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Title: The Cost of Living by ARUNDHATI ROY ISBN: 0-375-75614-0 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 12 October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (16 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: very compelling writing
Comment: The Cost of Living is the second book by Arundhati Roy, but is her first non fiction book. Her first book was the phenomenally good novel The God of Small Things . The Cost of Living is a collection of two essays.
The first is "The Greater Common Good" and deals with the building of the Big Dams in India (Roy is native to India and still lives there). Roy writes about some of the politics involved in the building of the dams and makes clear enormity of the human cost and the lives lost and displaced. Roy is vehemently against this ongoing project, and while this essay only presents one side of the argument, it is still a well crafted and well written and emotionally compelling argument.
The second essay is "The End of Imagination". This essay was written in 1998 shortly after India had revealed that it was doing nuclear testing. Apparently, the party line was that nuclear weaponry = patriotism = Hinduism = India. By this logic, any Indian who was not in favor of the testing was also against India itself. Flawed logic, and Roy takes the government to task focusing on nuclear testing when so much of the nation is starving, uneducated, and needs true assistance. Roy's arguments against nuclear testing are wide ranging. She discusses the fact that most of the nation is uneducated and does not know what it means to have nuclear weapons and what the negatives are. She writes against the government, lining its pockets at the expense of the nation. She writes against the United States for introducing the nuclear game to the world. The biggest loser in this game, Roy believes, is India. India believes itself to be a world player, but Roy explains the national delusion and why this is simply not the case.
This is a short, but interesting book. Roy is an excellent writer and while her thoughts skirt the extreme, she writes with a passion that cannot be ignored.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brave & Universal - not just for Indians!
Comment: Arundhati Roy has a wonderful way of writing. This woman could write about absolutely anything at all and I think I will still enjoy it. She has a naturally earnest free flowing poetic yet precise language. She has the ability to choose her words so well as to get the exact picture or impression she wants us to see. Truly she paints with her words.
Roy used her amazing writing skills and sensitivity so very well in her fantastic work, The God of Small Things. Here she uses the same skills and more aiming primarily at her own people asking them to re-examine 2 strongly held views. As non-Indian I thoroughly enjoyed both essays of this book.
The first essay deals with the construction of river dams in India since the independence in 1947. Roy set about in a very systematic way to establish the true cost of the dams in terms of human suffering. She focused on one project in particular but her research was wide ranging and indeed she had to dig into several completed projects to establish true benefits and costs. Roy's central message is that the price paid by an oppressed native minority is way too high and the alleged benefits to India are low. Where this essay is truly universal, at least applicable to so many third world countries in the post colonial era, is in its research for a definition for her own country, identity and common good and modes of opposition to this common good! Roy was also highly unimpressed with the western approach to 3rd world development projects but her approach was a times too general and sweeping.
The Second article, probably far more universal, is the nuclear weapons article. Roy's analysis of the policies of the Congress party and the BJP nationalists leading to the 1998 explosions shows great insight and clarity of mind. She categorically opposes the bomb as weapon of peace and she totally rejects the overwhelming support of her people for the bomb and the Indian nuclear tests. Having traveled to India shortly after the Indian and Pakistani explosions I was horrified with the attitude of "our bomb was better than theirs" and this is the first work that I personally have seen that takes on this subject with such force. Roy's opposition leaves no prisoners behind. It is hard to overstate the courage of Roy on this issue given the level of tension between Hindu India and Islam within India itself and across the borders.
I strongly recommend this wonderfully written book to anyone interested in issues related to regional conflicts and postcolonial development.
Rating: 5
Summary: Powerful
Comment: This is the first book by Roy that I read, and my favorite. In comparison to The God of Small Things, that's saying a lot. The first essay is the most powerful and clear explanation I have ever read anywhere about the failings of organisations such as the WTO; however, it is not only an attack on international financial institutions. It also discusses the abuses that occur on a national and local level in conjunction with the work of international groups. I suggest this book to anyone who is having trouble understanding the objections to globalization and the WTO.
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Title: Power Politics by Arundhati Roy ISBN: 0896086682 Publisher: South End Press Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: War Talk by Arundhati Roy ISBN: 0896087247 Publisher: South End Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy ISBN: 0060977493 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Come September by Arundhati Roy ISBN: 1902593804 Publisher: AK Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.98 |
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Title: The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy by Arundhati Roy, David Barsamian ISBN: 0896087107 Publisher: South End Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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