The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Rating:
Summary: Not Rushdie's best, but worth reading
Review: For the Rushdie fan, there is much in this book to be admired: imagination, brilliant storytelling, an excellent sense of humor and passages of some of the best prose being written in English today. It seems, at times, that Rushdie's inventive capacity is unlimited: the strangest of characters emerge with the most checkered of personal histories, idiosyncrasies and destinies -- so much so that believability is stretched to almost absurd limits. But hasn't this always been Rushdie's domain, ever since Midnight's Children? The difference here, perhaps (and this is why the novel is not a peer of Rushdie's best), is that the author appears to let the absurd, the outlandish, the improbable invade in almost random tentacles throughout the body of the work. Also, the prose is not as consistent as in earlier works -- flashes of brilliance, of genius, are followed by untidy ramblings in need of editing. There is something baffling-joycean about the work, but that is a mode that doesn't really suit Rushdie and his mature voice. He is at his absolute best at times, but the whole structure of the work does not always sustain the narrative. Moreover, you never really feel that Ormus and Vina are truly in love -- the deep love never really happens -- not anything that seems human, at least. Perhaps owing to the rock'n'roll milieu in which the novel transpires, there is more use of gutter language and more casual exposes of sexual acts and fantasies than one would normally encounter in a Rushdie novel. A bit of this kind of language is descriptive, demonstrative; too much of it (and this happens from time to time) impoverishes the overall texture of the novel. Still, Rushdie remains one of the most exciting and engaging writers alive today. I have not yet found a rival in the modern literary world. Let's only hope that his next novel will find the right blend between inventive caprice and the craftsmanship of an undisputed master.

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: He's not for everyone
Review: In 1982, I picked up a paperback edition of *Midnight's Children* in London, partly because I have a long-term interest in modern Indian fiction and partly because I had, strangely, never heard of the name "Salman" and it caught my attention. Once I started the novel, I could not put it down, and since then I have read everything Rushdie has written as soon as I could get my hands on it. For every novel except *The Moor's Last Sigh*, he passes my "ultimate readability test": as soon as I finish the novel, I immediately turn back to the first page and start it again. I don't know what happened with *The Moor's Last Sigh* but I suspect it may have been something about my own state; someday I'll give the book another go. Anyway, as soon as I got my copy of *The Ground Beneath Her Feet* last spring, I read the first few pages and realized I was going to be unable to put it down (again); at that moment, I just didn't have time to get pulled into Rushdie's world. So I put the book aside until last week. I'm now into the second read and am enchanted. Reading the comments below reinforces my awareness that Rushdie, like all strong flavors, isn't for everyone. The things some other readers complain about are sometimes for me the best things about his work. I've never felt Rushdie's strength (or even perhaps his aim) was the creation of memorable "characters" in the traditional sense--they don't walk in and take residence in my mind as do, say, the characters of Dickens or Hardy. They are more permeable, shiftier, less "visualizable" than those. But his swooping, looping plots, his pyrotechnical language, his creation of a universe simultaneously like and unlike the one we think we live in, his interweaving of myth, allusion, consciousness, magic--all these things that one seems either to love or to hate--I confess to loving. *The Ground Beneath Her Feet* seems to me a triumphant example of one of Rushdie's recurrent concerns: the power of storytelling. A slightly jarring note was a few pages of what read like an imitation of Doris Lessing--I'm still not sure what's going on there. But then Rushdie is always knocking me off-balance in one way or another. My only real complaint about his latest novel is that, like his others, it is over far too soon. For me, his novels are never long enough.

Rating:
Summary: slaman rushdie...will you marry me?
Review: it is impossible for me to begin a "review" of the book, The Ground Beneath Her Feet." well, i guess it isn't impossible.

what i mean to say is, this book made my eyes water, my mind enter states of intense restlesness, and my mouth smile so hard it hurt at times, that i am quite often speechless when asked about this novel.

this is by far rushdie's most human book. sure, as some nay-saying people point out, he is *too* clever all over every page times one-hundred. true. that is because he is a clever person, i think. also, the book drags on, goes everywhere without going anywhere, etc., etc.... whatever. there is such intense beauty /hilarity/ originality /reality /fantasy /artistry in so many of the passages in this book, just when your heart/mind/funny-bone gets over the last brilliant passage, the next is upon you. god bless 'em.

if i weren't such an inarticulate neanderathal i would tell you how his epic writing is more than a match for all the widely diverse themes (some of his most poignant critiques of culture), time and space continuums, lunatic minds and worlds encompassed in this book. i would mention that his characters, rai, ormus, vina, are some of the most memorable people i have never met. i would mention how the reader is always at his mercy- when he wants you to feel, you feel- and how, fortunately, rushdie is merciful to those in need of complete satisfaction. too bad i'm not that articulate.

in any case, if you're just a casual reader, there are 1,000 and 1 reasons for you to read this book. if you are one of those intense stay-in- on-the-weekend- to-read-the-latest-from- this-or-that- contemporary-super-duper-intellectual- cutting-edge- blah-blah-blah-author people, then you probably make me look like the ignorant buffoon i am and there are even *more* reasons for you to read The Ground Beneath Her Feet. VTO forever!

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!