The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
by Arundhati Roy
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New York Times Best SellerLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize
Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Amazon, Kirkus, The Washington Post, Newsday, and the Hudson Group
A dazzling, richly moving new novel by the internationally celebrated author of The God of Small Things
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey of many years across the Indian subcontinent—from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city to the mountains and valleys of show more Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war.
It is an aching love story and a decisive remonstration, a story told in a whisper, in a shout, through unsentimental tears and sometimes with a bitter laugh. Each of its characters is indelibly, tenderly rendered. Its heroes are people who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued, patched together by acts of love—and by hope.
The tale begins with Anjum—who used to be Aftab—unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. We encounter the odd, unforgettable Tilo and the men who loved her—including Musa, sweetheart and ex-sweetheart, lover and ex-lover; their fates are as entwined as their arms used to be and always will be. We meet Tilo’s landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul. And then we meet the two Miss Jebeens: the first a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs’ Graveyard; the second found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi.
As this ravishing, deeply humane novel braids these lives together, it reinvents what a novel can do and can be. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness demonstrates on every page the miracle of Arundhati Roy’s storytelling gifts. show less
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Explicitly political second novel of Arundhati after a twenty year fiction black-out. The plot is brilliant but probably difficult to follow for many, especially those who are unfamiliar with India, the rise of the BJP and Kashmir. Roy opts from the start to focus on a group of marginalised outcasts of Indian society, the flotsam of Hindu nationalist Progress, hermaphrodites, muslim cow buriers, transvestites, harijan protesters, and Kashmir freedom fighters. And yet she manages to cross the lines by including characters who work for India’s security and Police force. The core cast of characters seem to share their participation in a drama group that prepares a play under the flamboyant leadership of a gay Britisher. The play is never show more performed due to the outbreak of communal violence. I adored Roy’s sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek humour and devastating yet subtle critique of Hindu nationalism. Her plea for an India that is home to as diverse a cast of people as possible shines through in all its brilliance, scorching the nationalist platitudes of its recent rulers. This was worth waiting for, and yet … Arundhati give us more! show less
Such a tender rendering of characters whose individual struggles are interwoven into the dense and complex political fabric of their country. The scope of what she has included, the breadth but also the depth of it, is so staggering and utterly amazing. How did she fit it all? How did she talk about it all with so much tenderness, humanity, and love? At no point did she discount the amount of violence that we have to also think about. I thought that she captured the complexity very well too, especially if she were to talk about the politics without the characters. Some characters are quite obviously stock, in terms of the opinions they have (like the typical of 'liberal' or 'centrist' types, and one of course one of them is a show more journalist! lol) but I guess it is quite necessary especially for people who are not familiar with the politics, just so they can get some sort of approximation of what the different viewpoints are. (Also definitely, while she is nuanced she does have a firm stand which is why the book pisses off so many nationalists). Having watched/read enough Arundhati Roy interviews I could recognise that some parts were based on her own experience too.. I'm glad that her writing this was just so fully human, so full of the blood that made senseless violence feel a bit more human.
Sometimes it did feel like she forgot the novel a bit and she goes off to talk about the politics. The density of it meant that I was acutely aware that there's a lot I will not fully understand because I am not living in India or fully immersed in their politics, life there, nor experienced the decades that have unfolded. Despite some stock characters, she still manages to write about it all with the heartbreaking intimacy that I love about her writing... this quote:
"God's carotid burst open on the new border between India and Pakistan and a million people died of hatred. Neighbours turned on each other as though they'd never known each other, never been to each other's weddings, never sung each other's songs."
The way she wrote about what Kashmiris feel, go through, were parts where I felt most touched.. nobody really goes into that level of human understanding where you try to understand what violence can do to a community, how they regard each other, how it affects the way they might trust or view each other, their own history or survivability. How that level of violence and trauma affects the deepest level of human affection and relational experience.
