Book Clubs are Cozy: The God of Small Things

This past Sunday night was yet another rousing get together of the BBBGBC (that’s Bad Boy Bad Girls Book Club)- the first meeting in 2012 and held at Craig’s house to disucss Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. We had 4 out of 5 attending (Sara,you were sorely missed!) with me skyping in from Seattle. Thanks as always Craig for being our tech guru! The book, which takes place in India, won the Booker Prize in 1997 and was the debut novel of Roy. Virtual Bindi anyone? Although Indian food is delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoyed Craig’s takeout-o-rama, food had very little to do with the story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the “Love Laws” that lay down “who should be loved, and how. And how much.” The book is a description of how the small things in life affect people’s behavior and their lives. The book is beautifully written but most of us agreed very difficult to follow. Elizabeth had read the book years ago and loved it and I kept wanting and knowing I should love it but never got there. It was just to chaotic for me, and sad. Roy switches between past and present, uses creative sentence structures mixed in with Indian language. Somehow I think there is a time and place to read certain books and this was just not the right time for me. I was surprised to find most of us on the same page regarding the book Thank you Miriam for that unintended book play on words… The book gave us lots to discuss – love, loss, incest, death, abuse, culture, politics and more. More wine that is… And maybe that’s why we have the casting of our book as it certainly lightened things up in an otherwise not so cheerful scenario! But before we get to that, thanks again bad boy host with the most and easy transferable bindi’s Craig! Here we go – THE CASTING! Our director is Danny Boyle (he knows the terrain…)
Chacko – Kishore Kumar
Ammu – Cher (with stand in Ann Miller)
Baby Kochamma – Mother Theresa (stand in and she’s gonna need it- Mindy Kaling from the Office)
Mammachi – Indiri Ghandi
Estha – Michael Cera (with stand in Dev Patel)
Rahel – Frida Pinto
Sophie Mol – Lindsey Lohan
Magaret Kochamma – Susan Boyle
Inspector Thomas Matthew – David Niven
Velutha – Amitaba Bachan or LL CoolJ
Kuttappen – Daniel Day Lewis
Vellya Paapen -Velutha’s father – Red Fox
Joe – Prince Phillips
Orangedrink Lemondrink man – Kelsey Grammar
Comrade Pillai- Shirley Temple Black
Kochu Maria – Peter Dinklage (Crown of Thorns)

I also have to mention that The Sound of Music is mentioned in this book and I’m more than sure that made Elizabeth extremely happy!
Our next book is Miriam’s choice – Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. Let’s get reading!
Until then, we remain the Bad Boy and Girls Book Club!