The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece dealing with human emotions
Review: As opposed to most other reviewers, I couldn't put down this book to a point it made my husband jealous. The Ground Beneath Her Feet makes you become an instant rock and roll fan. It made me go back to the time I was "in love" with The Beatles- it carries you along the lives of rock singers as if you were there with them all the time.
Rushdie captures your attention weaving the story using well known music words and at the same time describing people and places so vividly- you feel like you're part of the book.
The book took me sight-seeing through Bombay as though I lived there- (I've never been to India). I would say Rushdie could be compared to Shakespeare and to Ingmar Berman- these are people who have a clear grasp on how to describe human passions, emotions, attitudes. Their stories touch deep in your heart.
I've read other books by Rushdie - even more recent ones and I like them all, but this one is a masterpiece. The story of Vina and Ormus won't leave my mind and every rock band I listen to it seems I see Ormus and Vina on stage.
The length of the book- well,to me it could even be longer- I couldn't wait to read the end but at the same time I didn't want it to end.It was like having a multiple orgasm!
I appreciate Rushdie's use of endless lists of adjectives and adverbs, (even though you sometimes have to go back to the beginning of the sentence to remember what it is about), because he thus creates a vivid image of what is really happening, of the light, the smell, the sound of the place and the exact feeling. I can't wait for my kids to read the book so we can discuss our feelings- a truly well done piece of literature.


Rating:
Summary: Transitional Rushdie?
Review: "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" is devoted to the stories of the pop stars Ormus Cama and Vina Apsara as told by Umeed Merchant ("Rai"), their mutual friend and Ormus's rival for Vina's affections. Rai narrates Ormus and Vina's meeting in Bombay, their rise to fame in 1960s London, and eventual cult status after moving to the USA.

There's much in this novel that will appear familiar to anyone who has read Rushdie's other works: the themes of East meets West ("disorientation meaning loss of the East"); and the exploration of popular "culture", for example.

"The Ground Beneath Her Feet" felt to me very much what it is - the novel which came between "The Moor's Last Sigh" and "Fury". It could be seen as a transitional novel - Rushdie still deals with the interconnections and tensions between Eastern and Western cultural traditions, but is already turning his attention to what he sees as the shallowness of modern Western "culture". In this novel, he is damning of the cult status given to dead pop stars: traces of the all-sweeping pessimism and condemnatory style used later in "Fury".

I thought that "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" was a more accessible novel than "The Moor's Last Sigh", which I felt to be too self-indulgent. That perhaps is due to the possibility that I'm becoming accustomed to Rushdie's writing style, which to use a metaphor is the equivalent to being taken on a long train journey, but getting off at many of the stations on the way to have a slow wander around. Thus does Rushdie abandon temporarily his narrative to indulge his random thoughts and explore word play. I suppose this can be greatly appealing to some readers, but I confess that it taxes my patience.

On the plus side, Rushdie at least to some extent succeeded for me in giving an impression of the changes in environment in the novel: 1950s Bombay; "swinging London" of the 1960s; and market-obsessed 1980s and 1990s USA. Watch out as the spelling changes to American-English as the scene shifts to the States (or was that bad editing?).

Rating:
Summary: Rushdie's masterpiece of a rock novel
Review: If you like Rushdie and classic rock, you will love this! Nominally about the rise and fall of a Bombay-based rock band which takes the world by storm, and of course including the requisite sad tale of unrequited love between the babe vocalist and the cool dude guitarist. The text is full references to great pop songs, and you probably won't catch all of them on the first read =)

Rating:
Summary: Long read but worth it
Review: It took me nine months to finish this book. It begins slowly and doesn't pick up for several chapters, so consequently I would get bored and stick it under my bed and forget about it for a month or two. But when I picked it up again, somewhere around page 200 I started really enjoying it. At first, the relationships between the characters are disjointed and the reader is disoriented because the narrator begins at the end and with the death of heroin Vina Apsara. Spontaneous flashbacks and sporadic dialogue all add to the fragmented tone. But after those first 200 pages the reader gets more access into the world of the narrator Rai. I really like how the protagonists take turns taking center stage while the narrator remains the same character. I also was delighted by how the end has a twist but stays true to the basis in the tale of Orpheus.

All in all I'm glad this book took me so long to read because it gave me time to reflect on the characters and really appreciate Rushdie's linguistic idiosyncrasies.