Of course on the other side of it all is that it can be so chilling how she writes about the mechanical cruelty of the 'right', the way they clean up the street after a massacre-
“The post-massacre protocol was quick and efficient- perfected by practice. Within an hour the dead bodies had been removed to the morgue in the Police Control Room, and the wounded to hospital. The street was hosed down, the blood directed into the open drains. Shops reopened. Normalcy was declared. "
the way they systematically torture and kill. The way they practice their lies so easily. The way the deaths of people are rewritten in official reports. Think I'll never forget that part of the book where they made one Kashmiri man try to bring out another severely injured Kashmiri man they were chasing who had hidden in sewage. For one a half hours they had looked at each other until the suspect died there, in sewage, and then he was reported to be a terrorist/militia member the authorities had captured in a supposedly tense face-off. It was these kind of episodes that really revealed the cruelty and inhumanity so much, & it was parts like this where I the aforementioned heartbreaking exposition on Kashmiris really tore through me:
“Those eyes that stared at us for one and a half hours – they were forgiving eyes, understanding eyes. We Kashmiris do not need to speak to each other any more in order to understand each other. We do terrible things to each other, we wound and betray and kill each other, but we understand each other.” show less
Sometimes it did feel like she forgot the novel a bit and she goes off to talk about the politics. The density of it meant that I was acutely aware that there's a lot I will not fully understand because I am not living in India or fully immersed in their politics, life there, nor experienced the decades that have unfolded. Despite some stock characters, she still manages to write about it all with the heartbreaking intimacy that I love about her writing... this quote:
"God's carotid burst open on the new border between India and Pakistan and a million people died of hatred. Neighbours turned on each other as though they'd never known each other, never been to each other's weddings, never sung each other's songs."
The way she wrote about what Kashmiris feel, go through, were parts where I felt most touched.. nobody really goes into that level of human understanding where you try to understand what violence can do to a community, how they regard each other, how it affects the way they might trust or view each other, their own history or survivability. How that level of violence and trauma affects the deepest level of human affection and relational experience.
Of course on the other side of it all is that it can be so chilling how she writes about the mechanical cruelty of the 'right', the way they clean up the street after a massacre-
“The post-massacre protocol was quick and efficient- perfected by practice. Within an hour the dead bodies had been removed to the morgue in the Police Control Room, and the wounded to hospital. The street was hosed down, the blood directed into the open drains. Shops reopened. Normalcy was declared. "
the way they systematically torture and kill. The way they practice their lies so easily. The way the deaths of people are rewritten in official reports. Think I'll never forget that part of the book where they made one Kashmiri man try to bring out another severely injured Kashmiri man they were chasing who had hidden in sewage. For one a half hours they had looked at each other until the suspect died there, in sewage, and then he was reported to be a terrorist/militia member the authorities had captured in a supposedly tense face-off. It was these kind of episodes that really revealed the cruelty and inhumanity so much, & it was parts like this where I the aforementioned heartbreaking exposition on Kashmiris really tore through me:
“Those eyes that stared at us for one and a half hours – they were forgiving eyes, understanding eyes. We Kashmiris do not need to speak to each other any more in order to understand each other. We do terrible things to each other, we wound and betray and kill each other, but we understand each other.” show less
By standards of a conventional novel, this is a failure. It is one of the most interesting failures I've read. It's a sprawling, ambitious novel with no plot. Many of the elements of modern India--Dalit and hijra rights, the occupation of Kashmir, tribal land enclosures, Hindu fundamentalism, Maoist uprisings--are here. It's alive on every page.
This is bound to piss off far-right patriots and nationalists of every stripe. It will probably also piss off people who read solely for entertainment and need a beginning, middle, and an end.
There are some reservations I have about this and her politics. Maybe my quibble is that she doesn't go far enough. I could have done without the "one baby to unite them all" thread. I'm guessing that this show more is what Roy and her editors feel they have to give readers who demand some sense of "closure". So that's my biggest issue with the book: at heart it's about radical politics, but it acquiesces to conservative notions of art and what a novel should be, maybe? I'm not sure.
But if this is what failed fiction looks like--attentive to the dispossessed, the marginalised, and the oppressed; fractured, broken, and sprawling--then I'll take it over polite, well-mannered, perfectly-executed fiction any day. show less
This is bound to piss off far-right patriots and nationalists of every stripe. It will probably also piss off people who read solely for entertainment and need a beginning, middle, and an end.
There are some reservations I have about this and her politics. Maybe my quibble is that she doesn't go far enough. I could have done without the "one baby to unite them all" thread. I'm guessing that this show more is what Roy and her editors feel they have to give readers who demand some sense of "closure". So that's my biggest issue with the book: at heart it's about radical politics, but it acquiesces to conservative notions of art and what a novel should be, maybe? I'm not sure.
