The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

 



Name :  The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Author :  Arundhati Roy
    Year of Publication : 2017
    Genre : Fiction, Novel
    Rating : ***  ( Three stars out of 5)

While Arundhati Roy's non-fiction works have the imagination and lyricality of a novel, this particular work is the opposite : it feels like a mishmash of all the political essays she has penned since 1998 with some curious characters thrown in to gain the tag of a novel. Those who follow the author will tread familiar ground while the uninitiated will be confused with the purpose of it all. Despite such problems, the book is still recommended because it traverses multiple avenues of despair only to culminate in hope. A middling sophomore novel but considered as an entry in the continuum of Arundhati Roy's political works, it passes muster.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Saffron Storm

Image
Name : The Saffron Storm Author : Saba Naqvi     Year of Publication : 2024     Genre : Non - Fiction, Politics     Rating : *** ( Three stars out of 5) The author is a journalist and a fellow-traveller who has chronicled the rise and fall (and rise) of BJP over the past 3 decades. That the author is a Muslim adds spice. The author steers clear of ideological judgements and opinionated writing. Her forte is reportage and she clearly sticks to that. The best portions cover the day-to-day functioning of the first ever non-Congress coalition government to have completed a full term. The most interesting anecdote relates to Vajpayee's strategy on handling USA's request to mobilise Indian troops for it's operations in Iraq.  A good read to compare and contrast the times of Vajpayee and Modi.
Read more

Test Cricket - A History

Image
Name : Test Cricket - A History Author : Tim Wigmore     Year of Publication : 2025     Genre : Non - Fiction, Cricket     Rating : ***** ( Five stars out of 5) The author combines romance with hard-nosed analysis to pen a free-flowing and arresting biography of Test Cricket. To decide on a structure for a book covering 150 years itself is a hairsplitting exercise but Wigmore aces the three S's beautifully : structure, statistics and style. The short biographical sketches thrown in inside every chapter are a delight. While obituaries have always been written for test cricket, Wigmore writes a passionate love letter of nearly 600 pages which makes us remember why we fell in love with the format in the first place and underlines why those obituaries are perennially immature.
Read more

Why the poor don't kill us

Image
  Name : Why the poor don't kill us Author : Manu Joseph     Year of Publication : 2025     Genre : Non - Fiction     Rating : **** ( Four stars out of 5) Manu Joseph , the original and provocative novelist, saves these adjectives for reviewers to describe him in his first work of non-fiction as well. He takes up the burning topic of the poor and inequality , asks some disturbing questions and answers them in his typical irreverent and witty manner. No one's hypocrisy (sample : "And the disdain that Arundhati Roy has for Mukesh Ambani's giant home - wouldn't a malnourished tribal feel the same about Roy's affluent home in Delhi's prime Jor Bagh? ") is spared in his inimitable manner. The author's style may infuriate many but that is exactly his aim. He concludes : "As long as there are the rich, there will be the poor". As long as there is hypocrisy in this society, Manu will keep waging such verbal battles.
Read more