His unstated crime: having loved those outside his station in life. "Half an hour past midnight, Death came for [Velutha]. And for the little family curled up and asleep on a blue cross-stitch counterpane? What came for them? Not death. Just the end of living" (p 304). Roy's God of Small Things, a god who is powerless and desperate, was not the God we worshipped at our women's retreat; our God ushers in the beginning of life.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Recent reading...
I picked up The God of Small Things from my daughter-in-law's bookshelf. I would be speaking at a women's retreat where the theme of the weekend was "Keeping God in the Small Stuff" -- I wondered if the book might be helpful. I didn't use Roy's novel in my talks; hadn't finished it by then. The story is steeped in a sense of resignation to the inevitable. Set in India, during the political struggles of the late 1960s, the novel traces the circumstances in the lives of twin siblings Rahel and Estha, leading up to the drowning death of their cousin Sophie. The family is irreparably shattered. Near the end of the novel, Velutha, one of India's untouchables, dies after a brutal beating by the authorities. His unstated crime: having loved those outside his station in life. "Half an hour past midnight, Death came for [Velutha]. And for the little family curled up and asleep on a blue cross-stitch counterpane? What came for them? Not death. Just the end of living" (p 304). Roy's God of Small Things, a god who is powerless and desperate, was not the God we worshipped at our women's retreat; our God ushers in the beginning of life.