But if this is what failed fiction looks like--attentive to the dispossessed, the marginalised, and the oppressed; fractured, broken, and sprawling--then I'll take it over polite, well-mannered, perfectly-executed fiction any day. show less
Naively , as it now seems , I expected her next fiction to be insulated from the political turn her life has taken since God of Small Things. This book is nothing but political , from snide remarks on the current Hindu political echelons (strangely all non Hindu are either spared a mention or are let off with just small remarks) to the tragedy that is Kashmir, it encompasses everything that is caused , supposedly , by the Hindus .
Her way of writing is still beautiful and enchanting and a lot similar to her previous fiction . Whereas , God of Small Things was a dirge and every page reminded you of that ; this book starts from fiery mockery, moves to despair and ends in hope. However, what this book lacks is a story . The writer has show more aptly said it is "everything" and the book has everything but a story .
I have read a lot of books dealing with human rights violation and war torn countries , however this book will be different for me cause here I am not a third party reader who can afford humanitarian emotions behind the shield of their third partiness . Here , I am the villain , my choices , my birth is causing innumerable tragedy to people pan country and I am supposed to suck it up and accept it . I am the priveleged one and my struggle does not require mention.
Coming back to the story or the semblance of story this book provides , I don't get why did she use such characters to project her story. I feel Anjum , her identity , her life and her guest house was wasted, this sure was a character with a lot of potential who was relegated to a secondary position. Kashmir , I have no complains about. The writer calls mainland India as occupants (by the time the book ended I was convinced we in fact are the occupants) and shows the struggle of the Kashmiris (Pakistan , the terrorist all are spared critical analysis) with finesse yet she shows how the Kashmiris are clueless as to what to do next if this goal is accomplished. I don't get why was Tilo's angle introduced . The character sure is attractive. Why did Musa selfishly bring Tilo into the entire mess. The sad ending of Amrik Singh and the way Biplob Dasgupta was going , seemed to be like a childish dream of the writer . The very thought that the wrongs that you did to us will haunt you down seemed utopic.
There were some good parts like Dr Azad Bharatiya and the brood of misfits which gave an eery sense of beauty .
There were some thorns that still pricks - her selective choice of presenting facts . The way a lot of vital actions were ignored or brushed under the carpet (actions that would show negatively on the religion she is portraying) .
I wish years from now this book will either be classified in the likes of Animal Farm or will be discarded as a propaganda. But, I don't think this book except the glossy writing deserves such thoughts.
In short , this book is a feast to beautiful writing but lacks cohesion or is a high budget movie that has good looking locales and actors but lacks a strong story. show less
Her way of writing is still beautiful and enchanting and a lot similar to her previous fiction . Whereas , God of Small Things was a dirge and every page reminded you of that ; this book starts from fiery mockery, moves to despair and ends in hope. However, what this book lacks is a story . The writer has show more aptly said it is "everything" and the book has everything but a story .
I have read a lot of books dealing with human rights violation and war torn countries , however this book will be different for me cause here I am not a third party reader who can afford humanitarian emotions behind the shield of their third partiness . Here , I am the villain , my choices , my birth is causing innumerable tragedy to people pan country and I am supposed to suck it up and accept it . I am the priveleged one and my struggle does not require mention.
Coming back to the story or the semblance of story this book provides , I don't get why did she use such characters to project her story. I feel Anjum , her identity , her life and her guest house was wasted, this sure was a character with a lot of potential who was relegated to a secondary position. Kashmir , I have no complains about. The writer calls mainland India as occupants (by the time the book ended I was convinced we in fact are the occupants) and shows the struggle of the Kashmiris (Pakistan , the terrorist all are spared critical analysis) with finesse yet she shows how the Kashmiris are clueless as to what to do next if this goal is accomplished. I don't get why was Tilo's angle introduced . The character sure is attractive. Why did Musa selfishly bring Tilo into the entire mess. The sad ending of Amrik Singh and the way Biplob Dasgupta was going , seemed to be like a childish dream of the writer . The very thought that the wrongs that you did to us will haunt you down seemed utopic.
