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Summary: The Moor's Last Sigh, my First Rushdie
Review: I have read other reviews of this same novel that take the slant of comparing situations in the novel to occurances in Rushdie's life, actual historical events in India...his work is called allegorical, symbolic...etc. And while I cannot dispute this, as I know precious little of India's history, and less about Rushdie himself, save for the SATANIC VERSES controversy...I offer a review as one who was purely entertained by my first indulgence of this wonderful writer.Moraes Zagoiby traces his family roots back to the rise of the da Gama family in the spice trade. From the great aunt abandoned on her wedding night by a husband fleeing in her gown to meet his male lover for a moonlight sail...to the bitter rivalry of two feuding clans employed in the family business that end up in tragedy; to the great uncle who disappears with the ocean current one dark night; to young Aurora da Gama, who marries a foreman in the family business and eventually delivers Moor into the world, born with a club right hand, and a body that ages at twice the normal rate. No matter how colorful his lineage, Moor's own story is as lively and entertaining as that of his family as he alternately blesses and curses his 'afflictions'; loses his heart on more than one occasion, and eventually strives to make a name for himself when the family banishes him. Rushdie's wry, double-entendre brand of humor brought too many smiles to my face to count, or give the details of. His descriptive powers are almost lyrical at times, his wit both scathing and coy, and his emotions real enough to penetrate the hearts of all. The Moor endears, enrages, and enlightens all in the fictional world he inhabits, and all those drawn into it by reading Rushdie's prose. Thankfully there are many other Rushdie novels to indulge in, and I am happy to have discovered a 'new' writer to add to my bookshelves.
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Summary: A Surreally -Contorted Story of Compassion
Review: Being not only a reader but believer in the supernatural, I found The Moor's Last Sigh to be an extraordinary lesson in the power of the sublime. Rushdie's masterful manipulation of the English language is so amazingly poetic and unparalleled that it was hard to stray from its magical grasp. He is a master of metaphor and colour capable of carrying the reader into active participation in the dream. If you have read previous Rushdie novels, Arundhati Roy, Carlos Casteneda, Ana Castillo, etc... read this. The heart of Moraes Zogoiby is one of a tormented child X 2. The world surrounding the Moor is one of hatred, envy, madness, and betrayal. The Moor reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein's creation who is gentle and intelligent, spurned from society due to his double deformity, and capable of loving but driven by those around him into a life of predicaments and turns beyond his control. This is no doubt an inspirational novel of triumph over life's undue cruelties. Remember your compassion. God bless the Moor.
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Summary: Typical... too typical
Review: "The Moor's Last Sigh" begins promisingly set in the rich cultural melting pot, that was Portugese India. Rushdie has made it a habit to analyse India in bits and pieces, one at a time with each novel. It is now the turn of the Malabar and one of the earliest roots of colonial India, that has come to deserve his attention. The focal point of the story is Moraes Zogoiby, the nodal leaf of the da Gama-Zogoiby family tree, with enough colours in his blood to make a rainbow pale in contrast. It seems to be a faithful allusion to India's "royal family apparent" - the Nehru-Gandhi clan, members of whom are frequently and rather brusquely alluded to. Getting through the first 150 pages is a joy ride. For those who perceive the intricacies of Indian history, the allusions are stark and vivid. As any experienced reader might expect, Rushdie chips in with his now-branded magic realism with references to the supernatural, the unknown, the ambiguous, the pathetic fallacies, and the coincidences with his bewitching word play.The story meanders, twists, turns and sometimes cascades in typical Rushdie style, as the scene cuts to Cochin, then to Bombay (Rushdie's Oedipus Complex??) and finally to Andalusia. You meet more startling characters, expose more personalities, descend to the dark dungeons of humanity, and gain an insight into the secretive, alternative world that deceives and betrays the posh, exterior facade. Again, characteristic to Rushdie is the hapless narrator, the insecure, victimised, ugly, yet omniscient incarnate who speaks to you in the first person. Rarely, would you feel a Rushdian character very simple to comprehend. Uma Saraswati, Moraes's lover, Abraham Zogoiby, his father, Aurora, his mother, his sisters, his grand-parents, his grand-uncles - all intricately woven and presented in a picture so complex that you feel that years of translucent history cannot have mystified simple lives so much. Rushdie's genius in exploring human values and emotions is evident and only to be expected. But, as you go panting and wanting more and more of it, the denouement comes too quickly and too abruptly. The demystification that you wait for so long, never takes off. Rushdie takes the easier route to deal with the problem - by destruction and it is this tried and tested Bollywood formula that wrecks the boat. It was my experience of "a burning head and a parched tongue." If this is what Rushdie wanted you to know, well, that is another twist, but a very unconvincing one. Maybe the sea hath dried up? That being my initial peeve with the work, I realised later that this is not his only pitfall. Rushdie, with this novel might stand accused (not without reason) of being stereotypic. You come across too many things (sometimes one per page) that remind you of an earlier occurence somewhere in another of his works. The techniques and formulae are pretty old. Self-plagiariasm is an excuse that a creator of Rushdie's stature cannot afford with his readers. This was the fourth work of Rushdie I set my hands on, having already read "The Midnight's Children","Haroun and The sea of stories" and "The Ground beneath her feet". Having thorughly enjoyed the other three, I felt Rushdie flatters to deceive in this one. Beginners to Rushdie - this is one book you can afford to skip. Old wines are in the cellar. Check them out first.
