Interviews
On Tuesday, May 19th, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Arundhati Roy, author of The GOD OF SMALL THINGS.
Moderator: Welcome to barnesandnoble.com, Arundhati Roy! We are so pleased that you could fit us in to your busy tour schedule to discuss your acclaimed novel THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS.
Dale H. from Williamsburg, VA: Your use of the English language in this book is very intriguing and highly original. It isn't to my ear British or American English. You seem to invent syntax. My question is this Did you borrow a form of storytelling from Indian oral traditions? And secondly, how would you describe your own writing style or "voice"?
Arundhati Roy: I don't describe it, in the sense that I have no perspective on my own language. I've often said that language is the skin [of] my throat...so I don't spend a lot of time analzying or thinking about it or defining it.
Taylor from Springfield: What was the reaction in India to your book and its success? Secondly, why do you think there has been such a popular resurgence in interest and appreciation of Indian novelists? A past issue of
The New Yorker magazine was devoted to them. Congratulations on the Booker Prize!
Arundhati Roy: The reaction in India in many ways was the same as the reaction of the world. People have reacted to the emotional heart of the book. In India there has been some negative reaction. A man filed a criminal case against me for corrupting public morality. There was some trouble from the government in Kerala. But other than that the reaction has been the same as everywhere else in the world. There are writers from all sorts of places which are ex-colonies that somehow bring a new way of writing and thinking in English. These countries, truly, are now going through troubled times, and the moral dilemmas they are going through are huge, and therefore the stories are huge.
Leslie from Denver, Co: I haven't read THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS but have heard such wonderful things about it. My book club will be choosing it for our next discussion. Can you tell us in your own words what it is about? Thanks -- I love hearing how authors describe their own books.
Arundhati Roy: Unfortunately, this author doesn't describe her books, because I think a story is the simplest way of describing a complex world, and I can't simplify it any further.
Emily Berry from Baltimore, MD: At the beginning of your novel you distinguish quite clearly between "the god of small things" and "the god of large things." Is this distinction one that carries special force or weight for a nontraditional Westerner? For someone making the transition from a traditional society and culture to modernism? On what grounds should this distinction appeal to members of contemporary Western culture?
Arundhati Roy: Well, to answer the second part, since I am not a part of contemporary Western culture I can't speak for it. For me the book is about connections and how the smallest things connect to the biggest things. And thereby create the texture which eventually becomes human history.
Blake Katz from Santa Fe, NM: I read your book, and though I enjoyed the language, I did not find anything necessarily positive or redeeming in its message. In your view, is it necessary to find something redeeming in any of your characters? Do you think any of the characters have redeeming qualities? Or is the search for such qualities by the reader irrelevant? If so, why?
Arundhati Roy: Well, I often say a story is like the surface of water, and you can see what you wish to see in it. The book never offers you one solution or one way of seeing things. It is about how there is tragedy, happiness, sadness, little fish of shame in a sea of glory. It isn't about something redeeming or not, it is a view of the world, and there is everything in it.
Karin H from Charlotte, NC: You must have had a rich set of experiences growing up to write such an interesting book. Is this book at all reflective of your life? Do you have a special affinity or similarity to any of the characters?
Arundhati Roy: Well, for me, fiction is philosophy...a meditation about the world. This book is located very close to me, but it is not autobiographical. It is located from the clay of the world that I know and located in the village that I grew up in.
Felix Reategui from Lima, Peru: I find Naipaul an extraordinary writer, though I've often wondered how acute his views are about Indian civilization and people. Do you recognize your huge and extremely varied country in his writings? What are your feelings towards him? Do you have him on your mind for your creative fiction? (By the way, THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS is extraordinary -- needless to say, no?) Thanks.
Arundhati Roy: I think that Naipaul is an extraordinary writer. The great thing about him is he is so much in control of his art. You have to admire his vision.
Paul from Morris Plains, NJ: How did you get this book published? Were you at all surprised at the tremendous success your book had with reviewers and readers alike?