Rating:
Summary: Technique of Salman Rushdie's new book
Review: Novelists must always deal with the mechanics of getting readers to suspend willingness to disbelieve. In his new novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet Salman Rushdie carefully creates and reinforces the speaker/narrator, Rai, as one capable of understanding and interpreting the complicated lives of Vina Aspara and Ormus Cama, a famous rock and roll couple who start at the level of the real and eventually reach the mythic level of a modern day Orpheus and his beloved. Probably no novelist worried more over technical and psychological aspects of storytelling than the great American Henry JAMES. Using what he called the Central Intelligence, James placed at the center of his novels an observer who was sufficiently close to the action and sufficiently sophisticated to realize and relate what was happening. In the professional photographer, Rai, Rushdie places a person at the center of events and developments to relate to readers the rock and roll story of Vina and Ormus. When the question of how Rai can know some psychological or spiritual detail about the inner life of the rock composer genius Ormus, Rai tells us that Vina is fond of winding-down after love making by spinning long monologues of hers and Ormus's lives together or of some spiritual quirk in Ormus's makeup. Getting skeptical readers to give up the willingness of disbelieve is no easy task. Some novelists don't seem to understand this charge. In The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Rai occasionally treats us to a meaty monologue about his own skills and character. He is an adult who has witnessed unspeakable horrors in his professional working life. The three words, given to him by another professional photographer mentor, which guide his professional life whether in VietNam or in the midst of a jungle massacre are "Get up close." Readers come to trust Rai because they become convinced he has intelligence and integrity. Readers also know that Rai is getting them up close. Rushdie should be given stars for the careful attention he gives to establishing and reinforcing the authority of the speaking voince in the Ground Beneath Her Feet.

Rating:
Summary: Great, as Always
Review: Rushdie delivers a perplexing and interesting novel, as ever. I'm not even going to try to explain the plot. I suggest taking a class on Rushdie- his books go that deep. I have enjoyed everything that I have read so far. This is a great novel, whether you are reading it for school or just for fun.

Rating:
Summary: Its rock and roll baby!
Review: Salman Rushdie writes yet another literary extravaganza, full of word plays, symponies of metaphors and a very interesting tale of love, music and twentieth century world. Recommended to anyone who has apetite for heavy reading, for in Rushdie's writing you need to savor the story frame by frame, page by page, sentence by sentence. Complexity is integral to this novel as well, but for someone who has read Midnight Children, Moors Last Sigh and/or Satanic Verses, this book presents a very interesting and simpler read: for its a typical Rushdie novel, with all the drama and absurdities of rock and roll and a very fine love story! Characteristic Rushdie wit keeps you humored, and density of work occupied!!!!

PS: Never read Rushdie if you fancy reading 100 page novels in a hours time!!! Reading Rushdie is an effort, but trust me, a worthwhile one!

Rating:
Summary: The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Review: The Ground Beneath Her Feet starts off as one of the most promising reads I have ever experienced. Mr. Rushdie's mastery of letters made me want to read slowly so as to savor his style. It was like uncorking a bottle of fine wine.

Unfortunately, as the book progresses it becomes a very tedious read and only improves slightly as the end nears. I felt that the excessive adulation heaped on such an unlikable character such as Vina Apsara accurately reflected our habit of idolizing celebrities, however I was expecting a deeper meaning. There were far too many cursory references to musicians and songs, past and present, without much relevance. Their purpose seemed only to showcase Mr. Rushdie's knowledge of North American rock and roll history.

This fine bottle of wine turned out to be vinegar.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly Disappointing
Review: There is no doubt that Rushdie's writing can draw you into the complex layers of his story until you become enwrapped in his words, but in The Ground Beneath Her Feet, he slightly overdoes it. Not to say that it was a complete failure, but having just read the Midnight's Children, I did find it somewhat less than expected.

The first thing that any reader should know before opening this book is that to understand half of it, they should at least have a basic knowledge of pop culture and the musical world as Rushdie plays with, transforms and refers to various real life personalities (most obvious is Elvis Presley), creating a fun read (if you understand it). A rock n' roll novel, a modern day story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a tale of magical love, The Ground Beneath Her Feet is about Ormus Cama and Vina Apsara, the two members of VTO, the greatest rock band ever with a monumental following, and Rai (Umeed) Merchant, their childhood friend. It begins with Vina's mysterious disappearance, as we then trace back to the protaganists' lives from Rai's perspective, learning of their histories, their tragedies, and all three¡¦s rise to fame, eventually unfolding the rift in Vina¡¦s and Ormus¡¦s other-wordly love and the answer to her unexplained disappearance. Once again Rushdie introduces a notion of the fantastical with the elements of time and space, creating a wild and imaginative novel, though once in a while the reader feels a little victimized by the random strands of the fantastical gone overboard, nearing a certain cheesiness.

