BooksOfTheMoon

Grimus

By Salman Rushdie

Rating: 2 stars

This was Rushdie’s first novel and it’s very much a journeyman work. He does use the magical realism vehicle that he uses much better effect in later novels (such as the excellent Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses). It’s difficult to identify themes that that he would come back to so it’s best to just look at this as it comes.

Flapping Eagle takes the elixir of immortal life, after his sister is first given it and spends the next several hundred years wandering the world, after her disappearance. Eventually he finds his way to Calf Island, which exists somewhere between dimensions and eventually to a confrontation with the eponymous Grimus.

The characters that Flapping Eagle encounters on his journey are mostly just caricatures, without much in the way of depth, although Flapping Eagle’s companion and guide Virgil Jones does get more development.

I think that Rushdie may have been going for somewhere between gothic and grand guignol in this novel, and to some degree he’s managed it, but at the expense of any warmth or engaging characters. Flapping Eagle is a difficult character to warm to, as his motivations and thoughts mostly go unreported, and his actions are often less than endearing. Rushdie’s writing here is workmanlike but he’s still developing a craft. It’s not yet the polished and poetic style that it would develop into.

So mostly worth reading if you’re a fan of Rushdie to see how his writing developed, but it doesn’t really stand up to his later work either in plot or in the writing.

Book details

Publisher: Vintage
Year of publication: 1975

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

By Salman Rushdie

Rating: 3 stars

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (or, if you prefer, 1001 nights) is the length of time that the Strangeness lasts. The walls between the worlds come tumbling down and the Jinni return to our world to cause mayhem and havoc. But before all this, before the cracks were sealed, Dunia, a Jinni princess, came to our world and fell in love with a mortal man, for his mind. Together they had many, many children before she returned to her world, and now, in its time of need, she must reconvene her descendants to help save the world. This unlikely group includes a gardener, still mourning his dead wife who wakes up one day to find himself levitating; a failing graphic novelist whose creation appears to him in his bedroom; and a baby who can detect corruption with her mere presence.

Even after a few days of ruminating, I’m still not entirely sure about this book. Rushdie’s grasp of language and myth is as strong as ever and this book has a very mythic feel to it (as, I imagine, it’s supposed to) but I was never able to just settle down and get lost in it, as I have done in other Rushdie books. The characters are mostly sketches, with really only Dunia and Mr Geronimo, the gardener, getting much filling in.

So, without being able to entirely say why, a difficult book to love, but definitely one to enjoy and find something worthwhile in.

Book details

ISBN: 9781784701857
Publisher: Vintage
Year of publication: 2015

The Enchantress of Florence

By Salman Rushdie

Rating: 4 stars

In a somewhat skewed version of the 17th century, a yellow-haired man calling himself Mogor dell’Amore presents himself at the court of the Emperor Akbar with a tale to tell. This is the story of that tale and what came of it.

This book feels different in tone to the other Rushdie novels that I’ve read (Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses), feeling more raucous, livelier and more sensuous, while keeping the beautiful language and literary bent of its predecessors. This isn’t a bad thing; although I really enjoyed those other books, it’s nice to see the author continuing to experiment with his tone and style.

This is a story about stories and there are several instances of stories within stories (within stories) as the tale makes its eventual way to its conclusion. It always hovers on the edge of fantasy, never quite committing itself to an event actually being magical, but always shying away, like one of the Mughal concubines shyly hiding behind a veil.

One thing I’ve always loved about Rushdie is his characterisation. When he introduces a new character, he stops for a moment to discuss the character, to draw out his or her history and traits. This shouldn’t work, it should feel clunky and slowing down the story, but I found myself getting really involved in them and that it enhanced rather than detracted from the story.

A fun story, then, and possibly a good entry point for people who haven’t read Rushdie before.

Book details

ISBN: 9780099421924
Publisher: Vintage
Year of publication: 2008

The Satanic Verses

By Salman Rushdie

Rating: 4 stars

Over the English Channel, a hi-jacked airliner explodes leaving two survivors clinging to each other as they fall. One gains a halo while the other grows horns and goat legs, acting out the ancient battle between good and evil again; but which is which?

This is a very complex book, with many interwoven themes: love, belonging and betrayal being the central ones. Different people will get many different things out of it, but what struck a chord with me was the issues of belonging, and the difficulties of standing between cultures, since this is something I feel on a day-to-day basis.

I also loved the language of the book. Rushdie has a wonderful gift for words and it was a pleasure to let the words drift over you. It also captured, for me, the voice of Indian literature. It does sound like an authentic mix of cosmopolitan English and Hindi; while Rushdie wasn’t the first Indian writer to write in English and add a twist of Indian colloquialism, he has certainly mastered the art. Like its predecessor, Midnight’s Children, I can’t recommend this book enough.

Book details

Publisher: Vintage
Year of publication: 1988

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