- Paperback: 156 pages
- Publisher: South End Press (15 Sep 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0896087271
- ISBN-13: 978-0896087279
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 14.1 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,248,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
‘Though she be but little, she is fierce. Roy is witty and moving, and her passion is focused and mordant. She is a great modern rhetorician, treading the boards of a world stage.’ The Times
‘Roy is excellent at putting across the rational arguments and web of facts that are necessary to back up her opinions. She has a good command of both the big picture and the small and allows people to speak for themselves, pushing those who are often forgotten into the foreground of the debate.’ Natasha Walter, Guardian
‘Roy should be required reading.’ Marie Claire
‘Roy is always passionately intense. Her controversial views on terrorism are single-minded and uncompromising. She compels you to have an opinion on matters she feels are important.’ Observer
‘Roy is to be congratulated for a real and personally risky political engagement at a time when many Western writers of her celebrity can respond to world events only from a debilitating aesthetic distance.’ Time Out
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.Review
'Though she be but little, she is fierce. Roy is witty and moving, and her passion is focused and mordant. She is a great modern rhetorician, treading the boards of a world stage.' The Times 'Roy is excellent at putting across the rational arguments and web of facts that are necessary to back up her opinions. She has a good command of both the big picture and the small and allows people to speak for themselves, pushing those who are often forgotten into the foreground of the debate.' Natasha Walter, Guardian 'Roy should be required reading.' Marie Claire 'Roy is always passionately intense. Her controversial views on terrorism are single-minded and uncompromising. She compels you to have an opinion on matters she feels are important.' Observer 'Roy is to be congratulated for a real and personally risky political engagement at a time when many Western writers of her celebrity can respond to world events only from a debilitating aesthetic distance.' Time Out
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked this book up in a cheap bookshop in Chatham as something to read on the train... it turns out that what I bought was one of the most thought-provoking and intelligent books I have ever read. Not only that, but Roy has the rare quality of an emotive writing style. Both beautiful and profoundly insightful- a must read!
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For many years I've heard much about Arundhati Roy but I've never picked up one of her books until recently. The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire was being featured on the shelves of the Oxford Book Store, Park Street in Kolkata - India when I picked it up and started browsing through it. The book captured me immediately. As an Indian born and brought up outside India, over the last few years I have started taking a greater interest in my mother country. This book at first glance seemed to be a bit of an eye opener about some of the pre-conceptions I have about India and the what I believe to be trouble because of what I’ve read or been told by the mass media. This book proved to be an antidote to what mass media had been feeding me about "India Shining". Roy does not mince her words and highlights the many injustices of governments around the world upon their people, though in this book her zeal is concentrated upon the injustices of the USA and India. From plight of those living in flood zones caused by massive river dam projects, to farmer committing suicide because of financial dept to the way western governments, notably the USA, is controlling power, resources and trade around the world, The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire starts to give the lay man an inside track on apparent “truths” which today’s people who been lead to believe is the absolute truth by our governments.
This book is composed of a series of essays and speeches given by Roy between 2002 and 2004. Detailed references in an appendix at the back of the book offer the reader extensive avenues of further reading and each essay is contextualized and it's date and location catalogues in a second appendix.
I feel this book is required reading for anyone who's blinded by mass media about India's current feel good factor. It's a real eye opener. The book leads the reader on to a wealth of extra reading material, though at times a number of the essays do overlap and the book starts to get a little repetitive. But that's the nature of public speaking. You don't always come up with different things for each individual speech you give to the public. Indeed, you probably would want to spread the same messages the world over and this is apparent in the book.
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Roy separates the political FACTS, MYTHS and TRUTH about the world we live in post Sept 11. Her words tug at the hearts of all those that still believe in the principles of "satya" Truth and "Ahimsa"- non-violence. She remind us that that we are "standing on the shoulders of giants"[think about Gandhi,MLK Jnr,and Mandela next time you vote].
And lest we forget it - there's so much more yet to do to safeguard the freedoms and civil rights of people across the world. Roy is without a doubt, passionate, poetic and powerful.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A must-read for anyone with an interest in what's really happening in...
Arundhati Roy must be one of the most inspiring and thought provoking writers of the 21st century. Personally she is my favourite writer of all time. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Rosie
Simply fantastic.
It's an easy read, yet full of energy, criticism, and hope. She writes in a manner which is very captivating and least dry, which is tough with subjects like the ones she touches... Read more
Published on 11 April 2010 by Psimikakis Chalkokondylis
Brave, intelligent writing.
I wish there were more thinkers in this world like Arundhati Roy. This book is a collection of the Indian scholar and activist's speeches and addresses, in which she discusses... Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2010 by Weshimulo
"Overall: an Excellent and thought-provoking book that has great...
I come across this book in 2004, when I received it as "freebie" from New Statesman magazine. Instantly, on reading it, I was hooked with Arundhati Roy's writing style of being... Read more
Published on 19 May 2009 by Matloub Husayn-Ali-Khan
The obscene accumulation of power
power
The key notions in Arundhati Roy's texts are also the key elements in the history of mankind: power and powerlessness. Read more
The key notions in Arundhati Roy's texts are also the key elements in the history of mankind: power and powerlessness. Read more
Published on 1 April 2009 by Luc REYNAERT
ONLY 145 PAGES
Excellent collection of thought-provoking essays
But please don't be misled, this edition is flimsy length-wise only 145 pages and large typeface at that, NOT the 240 pages... Read more
But please don't be misled, this edition is flimsy length-wise only 145 pages and large typeface at that, NOT the 240 pages... Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2008 by H. Evans
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