The historical background of this challenging, beautifully written novel is the Kashmir Insurgency, a most violent time in Indian history. (A history I knew nothing about.)(My bad.)

Arundhati Roy tries to spread her arms wide enough to encompass everyone, all who suffered and fought in this conflict. She has presented a wave of memorable characters, all with his or her own fascinating back story. At first, it's hard to know what some of these stories have to do with one other, but then it does all come together in the end. This is not a linear story; Roy does take us for a pretzel-ride, twisting in and out of people's lives, going back and forth in time to take in the view from different vantage points.

If the novel seems messy, then it would help mirror the times. Personally, I do wish the author had arranged her work into shorter chapters. However, this is not meant to be a loud criticism. I found her characters memorable, and was particularly fascinated that hijras, or transgender people, found their own place to take care of each other within their society.

A good historical novel always teaches me something, and I feel that The Ministry of Utmost Happiness made me aware not only of an important, violent struggle, but created an exquisite window into the humanity behind it. We all read about deaths and tragedies in our news feeds, but seldom get any sense of what is happening to individual people, what it is to survive during dangerous times. Four of the lives we follow are people who know each other from school, never forget one another, yet play different roles in this history. The way Roy kneads these complicated relationships into this story makes her work seem all the more real.

I am very glad to have read this, it was good for me.