Mother Mary Comes to Me

★★★★★★★★½☆ 8.5/10

288 pages

What’s it about?

Arundhati Roy is a writer who lives in India. She won the Booker prize in 1997 for her novel The God of Small Things. Roy has gone on to write one other novel and many works of non-fiction. She continues to live in India. This is her memoir.

What did it make me think about?

Rebels.

Should I read it?

Well, Arundhati Roy is fascinating and like many interesting people she had a very complicated relationship with her mecurial mother. This book chronicles her life and her relationship with both parents —especially with Mary Roy. "When it came to me, Mrs. Roy taught me how to think, then raged against my thoughts. She taught me to be free and raged against my freedom. She taught me to write and resented the author that I became." I found her insights into India just as compelling as her family relationships. What a life she has lived!

A passage I marked

"Fiction is that strange, smoky thing that writers don't entirely own, even if they think they do. Where does it come from? Our past, our present, our reading, our imagination- yes. But perhaps from premonitions of our future, too?"