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Summary: Family, Insanity, Magic & Art
Review: What a master of magical allegory Rushdie is! The only other book of his I'd read was "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" and I was immediately and completely swept away into his mythical tale which contained elements of the ancient and the contemporary, blended into a modern allegory of love, loss and memory. Again, with "The Moor's Last Sigh," Rushdie weaves a tale which encompasses the confused and sad history of India, the pain, joy and strength of her people, and the magical world of mystery and darkness that lies beneath, in the world of the imagination. The Moor cannot belong to the world he inhabits; his geneology doesn't fit, nor does his physiology. He is old before his time, due to his aging at double the rate of other humans, and his family history leaves him alienated in the society which he longs to be a part of. The characters are well drawn and all are unusual, to say the least. From his artist mother, a wild child herself, to his mafia-baron-like father and his sisters, Ina, Mina, and Mina, the family is portrayed as a source of life and love as well as of misery and embarrassment. All of India's social and economic problems are revealed in the adventures (and mis-adventures!)of this unusual family group. To discuss this novel's elements fully would take far more space than I have here, but suffice it to say that if you like a challenge, I'd recommend that you leap into this fascinating book. I personally enjoy the intellectual exercises necessary to fully comprehend Rushdie's prose, and even then I'm sure that I miss out on a great deal of it. Nonetheless, his work is well worth the effort and a joy to read.
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Summary: To mix fanstasy and reality is a very delicate task
Review: Mr. Rushdie is very emphatic through the novel about the wickedness off all its characters, and how the concept of morality and respect are somehow alien to all of them. However, it is very difficult to feel any kind of animosity towards those beings, or to internalize their anguish, because all their actions are simultaneously justified so you have the feeling that eventhough the events of the novel are dramatic, in the end actions do not matter, because those who suffer the consequences are not worthy of any pity. I guess that the book also demands a great knowledge of Indian XX century history, particularly after its independence, in order to capture and enjoy the irony and sort of black humor that runs parallel with the Zogoisby's family saga. Finally, it is advisable to read this book with a good English dictionary by your side, even your native language is English ,because the author will demand form the reader to be immersed in the story as well as its idiom.
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Summary: Salman Rushdie's Magnificent Saga of a Doomed Family
Review: The Da Gama-Zogoiby Family is the union between a beautiful Indian-Christian woman, Aurora Da Gama, and a Jewish man, Abraham Zogoiby, originally from Cochin, a town in India with a fairly large Jewish population. They fall deeply in love with each other from the very start. Their marriage produces three daughters and their last born, a son whom they name Moraes, the narrator of this magnificent, erotic, and often darkly funny saga. For example, there is Moraes' eldest sister who joins the band of "a country and eastern" singer; then there is the late, beloved family dog, named after a former Indian prime minister, who still continues to "frolic around" with certain members of the family. Moraes, called "the Moor" by everyone, was the unborn son that Abraham's resentful mother demanded to raise as a Jew. Moraes is afflicted with progressive premature aging and a clubbed right hand, but lives long enough to tell a story of near-incest, treachery, jealousy, vengence, corruption, suicide and murder. Far from being a poor, crippled innocent, the Moor is sometimes capable of violence and cowardice. Aurora, herself, is an artist of international renown, with great charm, charisma, and a sizable male following. Abraham, a businessman in the Da Gama family's spice trade, later becomes a wealthy and powerful "baby talcum powder" entrepreneur who is vehemently feared and hated by his detractors. These are the barest elements that Rushdie utilizes to weave this wonderous epic. Aside from its great sweep, Rushdie's abillity to combine realtiy with fantasy is simply amazing. I felt completely wrapped up in the narrative flow. Rushie also describes a panorama containing architectural works of great beauty and strangeness. The most unique structure is a synagogue containing mysterious blue floor tiles that can foretell the future. _The Moor's Last Sigh_ is also the history of India in the past one hundred years, beset with the turbulence and divisions similar to those of the doomed family presented in this book.
