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The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy

arundhati roy david barsamian

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A skillful interviewer can reveal aspects of a writer’s voice in simple yet telling ways. As a novelist, Arundhati Roy is known for her lush language and intricate structure. As a political essayist, her prose is searching and fierce. All of these qualities shine through in the interviews collected by David Barsamian for Globalizing Converations with Arundhati Roy . New and devoted readers will find that these exchanges, recorded between 2001 and 2003, add to their appreciation of Roy’s previous work. Whether discussing her childhood or the problems of translation in a multilingual society, Roy and Barsamian, the producer and host of Alternative Radio, engage in a lively and accessible manner. Speaking candidly and casually, Roy describes her participation in a demonstration against the Indian dam program as, "absolutely fantastic." She jokes that her Supreme Court charge for "corrupting public morality"—in the case of her novel The God of Small Things—should have been changed to "further corrupting public morality." She calls on her training as an architect to explain what she means by the "physics of power." Like a house of cards, she argues that "unfettered power . . . cannot go berserk like this and expect to hold it all together." Roy has been acclaimed for her courage (Salman Rushdie) and her eloquence ( Kirkus Reviews ), and her writing has been described as "a banquet for the senses" ( Newsweek ). She has found a readership among fiction enthusiasts and political activists. Globalizing Dissent captures Roy speaking one-on-one to her audience, revealing her intense and wide-ranging intellect, her very personal voice, and her opinion on momentous political events. Arundhati Roy ’s novel The God of Small Things was awarded the Booker Prize in 1997. She is the recipient of the 2002 Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom.

178 pages, Paperback

First published February 1,2003

This edition

Format
178 pages, Paperback
Published
March 1, 2004 by South End Press
ISBN
9780896087101
ASIN
0896087107
Language
English

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 15 votes)
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15 reviews All reviews
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distortiondear
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I think one of the most important points in this book that I came away with was Roy's assertion that the 'farther away' decision making takes place in a community or a country (i.e. on a higher bureaucratic level), the more dehumanized the process becomes - leading to the neglect of the people the decisions directly affect. This was in regard to the movement to build dams in India, but it really hit home for me and can apply universally...
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SleepingDragon01
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Reading with a book that's actually transcribed interviews was my way of trying to get back into some academic reading. This book was mostly a history lesson for me since the interviews were conducted between 1999 and 2002 and I don't know that much about Indian politics but it was interesting to think about how much has changed but also how much is the same. Also at one point she makes a prediction about the media in the US potentially changing to that US citizens/residents are aware of exactly how much violence the state commits globally which was interesting to think about since I'm not really sure that's happened yet (20 years later).

In general I really like Roy and while some of the rhetoric she uses feels outdated, her ideas about what democracy is and how to think about organized resistance against states are still relevant.

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F1rstAegis
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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A book that will make you question all you see, hear, and think: your beliefs, the pre-digested rot you are fed by most media, ideas you've inculcated from your environment, your teachers, everything!

Doubly deadly if you're Indian.
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Zack21111994
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I was highly impressed by the interviews of Arundhati Roy, whose answers are always thought-provoking, honest (if one-sided), eloquent and erudite in nature.

At the same time, like any activist of any side, she tends to be one-sided, and rarely gives you the full view and events leading to a particular situation, so in that respect not as honest as she might have been otherwise.

It seems people with strong and opposite moral principals can rarely engage in a meaningful discourse since their passion for what they believe is right can easily get in the way of the facts and/or rational discussion.

Having said that I am quite interested at some point to read her essays that are captured in her book The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Seems I have marked it as "owned" - if only I knew on what shelf it is...
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HoozyOne
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I have just recently begun learning about the rise of Indian Hindu nationalism, led mainly by the BJP and RSS. These discussions with Roy give a good analysis of both the resistance and the support for Modi and his policies, while not becoming too "in the weeds" of Indian politics
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Yoonzino_03
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Arundhati Roy is a really amazing writer and organizer. She is among a few outspoken writers that i feel presents both a well researched, thoughtful and not entirely hopeless view of our history and our current world. This interview doesn't really do that though, not sure if she just doesn't or is never given the chance, but she just skims the surface of most political issues. Not the best collection of her work.
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kenichishinichi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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An interesting collection of essays. I really enjoy Roy's voice and am excited to pick up some of her fiction. While these essays were written in a different time, the early 2000s, many of the ideas still feel relevant. Her discussions of Hindutva were alarmingly prescient, especially as she discusses Modi when he was a governor. This provided a lot of helpful background. Roy is so intelligent and I found myself writing down countless quotes from this slim volume.
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Anime_Veteran96
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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A little simplistic, but a great introduction to Roy’s work. Hopefully it inspires readers to check out the other texts mentioned within. I’m glad I read this before checking out The God of Small Things, it provides some important context.
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