As I was approaching the end of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness I was wondering whether Arundhati Roy would be able to tie the whole superb enterprise together. It seemed to me that providing the reader a convincing, satisfying ending would be evidence that she has done more than write magnificent polemic - though that's a key attribute of the text. In the event I think the conclusion of the novel is one of its strongest aspects, and reminded me of what I have come to see as a fundamental strength of The God of Small Things.
Without giving too much away, the powerful, unlikely warmth of the ending is what took this reader by happy surprise. I was reminded in an odd way of Dickens and the so-called sentimentality of his novels. That aspect of Dickens is seen by some - usually academics - as so easy to criticise, yet seems to me central to his genius. I think the same is true of Roy.
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