The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Difficult to get through Difficult to get through. Tried my best but I gave up.

i started this a few days ago and told myself i'd finish my other 'currently reading' books before starting this one. i didn't read anything else while reading this. i saw the reviews and decided i needed all my attention on every page.

they were right. this was a heavy read. i thought i'd power through the first half of the book, but as the last few pages of the final chapters came, i found myself being filled with emotions. i was about to cry.

i've been putting off long books recently because it was overwhelming for me, as someone who has been reading short books for a while now. but this and the two other long books i've read are exceptions. i think i'm ready to bury my nose in the pages of long books again.

this book is one of its own in all the 'finished' books in my library. what a goddamn ride this book was. i wouldn't blatantly recommend this as of course i have to know if the person has a faint heart. but i really do liked reading this because i was disturbed. i was disturbed by the reality faced and that my privilege had made me ignorant.

we must not uphold tradition that entails oppression.

Arundhati Roy's return to novels is a strange experience. While there was always going to be a blurry, almost illusory, line between personal and political, they overlap at astonishingly great intervals. There is hardly a story in these pages, only an experienced, well-researched outburst against the government, casteism and conformism. But it is such a beautifully written outburst, with a never-ceasing morbidity, that you want to revisit some of that anger for their sheer power. She ends with hope, in a secular graveyard, but it all feels too liberating to be true.

Quite magical in some places. Loads of meandering. Pretty memorable. 3.5

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness has followed me around like my own shadow for almost three months. I started it on a MyCiti bus in Cape Town and knew immediately that I would fall in love with it and that, like The God of Small Things, I would need to revisit it many times in order for me to uncover all of its beauty and secrets. I read it in Cape Town, on a plane to Johannesburg, and on a bus to my grandmother's place in the Eastern Cape where I would see my grandfather, whom I was not overly fond of, for the last time before he died. I read it on a bus back to Johannesburg and on a plane to Cape Town. I read it on a plane to Germany and finally on the couch in my wife's small village and my heart is broken and yet my spirit is uplifted. Arundhati Roy weaves the tales of characters like Anjum, Saddam Hussain, Tilo, Musa, Naga and Biplab with an effortless sort of magic. She makes light of war in a way that is as deadly serious as it is ridiculous, like war is. Big events play out in the background but the focus is on the characters whom you fall in love with because like many seemingly ordinarily and unremarkable people they are extraordinary and remarkable beyond what you would imagine.

4 stars hhhh THIS TOOK ME FOUR MONTHS TO FINISH GOD it just drags on a lot?? like wayy too much, but it's also just so well-written. like it's really not much like the god of small things but it does have that same incredible writing style, that sense of poetry and fantastic imagery!!! there's more of a sprawling, epic kind of feel whereas the god of small things felt very contained within itself...it was about a family but this is about a country, you know? (but really they're both about countries.) but also it took me four months to finish and i felt so frustrated with it at times i wanted to scream. it's really a book you need patience for. but it's INCREDIBLE. god. i felt so deeply satisfied and emotional after it was over. anjum is such an incredible character. and tilo too. those two are really the best characters in the whole novel. i really like our heroines, they're wonderful and interesting and i care so much about them. plus i like how it sort of goes into the modern day? like. oh, this is still happening. anyway. i just really love it tbh it's great. and the ending makes my heart happy :')

“She knew he'd be back. No matter how elaborate its charade, she recognised loneliness when she saw it. She sensed that in some strange tangential way, he needed her shade as much as she needed his. And she had learned from experience that Need was a warehouse that could accommodate a considerable amount of cruelty.”

First things first - this book was beautifully written. The language was gorgeous, and littered with scraps of poetry from a number of languages and contexts. For the story itself I probably would have rated this a four star book, but for the language... *clutches heart* As for the story (or more accurately, stories), I was most engaged and in love with Anjum. She was such a wonderful character to see the world through, and I dearly missed her when we switched perspectives. While the other characters gave engaging and interesting perspectives, I found myself actually pulled out of the story a few times, as I just wanted to return to Anjum. I think the reason it jarred me so much, was that I had thought I was going to read the story of Anjum, when in fact this is a story (stories) about Kashmir and the people caught up in / creating / participating in the conflicts and tensions there. This story is fascinating, heartbreaking and very complicated, and I appreciated having diverse and very individual perspectives on this on-going conflict. I learned a little of what is going on, and has gone on in Kashmir at University, having studied 'The History of India' at post-grad level (a title torn apart as soon as you started the course and realised that a singular history of India is impossible given the size of the country, and its very diverse populations). I was also acquainted (online) with a person who lives in Kashmir, and who posted about recent crackdowns and conflicts occurring, before he disappeared from that virtual space. So I found it very interesting to have certain blanks in my knowledge filled in. I shy away from reading news articles about Kashmir, as I never know where the information is coming from - there are usually only two options when it comes to Kashmir: exaggeration, or downplay. But somehow reading about it from a fictional perspective made it easier to understand the breadth and depth of the issues. I didn't have to believe or disbelieve anything, because it was fiction - but it spoke to the real and deep conflicts that have occurred and continue to occur in that region. I would absolutely recommend this book for a number of reasons. Primarily: it is beautiful. Secondly: it is a story that focuses on a region you don't often see in mainstream fiction. Thirdly: the inclusion of the perspective of Anjum, a hijra, certainly fits the criteria of a 'diverse' character, but also she individually is such a unique character. I loved her, and I think she'll definitely be one of my favourite characters from this year.

Loved every bit of it. Having visited Kashmir just a couple of months ago made reading this book even more special. It's a book both brutal and funny in equal measure.

I never thought I'd actually read this book. I say this because I never had any desire to read The God of Small Things, even though people rant and rave about it and I still see it referenced quite a bit even though it's been 20 years (Christ, didn't think it's been that long) since it came out. But I don't know. There was something about this novel that drew me into it, perhaps it was the cover, perhaps it was the summary, but that compelled me to pick it up. Honestly, I still have mixed feelings about it. I think I kind of convinced myself I liked it more than I did because the good parts are really good. I loved the first quarter with Anjum and her life, really liked the second part with the intelligence officer as it reminded me of Breakfast at Tiffany's, and then the book took a downhill turn. The third part was just plain confusing, and the fourth part was not nearly strong enough to recover from the confusingness of the third part. The main source of my confusion was the whole parts about the Kashmir war. While I did gather that it had something to do with India vs Pakistan and Hindus vs Muslims, Roy did not explain it well at all. It made me wonder what audience she was writing this book for, her fellow Indians (who are already aware of the wars and contention surrounding Kashmir) or the Western audience (who have no knowledge and would require pages upon pages of exposition just to tell what's going on). I think she settled on a compromise that pleased no one, because I still had to look up Kashmir on Wikipedia after reading. Continue reading this review on my blog here: https://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/2...