The plot however, was not the aspect of the book that disappointed me most, nor his occasional ramblings, but rather the lack of depth in character that I felt in Ormus and Vina. Even though Ormus and Vina were meant to be the goddesses, the other-wordly, the immortal, I found that Rushdie¡¦s description and portrayal of them seemed shallow and contained none of this supernatural element, as he didn¡¦t seem able to make the reader connect with Ormus or Vina. Due to this, the rest of the book was thus affected, as one can¡¦t completely wrap him/herself into the story without fully relating to the characters first. This lack of depth is partially due to Rushdie¡¦s occasional self-indulgent ramblings in his writing, as one could not learn fully about the character without being interrupted by unnecessary page long passages of philosophy, descriptions, and nothingness. Admittedly, at times his writing was brilliant with phrases worthy being quoted repeatedly, however the effect of this beautiful writing was spoilt by unedited ramblings. The overall effect is a slow read that many would get bored by before reaching the end, and less than full appreciation of the better aspects of this novel.

Nevertheless, despite these faults and flaws and my disappointment of expectations, I find that The Ground Beneath Her Feet is still a worthy read as even though it contains less of the beautiful prose and depth that enraptures his readers in The Midnight¡¦s Children, it still manages to capture the readers attention with its imaginative outrageousness and playful references to our world.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly Disappointing
Review: There is no doubt that Rushdie's writing can draw you into the complex layers of his story until you become enwrapped in his words, but in The Ground Beneath Her Feet, he slightly overdoes it. Not to say that it was a complete failure, but having just read the Midnight's Children, I did find it somewhat less than expected.

The first thing that any reader should know before opening this book is that to understand half of it, they should at least have a basic knowledge of pop culture and the musical world as Rushdie plays with, transforms and refers to various real life personalities (most obvious is Elvis Presley), creating a fun read (if you understand it). A rock n' roll novel, a modern day story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a tale of magical love, The Ground Beneath Her Feet is about Ormus Cama and Vina Apsara, the two members of VTO, the greatest rock band ever with a monumental following, and Rai (Umeed) Merchant, their childhood friend. It begins with Vina's mysterious disappearance, as we then trace back to the protaganists' lives from Rai's perspective, learning of their histories, their tragedies, and all three¡¦s rise to fame, eventually unfolding the rift in Vina¡¦s and Ormus¡¦s other-wordly love and the answer to her unexplained disappearance. Once again Rushdie introduces a notion of the fantastical with the elements of time and space, creating a wild and imaginative novel, though once in a while the reader feels a little victimized by the random strands of the fantastical gone overboard, nearing a certain cheesiness.

The plot however, was not the aspect of the book that disappointed me most, nor his occasional ramblings, but rather the lack of depth in character that I felt in Ormus and Vina. Even though Ormus and Vina were meant to be the goddesses, the other-wordly, the immortal, I found that Rushdie¡¦s description and portrayal of them seemed shallow and contained none of this supernatural element, as he didn¡¦t seem able to make the reader connect with Ormus or Vina. Due to this, the rest of the book was thus affected, as one can¡¦t completely wrap him/herself into the story without fully relating to the characters first. This lack of depth is partially due to Rushdie¡¦s occasional self-indulgent ramblings in his writing, as one could not learn fully about the character without being interrupted by unnecessary page long passages of philosophy, descriptions, and nothingness. Admittedly, at times his writing was brilliant with phrases worthy being quoted repeatedly, however the effect of this beautiful writing was spoilt by unedited ramblings. The overall effect is a slow read that many would get bored by before reaching the end, and less than full appreciation of the better aspects of this novel.

Nevertheless, despite these faults and flaws and my disappointment of expectations, I find that The Ground Beneath Her Feet is still a worthy read as even though it contains less of the beautiful prose and depth that enraptures his readers in The Midnight¡¦s Children, it still manages to capture the readers attention with its imaginative outrageousness and playful references to our world.