{"id":42666,"date":"2017-09-27T11:14:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=42666"},"modified":"2017-09-26T11:13:17","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T15:13:17","slug":"ministry-utmost-happiness-arundhati-roy-library-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/ministry-utmost-happiness-arundhati-roy-library-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-42306\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Ministry-of-Utmost-Happiness-by-Arundhati-Roy-in-BookDragon-571x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"571\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Ministry-of-Utmost-Happiness-by-Arundhati-Roy-in-BookDragon-571x800.jpg 571w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Ministry-of-Utmost-Happiness-by-Arundhati-Roy-in-BookDragon.jpg 610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px\" \/>Arundhati Roy\u2019s 1997 Man Booker Prize-winning debut, <em>The God of Small Things<\/em>, made her an international superstar. Twenty years later, Delhi-based Roy is an activist power house \u2013 feted and feared \u2013 with an expansive list of nonfiction credits; her second novel should placate her besotted groupies who made <em>Ministry<\/em> a best seller even before its publication date.<\/p>\n<p>Roy\u2019s most ardent fans will want to indulge in the audio version, as Roy narrates with her softly accented, rolling voice, adding another layer of intimacy not achievable on the printed page (or screen). The story is dually centered on Anjum, born intersex, raised a boy, who in adulthood is a woman whose greatest joy (and heartbreak) is motherhood; and Tilo, an enigmatic wanderer whose emotional entanglements become life-and death challenges.\u00a0\u201cWhat is the acceptable amount of blood for good literature?\u201d Tilo reads in her journal-like book from her past. Indeed, happiness remains elusive, while violence is too often mundane.<\/p>\n<p>The narrative meanders nonlinearly with multiple spurs, beginning and ending in a graveyard. Roy\u2019s socio-political work has clearly informed her fiction: historical responsibility, separatism, poverty, gender politics, terrorism, societal degradation, and more \u2013 they are all here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: At more than 16 hours, <em>Ministry<\/em> requires commitment and patience, but eager readers will demand access at libraries nationwide.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/bookverdict.com\/details.xqy?uri=Product2017-09-01-1124479.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Audio,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, September 1, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arundhati Roy\u2019s 1997 Man Booker Prize-winning debut, The God of Small Things, made her an international superstar. Twenty years later, Delhi-based Roy is an activist power house \u2013 feted and feared \u2013 with an expansive list of nonfiction credits; her second novel should placate her&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,52,6535,17],"tags":[4270,84,6608,22,10,51,50,70,13,7475,129,28,45],"class_list":["post-42666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-indian","category-repost","category-south-asian","tag-arundhati-roy","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-civil-rights","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-lgbtqia","tag-library-journal","tag-love","tag-ministry-of-utmost-happiness","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-politics","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/ministry-utmost-happiness-arundhati-roy-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arundhati Roy\u2019s 1997 Man Booker Prize-winning debut, The God of Small Things, made her an international superstar. Twenty years later, Delhi-based Roy is an activist power house \u2013 feted and feared \u2013 with an expansive list of nonfiction credits; her second novel should placate her...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/ministry-utmost-happiness-arundhati-roy-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-27T15:14:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-26T15:13:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Ministry-of-Utmost-Happiness-by-Arundhati-Roy-in-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"610\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"854\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/ministry-utmost-happiness-arundhati-roy-library-journal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","og_description":"Arundhati Roy\u2019s 1997 Man Booker Prize-winning debut, The God of Small Things, made her an international superstar. 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