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Summary: Phew!
Review: This is the story of Moraes ("Moor") Zogoiby, scion of the Portuguese/Indian/Jewish Da Gama-Zogoiby family. Being a Rushdie novel, it's not as simple as that: it's also a sort-of dynastic history interwoven with Indian history. And Rushdie's eye wanders further than that, sweeping from Iberia to the Indian subcontinent and back. The Western links here are Spanish/Portuguese rather than British: for example, Moorish Spain figures greatly in the novel (rather a give-away considering the title). Did I think it was a good read? I confess that I struggled with it. It seems to me that either you fall into the camp of readers who prefer clever word play, flights of fancy with prose, flowery descriptions, and frequent use of allegory rather than the use of plot and character insight to sustain their interest. Or, like me, you belong to the other group which views the over-use of such devices as an encumbrace rather than an aid to enjoyment. Rushdie is, at his most self-indulgent (which to me he was in "The Moor's Last Sigh"), either a great exponent of original and inventive writing or exasperating, depending on which camp you fall into. So, be prepared. After ploughing through "The Moor's Last Sigh", I found the nearest equivalent feeling I could approximate to was getting a stomach upset after eating too rich a meal: sure, you admire the cook's skill, but still the experience is exhausting and leaves you wondering whether or not it was worth it after all.
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Summary: Rushdie's got plenty of sighs
Review: "The moor's last sigh" is the story of Moraes Zogoybi, an Indian-born half jew half christian, who carries in his body the curse of living twice as fast as anyone else. Through the book, he tells us the story of his family in India. The only other book I'd read by Rushdie was "Haroun and the sea of stories", which is really wonderful, although directed to younger readers. The only other Indian author i've read is Arundathi Roy ("The god of small things), this one an "older-people" author, and I didn't enjoy her book. So, this one was a try in Rushdie's grown-up books, out of curiosity. He is really very good in character development, not only about the main character, but everyone that surrounds him and has a more-than-slight participation in the story. What other authors do with plots, Rushdie do with people: they seem very different and un-related at the beggining, and are all tied up at the end. The story itself has plenty of extraordinary elements, and is sometimes detached of reality, particularly in the end. I'ver read many reviews saying that, since this is Rushdie's first book since "Satanic Verses", they expexted a dark and hateful book, but found "The moor's last sigh" to be very light and happy and optimistic. Well, in my view, the story in "The moor's last sigh" is VERY sad and dark. It's possible to trace similarities between Rushdie's and Moraes' lives. Both of them have a curse and a deformity they don't understand and didn't ask to be brought upon them, and their lives will (or may) be shortened because of something external to their ways. I don't give this book five stars because of the differences in the pace of the narrative (sometimes it was too slow, mostly in the middle, and sometimes it was too fast, like in the rushed ending) and because of the great number of unreal or fantastic elements in the story, which are not to my taste. Grade 8.3/10
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Summary: Sigh . . .
Review: I began this book 3 times before I was able to penetrate Rushdie's language enough to make it past the first 5 pages. But once I got to reading it in earnest, I couldn't put it down. The only thing I ever knew about the author was through all the controversy around the Satanic Verses. The whole thing sounded scary and political to me. I never realized what a beautiful and poetic writer he is. Reading this book was like having a love affair- it left me with a light head and a full belly. The Moor's Last Sigh has left me hungry for more Rushdie. Read this book with a clear head. I guarantee you will enjoy it.
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Summary: Story Time
Review: Remember story time? Mom or dad would gently lull you into a dreamworld with tales of fantasy, or keep you up all night following a captivating adventure. Well this is story time. Grown up style. You'll feel like a kid again reading this book, but don't worry: you won't feel like a child.
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