Book review: Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundhati Roy

Roy`s memoir is an artful blend of a tribute to her mother, a slow deep nod to the turbulent relationship she had with `Mrs Roy,` and a walkthrough of her own life and times till date, giving us an understanding of just who Mrs Roy`s daughter became.

What do we know of Mary Roy? That she was known to the larger world (to her chagrin, we find from this book) as the Booker-winner Arundhati Roy`s mother. That she – possibly — was the inspiration for Ammu who- will- not- be -crushed -by- circumstances in The God Of Small Things. That she took her brother all the way to the highest court in the land, fighting for her share of the family property, in the process changing the inheritance laws for Christian women across Kerala. That she was without doubt, an OG braveheart.

Well, this is largely the Mary Roy we come across in the pages of Mother Mary Comes to Me. But we also meet another Mary Roy, one who compulsively inflicts much physical and emotional abuse – and damage – on her little boy and littler girl. We wince as we see them absorb all the rage and beatings, lose their self-confidence along the way. We watch the girl run away from this oppressive home and oppressive mother to craft a life for herself, and if she`s something of a Wild Child along the way, we understand. We watch in dismay as the boy stays back to continue taking all the abuse. We – sort of – understand what drives Mrs Roy to be what she is, to do what she does. But can we condone her actions?

What we find is that her children, now grown up, the boy having made good in his career, the girl attaining undreamt of success in her line of work, can and do forgive their mother. They are not likely to ever forget what was visited on them, but they seem to strike a deal with themselves about shrugging off things, about moving on. And being Indian daughters and sons of less- than- perfect mothers ourselves, we understand that, too.

While God of Small Things made us ache for the twins Rahel and Estha, made us want to spirit them away someplace safe, Mother Mary, even though it was quite moving in parts (the parts where Mrs Roy`s children develop their coping strategy, Ms Roy`s account of Kashmir as well as her very real grief at her mother`s passing ), has us sympathising with the writer…. if one is on the same page as her, of course.

The language is kept simple but each simple word has been polished till it emits a smooth glister. There is humour to leaven matters but the author`s softly delivered searing, scathing sarcasm falls like acid on the page.

Be careful, we want to tell her, it`s a dangerous world out there. But then we realise that few know the dangers out there as well as Arundhati Roy does.