The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017
by Roy, Arundhati
- Used
- Good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Good/Very Good Jacket
- ISBN 10
- 0241303974
- ISBN 13
- 9780241303979
- Seller
-
Devizes, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Hamish Hamilton, 2017-06-06. Hardcover. Good/Very Good Jacket. 19 to 25 cm tall, Octavo, (8vo). Posted within 1 working day. 1st class tracked post to the UK, Airmail tracked worldwide. Robust recyclable packaging.
Reviews
On Aug 14 2017, a reader said:
"Their wounds were too old and too new, too different, and perhaps too deep, for healing. But for a fleeting moment, they were able to pool them like accumulated gambling debts and share the pain equally, without naming injuries or asking which was whose. For a fleeting moment they were able to repudiate the world they lived in and call forth another one, just as real."
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is the second novel by Booker Prize winning author, Arundhati Roy. The story begins with Aftab, whose confusion about what he was found relief at the Khwabgah, among other hijra. He became Anjum, and eventually she ran the Jannat Guest House (in its highly unusual location), a refuge for the quirky, the oppressed, the different.
Integral to the tale is S. Tilottama, real and adopted daughter of Maryam Ipe. Tilo's story, and that of the three men who love her, is told not only by her, but by Dr Azad Bhartiya (fasting Free Indian), Biplab Desgupta (her ex-Intelligence Bureau landlord), and Musa Yeswi (elusive militant). Filling out the quirky cast are a paraven calling himself Saddam Hussain, Zainab the Bandicoot, Naga the journalist, a singing teacher, and an abandoned baby, to name just a few.
How all their lives intersect and how these lives are impacted upon by Government and policy, and in particular, the Kashmiri freedom struggles, is told using vignettes, anecdotes, loosely connected short stories, moral tales, memos, disjointed scraps, accounts that take detours and meander off on tangents. As with Rushdie, Seth and Mistry, this novel has that unmistakeable, essential Indian quality, in characters, in dialogue, in plot.
But here, moreso than in The God of Small Things, the fact that this is a novel by Arundhati Roy the social activist, is very much in evidence (as readers of her non-fiction works will attest) and thus includes illustrations of the many issues against which she rails. Some reviewers describe this novel as "preachy"; the causes are worthy, but readers may feel that is it is only a shade off being exactly that, and perhaps be forgiven for wishing that it was more novel, less moral tale.
Some of Roy's descriptive prose, as with in The God of Small Things, is staggeringly beautiful, poetic and profound: "They understood of course that it was a dirge for a fallen empire whose international borders had shrunk to a grimy ghetto circumscribed by the ruined walls of an old city. And yes, they realised that it was also a rueful comment on Mulaqat Ali's own straitened circumstances. What escaped them was that the couplet was a sly snack, a perfidious samosa, a warning wrapped in mourning, being offered with faux humility by an erudite man who had absolute faith in his listeners' ignorance of Udru, a language which, like most of those who spoke it, was gradually being ghettoized."
However, the vague and veiled references to certain personages, events and ideas which are, perhaps, obvious to those familiar with Indian current affairs, will go straight over the heads of other readers, the message will be lost or less than clear. There is humour, heartache, despair and hope, there is much cruelty but also abundant kindness, making it a moving and powerful read.
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Details
- Bookseller
- M Godding Books Ltd (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 227084
- Title
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017
- Author
- Roy, Arundhati
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good Jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0241303974
- ISBN 13
- 9780241303979
- Publisher
- Hamish Hamilton
- Place of Publication
- Uk
- Date Published
- 2017-06-06
- Size
- 19 to 25 cm tall, Octavo, (8vo)
- X weight
- 21 oz
Terms of Sale
M Godding Books Ltd
Paypal, Credit Cards, Books ship within 24 hours of the order, either first class within the UK, or airmail worldwide. Returns accepted on items that do not, within reason, meet the description.
About the Seller
M Godding Books Ltd
Biblio member since 2006
Devizes, Wiltshire
About M Godding Books Ltd
The business trades in a variety of on-line products. Our business is currently expanding its already large collection of books, and other media. Established in 2005, the business became M Godding Ltd in April 2006. It is a family run business trading from Devizes in Wiltshire, England. It aims for satisfied customers through a friendly and efficient service. Our book shop specialises in rare, older used books including many first editions
Glossary
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