The God of Small Things

I've finished the first of my books from my new winter reading project: The God of Small Things,  by Arundhati Roy.  It was an entirely different read than pretty much anything I've read recently.  To describe the book in one word, I would choose "bleak".  The whole story seems, to me, to be lacking in any (I'm pausing while I search for an appropriate word here) sense of "goodness".  The characters are all definitely "human" - using the term to mean petty, mean, and generally selfish - without any of them seeming to have any redeeming qualities.  Perhaps I've read too many romance and fantasy novels, where the characters, even the "bad guys" generally have at least some sort of redeeming quality, but I found this book astoundingly depressing!

All of that said, it was an interesting read, although at times a little confusing, as Ms. Roy moved back and forth between the "present" and the "past", and sometimes it was hard to tell when a given event was happening;  but this also kept me interested in the book.  You had to read the whole thing to see the whole picture she was painting.

I'm not sure if I would recommend this to read or not - it's not a comfortable book to read, but it was intruiging.

Now, on the the second book - I think I'll read "Eat, Pray, Love", by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I haven't seen the movie, so I would request no spoilers on the story line etc., but, as always, I would welcome anyone who wants to read along with me!