book review of the ministry of utmost happiness

At least I couldn’t muster an equal depth of feeling for both. The heavy emotional tumult of Anjum’s story leaves one so spent that Tilo’s travails in Kashmir don’t make as much of an impact as they could.

After moving to the graveyard, her voice becomes discordant. Anjum’s bit in Old Delhi is evocative and I can identify with her grief and insecurities.

However, the storyline and plot are disorganized, with too many distinct threads forcefully crammed into 490 pages. The smaller characters also make an impact. The protagonists are beautifully drawn out, with their complex emotions laid bare. The intense imagery is chilling to the bone. Her powerful descriptions of people and places bring every character and situation to life. Though disjointed in parts, the myriad stories mingle well when they need to. Her anguish is expressed in a deeply moving manner, more expressive than most of her contemporaries. Roy makes no qualms about her political leanings, and honestly articulates what many writers shy away from. The novel’s subject is relevant and timely. The book glides with an ease that even non-readers would appreciate. Roy has the ability to make prose poetic, and the mundane sinister. Other minor characters, who live in the graveyard or are connected to its inhabitants, add meat to the main themes of war and government-sanctioned violence. A eunuch named Anjum, recovering from the trauma of being in Gujarat during the 2002 communal riots, decides to settle in a graveyard in Delhi, converting it to a haven for lost and abandoned people.Ī lonely graphic designer named Tilottama, settles in this graveyard home, to recover from her tumultuous life in war-torn Kashmir in the 90s. The book is a series of connected stories spanning twenty years. Read on to know my thoughts on this book. Hence it was a privilege to receive a signed copy of her latest, “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” as a present for my 30 th birthday. At a young age, Arundhati Roy’s Man Booker Prize Winner, “The God of Small Things” had a huge impact on me. Books were my savior through troubled teen years.

Book review of the ministry of utmost happiness