I read The God of Small Things years ago. Don't know if I'd still feel the same about it now, but I thought it was excellent at the time. It sounds and looks a bit twee (at least the British cover does), but the story itself is actually pretty brutal, upsetting in places - probably why every charity shop you went into had at least one abandoned copy!
Oof, see, I think "brutal" might be a bit too difficult for me at the moment! I am enjoying my lit fic beach reads... I just finished Whidbey and while I admired the writing, there wasn't enough light in it for me. I do think--in my experience--joy and pain coexist. They have to, I suppose, for life to seem worth living (and a book to feel worth reading).
Completely agree. There's definitely joy in TGoST, lots of beautiful writing in particular. But it was also too long ago for me to say where the balance lay between joy and pain. Certainly not a beach read though, even a lit fic one!
It’s funny that this memoir wasn’t as (doesn’t sound as) brutal. But in a way, I can imagine she has less sympathy for herself than her characters. She seems like that.
I read The God of Small Things years ago. Don't know if I'd still feel the same about it now, but I thought it was excellent at the time. It sounds and looks a bit twee (at least the British cover does), but the story itself is actually pretty brutal, upsetting in places - probably why every charity shop you went into had at least one abandoned copy!
Oof, see, I think "brutal" might be a bit too difficult for me at the moment! I am enjoying my lit fic beach reads... I just finished Whidbey and while I admired the writing, there wasn't enough light in it for me. I do think--in my experience--joy and pain coexist. They have to, I suppose, for life to seem worth living (and a book to feel worth reading).
Completely agree. There's definitely joy in TGoST, lots of beautiful writing in particular. But it was also too long ago for me to say where the balance lay between joy and pain. Certainly not a beach read though, even a lit fic one!
It’s funny that this memoir wasn’t as (doesn’t sound as) brutal. But in a way, I can imagine she has less sympathy for herself than her characters. She seems like that.