There were some good parts like Dr Azad Bharatiya and the brood of misfits which gave an eery sense of beauty .
There were some thorns that still pricks - her selective choice of presenting facts . The way a lot of vital actions were ignored or brushed under the carpet (actions that would show negatively on the religion she is portraying) .
I wish years from now this book will either be classified in the likes of Animal Farm or will be discarded as a propaganda. But, I don't think this book except the glossy writing deserves such thoughts.
In short , this book is a feast to beautiful writing but lacks cohesion or is a high budget movie that has good looking locales and actors but lacks a strong story. show less
This year's Man Booker longlist announcement is due in a couple of days, so now seemed a good time to catch up with the only one I missed from last year's list. I was deterred by the high price of the hardback edition and some pretty negative friend reviews, which lowered my expectations to the point where I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
As Roy's first novel in 20 years it is hardly surprising that it has a lot of ground to cover. So yes, it is a little messy and perhaps unfocused, but she has an instinctive sympathy for India's many and diverse outsiders (hermaphrodites, Kashmiri Muslims, untouchables and unmarried mothers are among its array of unlikely characters). There is plenty of humour mixed with the darker show more stories, and I was reminded a little of early Rushdie, particularly [b:Shame|4831|Shame|Salman Rushdie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363581804s/4831.jpg|855015].
It is now a little late to talk of where I would rank this in last year's longlist and some of them have faded from memory a little, but I would say 7th or 8th, and only as low as that because there were so many books I loved on that list, and in weaker years it might well have deserved a shortlisting. show less
As Roy's first novel in 20 years it is hardly surprising that it has a lot of ground to cover. So yes, it is a little messy and perhaps unfocused, but she has an instinctive sympathy for India's many and diverse outsiders (hermaphrodites, Kashmiri Muslims, untouchables and unmarried mothers are among its array of unlikely characters). There is plenty of humour mixed with the darker show more stories, and I was reminded a little of early Rushdie, particularly [b:Shame|4831|Shame|Salman Rushdie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363581804s/4831.jpg|855015].
It is now a little late to talk of where I would rank this in last year's longlist and some of them have faded from memory a little, but I would say 7th or 8th, and only as low as that because there were so many books I loved on that list, and in weaker years it might well have deserved a shortlisting. show less
People who flocked to read this novel because of their love for The God of Small Things were most likely up for a surprise. Because instead a second part to Roy's first novel, or something along the same lines, what we have in The Ministry can be best summarized as a novel that reflects very richly the 20 years that have passed since her debut novel was published. 20 years that are filled with investigative journalism that has brought her to publish works like like Capitalism: A Ghost Story and Walking With The Comrades; work that has shown Roy's commitment to unraveling the intricate Indian society and its many failures, and the evolution that the country has seen during the last decades towards becoming a Hindu fascist state.
While show more Ministry is a work of fiction with a plethora of characters, its historical context is not, and that's probably where the richness of the book lies. Because the different character arcs that entangle through the novel are nothing out of the ordinary -- however fascinating each character's story might be, there's nothing in their life experiences that one couldn't possibly find in today's India, and that's both eye-opening and terrifying all the same. From the place of Hijras in Indian society, the discrimination of the Muslim population --specially since 9/11-- and the never-ending conflict in Kashmir, they all find place in this novel and give depth to characters that otherwise we might never get a chance to come to know.
So reader beware, this is not The God of Small Things; but if you put expectations of the sort aside and approach this book with patience and a bit of a stomach, you will find many fascinating stories that are totally worth reading and re-reading again. show less
While show more Ministry is a work of fiction with a plethora of characters, its historical context is not, and that's probably where the richness of the book lies. Because the different character arcs that entangle through the novel are nothing out of the ordinary -- however fascinating each character's story might be, there's nothing in their life experiences that one couldn't possibly find in today's India, and that's both eye-opening and terrifying all the same. From the place of Hijras in Indian society, the discrimination of the Muslim population --specially since 9/11-- and the never-ending conflict in Kashmir, they all find place in this novel and give depth to characters that otherwise we might never get a chance to come to know.
