All the Small Things

I love to read books that transport me to a different place. It's like the holographic deck on star trek...you are seemingly there. The book, the God of Small Things was one of those books that took me to a different place and inserted me into the story.
The writing made me feel as if I was in a front row seat, watching the story unfold in front of me. I could smell the pickle factory; the spices and sweat. I could imagine reaching out and touching Baby's flowers. I feel Estha's shame over his encounter with orange drink lemon drink man. The masterful writing put me in the car on the way to the airport as it is surrounded by protesters.
The book's biggest flaw is it not being told chronologically. The story flits back & forth in time and place. That drove me bonkers as I had to go back and re read things after I had put the book down.



From wikipedia:

The story primarily takes place in a town named Ayemenem or Aymanam now part of Kottayam in Kerala state of India. The temporal setting shifts back and forth from 1969, when fraternal twins Rahel and Estha are seven years old, to 1993, when the twins are reunited at age 31. Much of the story is written in a viewpoint sympathetic to the seven-year-old children. Malayalam words are liberally used in conjunction with English. Prominent facets of Kerala life that the novel captures are Communism, the caste system, and the Keralite Syrian Christian way of life.

This plot summary places the events in chronological order, though the novel shifts around in time.

Without sufficient dowry for a marriage proposal, Ammu Ipe becomes desperate to escape her ill-tempered father (Pappachi) and bitter, long-suffering mother (Mammachi). Finally, she convinces her parents to let her spend a summer with a distant aunt in Calcutta. To avoid returning to Ayemenem, she marries a man who assists managing a tea estate (who she later discovers to be a heavy alcoholic, who beats her and attempts to prostitute her to his boss so that he can keep his job). She gives birth to two children, dizygotic twins Estha and Rahel, but ultimately leaves her husband and returns to live with her mother and brother, Chacko, in Ayemenem.

Also living at the house is Pappachi's sister: Baby Kochamma (Kochamma is an honorific name for a female). As a young girl, Baby Kochamma fell in love with Father Mulligan, a young Irish priest who had come to Ayemenem to study Hindu scriptures. In order to get closer to him, Baby Kochamma became a Roman Catholic and joined a convent against her father's wishes. After a few lonely months in the convent, Baby Kochamma realized that her vows brought her no closer to the man she loved. Her father eventually rescues her from the convent and sends her to America for an education, where she obtains a diploma in ornamental gardening. She remains unmarried for the rest of her life, her unrequited love for Father Mulligan turning to bitterness. Throughout the book, Baby Kochamma delights in the misfortune of others and manipulates events to bring down calamity upon Ammu and the twins.

While studying at Oxford, Chacko fell in love and married an English woman named Margaret. Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophie Mol (Mol meaning "little girl"), Margaret reveals that she had been having an affair with another man. They divorce and Chacko, unable to find a job, returns to India. After the death of Pappachi, Chacko returns to Ayemenem and takes over his mother's business, called Paradise Pickles and Preserves.









When Margaret's second husband is killed in a car accident, Chacko invites her and Sophie to spend Christmas in Ayemenem. On the way to the airport to pick them up, the family (Chacko, Ammu, Estha, Rahel, and Baby Kochamma) encounters a group of communist protesters. The protesters surround the car and force Baby Kochamma to wave a red flag and chant a communist slogan, humiliating her. Rahel thinks she sees Velutha, an untouchable servant that works in the pickle factory, in the crowd. Velutha's alleged presence with the communist mob makes Baby Kochamma associate him with her humiliation at their hands, and she begins to harbor a deep hatred towards him.

The day before Margarget and Sophie arrive, the family visits a theater to see "The Sound of Music", where Estha is molested by the "Orangedrink Lemondrink man", a beverage vendor. His fear stemming from this encounter factors into the circumstances that lead to the tragic events at the heart of the narrative.

Velutha is an untouchable (the lowest caste in India), a dalit. His family has been working for the Ipe family for generations. Velutha is an extremely gifted and accomplished carpenter and mechanic. His skills with repairing the machinery make him indispensable at the pickle factory, but result in resentment and hostility from the other, touchable factory workers.

Rahel and Estha form an unlikely bond with Velutha and come to love him, despite his untouchable status. It's her children's love for Velutha that causes Ammu to realize her attraction to him and eventually, she comes to "love by night the man her children love by day". They begin a short-lived affair that culminates in tragedy for the family.

When her relationship with Velutha is discovered, Ammu is locked in her room and Velutha is banished. In her rage, Ammu blames the twins for her misfortune and calls them the "millstones around her neck". Distraught, Rahel and Estha decide to run away. Their cousin Sophie Mol convinces them to take her with them. During the night, while trying to reach the abandoned house across the river, their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns.

When Sophie's body is discovered, Baby Kochamma goes to the police and accuses Velutha of being responsible for Sophie's death. She claims that Velutha attempted to rape Ammu, threatened the family, and kidnapped the children. A group of policemen hunt Velutha down and savagely beat him for crossing caste lines. The twins witness this horrific scene and are deeply affected.

When the twins reveal the truth of Sophie's death to the Chief of Police, he is alarmed. He knows that Velutha is a communist, and is afraid that the wrongful arrest and beating of Velutha will cause unrest amongst the local communists. He threatens to hold Baby Kochamma responsible for falsely accusing Velutha. To save herself, Baby Kochamma tricks Rahel and Estha into accusing Velutha of Sophie's death. Velutha dies of his injuries.

Hearing of his arrest, Ammu goes to the police to tell the truth about their relationship. The police threaten her to make her leave the matter alone. Afraid of being exposed, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko that Ammu and the twins are responsible for his daughter's death. Chacko kicks Ammu out of the house. Unable to find a job, Ammu is forced to send Estha to live with his father. Estha never sees Ammu again, and she dies alone and impoverished a few years later.

After a turbulent childhood and adolescence in India, Rahel goes to America to study. While there, she gets married, divorced and finally returns to Ayemenem after several years of working dead-end jobs. Rahel and Estha, both 31-years old, are reunited for the first time since they were children. In the intervening years, Estha and Rahel have been haunted by their guilt and grief-ridden pasts. Estha is perpetually silent and Rahel has a haunted look in her eyes. It becomes apparent that neither twin ever found another person who understands them in the way they understand each other. The twin's renewed intimacy ultimately culminates in them sleeping together