This novel is set in Kerala, South India, during the late 1960s. It revolves around two seven year old twins and their extended family. The story is about the loss of innocence of the two children, who become victims of prejudices of the caste system, patriarchal families, third world communism, and satellite television. The novel, in its own understated way, comments and analyses the transition of the Kerala of the sixties to the Kerala of today.
Roy gives you an in-depth look into an Indian Society, through the eyes of these innocent children. She touched me with her wonderful ability to get into the child's mind and portray what a child would experience and feel. This captivating story is told with an original and emotive use of language, which at first is hard to grip but then becomes second nature. I found the novel extremely powerful and at times intimate. This novel is more than insightful, it is indubitably aware of the pain and joy of life. .
The story is told in a non-linear way, weaving back and forth from past to present. The events are told in order of significance rather than chronologically. The bleak observations and the mischievous dialogue of children are often represented in a singsong fashion, sometimes obscuring fact temporarily, or at least bringing to light the differences between adult and child perception of reality.
Overall, I would say that this is one of the best, I've read in a long time. I was very much captivated by this book, as the scenes explained were commendable. Roy deserved to win the booker prize, giving Indian literature a global acceptance.
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