This woman knows how to put things into perspective! Her writing is phenomenal and I'd like to spend some time sitting in her brain, just to see how the cogs turn, how she makes things link and how she's so damn brilliant.
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This is a collection of essays, mostly giving the reader a look into Indian politics and it's religious fascism and sell-out culture to Western capitalism.
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This was written in 2003 so there's some coverage on 9/11 and her take on it is not the usual rhetoric. She also comments on America's love for war and explains some of it's more sinister approaches to devastate, control and kill other nations and peoples.

I love Arundhati Roy. She's precise and passionate and extremely moving; her essays always have me transfixed. Hers are the only works of nonfiction I've had to sit and read from beginning to ending simply because I was so hung on her words.

Arundhati Roy minces no words in this collection of essays published in 2003, just before the Iraq invasion. She leaves her outrage whole and intact and unvarnished in a series of spirited denunciations of the wickedness, hippocracy and idiocy of those in power... warmongers and fear-mongers and all... not limited to the US examples at all, but, as makes sense, mostly focused on her native India and the nationalist and pro-big business politicos running amok there.

This is all prose, but it's such strong and intent emotional prose that it is practically poetry.

the empowering work of a woman deeply committed to truth.

the american government is awful. so are basically all governments in general.

will review when finished...

Controversial. Thought-Provoking. It's easy to understand why India's government isn't a fan of her critical prose and her biting accusations of India's nuclear ambitions.

My rating here is low relative to Roy's other, more recent, essays that chart the post 9/11 world through today. I'm not intentionally implying that the subject matter in this book is dated, but these aren't her most potent essays, and the fact that they exist on a timeline doesn't do them any services as the years stretch on.

Characteristically thought-provoking, this reflection on the impact of war on all of us, especially on the poor, continues to be relevant as long as we are engaged in supporting and expanding the vast war machine we've normalized over the past decades. Candid and informed but never shrill, she's a model for any writer hoping to find ways to speak hard truths to a public that's become used to spin. I recommend this highly.

I picked this book up on my trip to Providence because it was cheap and I had loved The God of Small Things in college. These essays -- from 2002 and 2003 -- are surprisingly resonant with current world affairs. She discusses the nature of fascism and the problems associated with the lust for power and control cloaked in religious intolerance. She spoke many truths about the US/American empire and the atrocities it has committed on non-white people in the name of freedom. And she pointed out that naked capitalism is best served by totalitarianism rather than democracy.

I originally thought that I would be giving this book away at an upcoming book festival. But I may end up keeping it. I certainly underlined multiple passages and made many marginal notes. And I came close to vomiting when I read quotes from Lord Balfour and Churchill on the creation of the state of Israel and the ones from the Pentagon papers about the annihilation of the civilian population of Vietnam in order to bring them freedom. Thankfully the United States is a peaceful country (sarcasm definitely intended).

Good, quick read (though generic at times). Was interesting how even back in 2003 she was effectively calling for the resignation of Modi: issues she addressed related to Hindu nationalism in India still very much remain relevant. Loved that she took it even further and just attacked nationalism as a concept. The distinction she made between being "Anti-American" and "Anti-Americanism" was also very useful. Was not expecting the essay on Chomsky, but I'm always willing to consume more Chomsky-related content.

As a collection of essays on various topics, it's hard to understand what to actually review with regards to War Talk. Reading it over 15 years after it was written though allows one to follow up on the threads Arundhati Roy spins out and see how we're doing on the various fronts she discusses. Tensions are high again between India and Pakistan, Narendra Modi who is heavily discussed in the essay "Democracy" is Prime Minister now instead of Chief Minister of Gujarat as he was then, and global corporations are still trying to get their feet planted firmly in India. The most interesting takeaway though is the hope in the fight captured in all the pieces but especially the last two essays, "The Loneliness of Noam Chomsky" and "Confronting Empire." Roy pushes you to fight back against oppressors of any kind, but especially of the kind that governments and the powerful like to spin out and mostly for that reason I leave this at a 5.