Arundhati Roy: Well, it seemed as if the stars were right, and the waters parted in a total magical way. But quite simply, someone that I know who read my book sent it to an agent in England. They read it and took the next plane to India. That's how it got published.
Nelson from London: When are you going to write another book?
Arundhati Roy: Don't know.
Nicole from Sudbury, MA: Is it true that it took you five years to write this book? Did you really write for five hours a day? Wow!
Arundhati Roy: Not five hours a day -- a little less, especially in the initial stages. I wrote for about four. But it did take me four and half years to write it.
Barbara C. from Syracuse: I am interested in your religious background. Are you Syrian Christian? Do you know when Syrian Christians first arrived in India? Why did they emigrate there? Syrian Christians are obviously a distinctive, peculiar minority in India. What function does this serve in the novel?
Arundhati Roy: The Syrian Christians didn't emigrate. They are a minority not just in India but also in Kerala, the southernmost state of India. In my book, it doesn't really matter whether they are people belonging to another religion. Kerala is a unique state. Some of the greatest religious figures lived there. The book is really about how these edifices that are constructed by the human intellect are leveled by human nature. It is more about biology than history.
Cary Carson from Newport: What would you identify as the universal themes in your novel? I see for instance gender relations, child abuse, the legacy of Western imperialism/colonialism in non-Western society, class, and the impact of Western technologies on a traditional society as a few. Am I warm?
Arundhati Roy: Well, I think it is a book about love and loss and childhood and really about [how] since the dawn of time human societies have found ways to divide themselves up and make war and love across these divisions.
Martin from Boston, MA: Who are some of your literary influences? Are you a fan of Kipling or Gabriel García Márquez?
Arundhati Roy: I am an immense fan of Kipling -- I could recite him before I could read. I don't necessarily agree with his stated views on India, but I think he was a great writer. Joyce, Nabokov...Marquez is great but I don't think an influence. Magic realism isn't really my genre.
Janine from Yarmouth: Do you plan to do any more work on films or screenwriting?
Arundhati Roy: I don't have any plans, and I don't know what I am going to do.
Ritu Bontha from Houston, TX: I enjoyed THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS very much, particularly the poetic prose in which it is written. I wondered if you considered Velutha the "god of small things" or if the title is simply a metaphor. Also, I read much of the book following Rahel as the heroine but began to wonder towards the end if Ammu was the true "heroine." Or perhaps there was no hero to speak of. Have you written anything else (I know that there are two screenplays) that are available to us to read? I'd also like to know when you may be in Houston, Texas.
Arundhati Roy: Well, as I said, I don't want to legislate who is the heroine. I want everyone to draw what they want from the story. The god of small things is the inversion of what they think of god as. It is a powerless god in a way. A god of loss.And no, the screenplays haven't been published.
Melanie L. from San Diego, CA: What is your view of the special significance of fraternal twins? Does one usually find that of the two, one is stronger, one dependent? How would you describe the relationship between Estha and Rahel? Why did you choose to write about twins?
Arundhati Roy: For me it was somehow to explore something that was intrinsically brutal in our natures. They were really doing that; they loved each other with an inarticulate, aching love. This was interesting to me because you don't really understand love until you understand its brutality. So that is why I chose to write about them.
Paul from Fort Myers, FL: Your language is very colorful and almost musical -- full of metaphors. Did you find the words came easily, or did you do a lot of rewriting? What type of writing schedule did you keep? Congratulations on the success of your novel -- well deserved!
Arundhati Roy: No, I didn't do a lot of rewriting. I am not searching for words, and I don't suffer while I write in that sense. But I am quite disciplined in my writing. I worked every day on the novel when I was writing it.
Renee from Middlebrook: I really loved your playfulness with punctuation, capitalization, and spelling ("Infinnate Joy"). It was so refreshing. How and why did you decide to use this play on words?
Arundhati Roy: I don't know the answer to that. I just think that when you are somehow in touch with your childhood and still remember how to play, these things happen.
Moderator: Thank you for this fascinating discussion of THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS. Do you have any closing comments for your online audience?
Arundhati Roy: I don't want to talk any more than what is in my book. Thank you.
