The Moor's Last Sigh : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Rushdie's Magic
Review: There is simply no one writing in English today who has the range and depth of Salman Rushdie. One can only think, if one thinks of the great satirical writers of Western literature since Greek time, of names such as Aristophanes, the playwright, or Petronius Arbiter, who wrote THE SATYRICON in Nero's Rome (and paid for it with his life!), and in English Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift, as well as the poet, Alexander Pope. What is required for the satirist is a passionate and merciless heart, and Rushdie showed himself amply endowed with both passion and merciless clarity of vision from his first novels, like MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, and the ill-fated THE SATANIC VERSES, for which he was put under sentence of death by assassination, and under which decree he lives today. What Rushdie is about is modern culture, both Indian and that of his adopted country, England, and the madness of life amongst the richest and poorest. His style is rich with colorful language at every level of usage, from the most elegant and precise style to the foul argot of people speaking as they are, whether English or pidgin, or combinations of the two. He has in short a grasp of the masterworks of English satire, and write out of a hybrid mentality: Indian, Hindu and Muslim, and English. What gives him his energy and power is a grotesque humor and wit, as well as a daring playfulness, since he writes to incorporate fantasy and fairytale, myth and the latest forms of folly in the media and in politics and finance. No one and nothing is ever spared by Rushdie, and his wit cuts to the heart, and down to the bone of his characters and the objects of his attention in society. Cruelty is part and parcel of satire, and Rushdie is cruel, although underneath, as with the great satirist, is a passionate love for mankind, not in the mass, but for individuals. I think the source of his imagination and power may stem from his utter lack of illusions, whether it be religious beliefs, or political systems. He stands for life and art and humor, agaisnt a world that has very little understanding of imagination and love. He spares no one and nothing. And yet, if one looks at his novels, including this latest, THE MOOR'S LAST SIGH, one can discern that underlying all his wild and funny dissections of life and love, is a fundamental desire for reconciliation,not only between lovers, but between the generations, and especially between parents and their children. The deepest source of his art is the hopeless longing of the child to made right with those the child can never control: Mother and Father. From that basic struggle, his entire vision develops to include history and whole continents and cultures, divided and somehow joined, East and West. Best of all, he is one of those who can write the English language, and how

Rating:
Summary: great style, but plot overload
Review: I read this book last minute for an English project, and, although perhaps I would have enjoyed it if I read it more lesurely, I found that by pg 300 I was screaming for it to end. The wrting style is very interesting, although Rushdie did seem to lose it in the middle of the novel and was just telling a story. At the end of the novel we learn why the main character is writing, and it seems to me that Rusdie excuses himself for stretching out the book as much as he does.

If I read this again it will be in a few years, when I have the power to put it down for months at a time so I can get over being sick of each and every one of his family members.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant but not exactly enjoyable read
Review: Rushdie is clearly brilliant, and The Moor's Last Sigh is the work of a genius. I freely admit to having missed a substantial portion of the book; it simply went over my head. I enjoyed the talent of the writer and the thousands of clever connections and tricks of the book. Nevertheless, I found myself absolutely unable to develop true fondness for any of the characters; I really cared very little what happened to them. Most of the time, this included the protagonist, though occasionally I did feel sympathy or slight affection for him. Finally, I found the plot a bit weak. There were one to many twists thrown in until I found myself asking what, exactly, is the point of this whole book?

Rating:
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.