So reader beware, this is not The God of Small Things; but if you put expectations of the sort aside and approach this book with patience and a bit of a stomach, you will find many fascinating stories that are totally worth reading and re-reading again. show less
When Aftab was born he was a hermaphrodite and on adulthood morphed into Anjum. After living with other Hijra, Anjum finally sets up home in a cemetery and builds a community of waifs and strays like her. Woven around this tale is the bigger story of pot-partition India and particularly the politics of Kashmir, that northern province and Islamic homeland disputed by India and Pakistan.
This is a huge novel which, in similar vein to Roy's debut 'The God of Small Things', manages to be both detailed in meticulous storytelling and vast in scope. This is book which demands time spending on it and I think I will also need to re-read it to take in everything. However Roy is a great writer and she is able to tell a magical tale yet get across show more those huge political statements that are so close to her heart and which have been her focus for the last twenty years. show less
This is a huge novel which, in similar vein to Roy's debut 'The God of Small Things', manages to be both detailed in meticulous storytelling and vast in scope. This is book which demands time spending on it and I think I will also need to re-read it to take in everything. However Roy is a great writer and she is able to tell a magical tale yet get across show more those huge political statements that are so close to her heart and which have been her focus for the last twenty years. show less
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This review gives order and intelligence to the spectrum of bad reviews about this mysterious book. This book contains a secret code of mystical nature, and must be read several times. Attainment is as good as the trouble inflicted in the lifetime of the protagonist....Read on
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Author Information
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Suzanna Arundhati Roy, 1961 - Suzanna Roy was born November 24, 1961. Her parents divorced and she lived with her mother Mary Roy, a social activist, in Aymanam. Her mother ran an informal school named Corpus Christi and it was there Roy developed her intellectual abilities, free from the rules of formal education. At the age of 16, she left home show more and lived on her own in a squatter's colony in Delhi. She went six years without seeing her mother. She attended Delhi School of Architecture where she met and married fellow student Gerard Da Cunha. Neither had a great interest in architecture so they quit school and went to Goa. They stayed there for seven months and returned broke. Their marriage lasted only four years. Roy had taken a job at the National Institute of Urban Affairs and, while cycling down a road; film director Pradeep Krishen offered her a small role as a tribal bimbo in Massey Saab. She then received a scholarship to study the restoration of monuments in Italy. During her eight months in Italy, she realized she was a writer. Now married to Krishen, they planned a 26-episode television epic called Banyan Tree. They didn't shoot enough footage for more than four episodes so the serial was scrapped. She wrote the screenplay for the film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones and Electric Moon. Her next piece caused controversy. It was an article that criticized Shekar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, which was about Phoolan Devi. She accused Kapur of misrepresenting Devi and it eventually became a court case. Afterwards, finished with film, she concentrated on her writing, which became the novel "A God of Small Things." It is based on what it was like growing up in Kerala. The novel contains mild eroticism and again, controversy found Roy having a public interest petition filed to remove the last chapter because of the description of a sexual act. It took Roy five years to write "A God of Small Things" and was released April 4, 1997 in Delhi. It received the Booker prize in London in 1997 and has topped the best-seller lists around the world. Roy is the first non-expatriate Indian author and the first Indian woman to win the Booker prize. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
- Original title
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
- Original publication date
- 2017-06
- Important places
- Kashmir
- Important events
- Kashmir Conflict
- Epigraph
- I mean, it's all a matter of your heart...
Nâzim Hikmet
In what language does rain fall / over tormented cities?
Pablo Neruda
Death flies in, thin bureaucrat, from the plains--
--Agha Shahid Ali
Then, as she had already died four or five times, the apartment had remained available for a drama more serious than her own death.
--Jean Genet
And they would not believe me precisely because they would know that what I said was true.
--James Baldwin
then there was the changing of the seasons. "This is also a journey," M said, "and they can't take it away from us."
--Nadezhda Madelstam - Dedication
- To,
The Unconsoled - First words
- At magic hour, when the sun has gone but the light has not, armies of flying foxes unhinge themselves from the Banyan trees in the old graveyard and drift across the city like smoke.
I
WHERE DO OLD BIRDS GO TO DIE?
She lived in the graveyard like a tree. - Quotations
- The moment I saw her, a part of me walked out of my body and wrapped itself around her. And there is still remains. (Page 256)
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Weil Miss Jebeen, Miss Udaya Jebeen gekommen ist.
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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