The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
by Arundhati Roy
A rainy first day of my summer vacation, so I decided to
finish reading The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
by Arundhati Roy. The book is set in
India over a period of a few decades. I
can’t say I loved the book as the stories developed slowly with lots of new
characters interspersed throughout. Additionally, the two main characters intersect
eventually through the war and the ensuing destruction that occurred in India
during the late 1980s to early 2000s.
While the stories were slow in terms of action and significant details,
some of the characters and their lives piqued my interest. There are two main characters: Aftab, the son
of a Muslim couple, who was born with male and female body parts; and Tilo, a
female architect who gets caught in the intelligence service of India and the
leader’s heinous attacks on anyone in his way.
The reader learns first-hand the impact that living in the Middle East
(Iraq, Iran, Syria) has on the common people.
One of the more interesting stories involves Aftab changing his name to
Anjum and transitioning to female and a ‘hijra” (an intersex person in the
Indian culture). Anjum’s transition,
life within the hijra community, becoming a mother, and attempting to find
happiness in a world that is full of destruction is her
challenge. Tilo’s journey includes
falling in love, escaping the violence and destruction around her, and arriving
to a better understanding of her role in the life of others. Lots of people
come into and leave her life throughout the story. It was twenty years between books for Roy, and
she clearly utilized a good amount of historical moments in time here, including
battles that occurred throughout the Middle East. An important story in better understanding
the devastation that so many experienced – I just didn’t connect with the intermingling
of the various stories.
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