Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verses: A Novel
$16.00
one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. Language is beautiful. This is one of the books you will never forget. However, it will help know little hindi/urdu and references to Indian pop culture.

The Moor's Last Sigh
$13.38
In my years of reviewing here, I've been loath to review a book I didn't read all the way through. But sometimes I encounter a book that I don't merely feel isn't worth my time, but which is so awful I just can't help but warn others. Salman Rushdie's THE MOOR'S LAST SIGH is such a book.

I was on a roll with Rushdie, enjoying his debut MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, long holding THE SATANIC VERSES as one of my favourite novels, and reading his nonfiction of the 1980s with pleasure. With THE MOOR's LAST SIGH, the mojo is gone. That's a pity, as I was really looking forward to a chronicle of the fusion of cultures in South India, where I will soon be traveling. Rushdie certainly believes that the spicy blend of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Marxists, Portuguese, and Englishmen in places like Kochin is something special. At first, one is enthralled by this remarkable setting. However, that thrill quickly fades. Rushdie takes forever to introduce the life of the narrator and protagonist Moraes "Moor" Zogoiby, choosing to dedicate the 150 pages to various events in the life of his great-grandparents, grandparents, or parents. While these are sometimes interesting, Rushdie doesn't give them any urgency and link them to a vaster plot, so this reader started to wonder where all this was going.

And writing this in the first person was a terrible mistake, because Moor is one of the most annoying narrators I've ever encountered. It's hard to get into the plot when it's being reported by the sort of smart aleck that, at parties, people do all they can to stand on the other side of the room from. And how many times does Moor have to make reference to the fragrance of spices? We get it, Kochin is a spice city, enough already. In the end, I bailed at about the point that the narrator is born.

After THE MOOR'S LAST SIGH, I'm not unsure whether I want to continue with Rushdie's output, or whether I should just treasure the works of the 1980s.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet: A Novel
$16.00
While not unreadable, Rushdie seems off his game in this one. Compared to the genius of "Midnight's Children," "The Satanic Verses," and "The Moor's Last Sigh," the novel reads like a B-side. What was most off-putting was his reliance on cliches and tired idioms. Cliches were used as a crutch, not as something that's subverted.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Puffin Books)
$10.03
I was disappointed. I expected it to be better. More coherent.
The book and the audio book!