SHAME

Rating:
Summary: A great allegorical novel
Review: "Shame" is an absolutely brilliant allegory about the political and social chaos that helped give birth to Pakistan and, later, to Bangladesh. If you're up on your modern history, some of the characters will be instantly recognizable. Bhutto is the Virgin Ironpants; and Zia ul-Haq, who wanted to throw Pakistan back into the middle ages, is General Raza Hyder, who ends up fleeing for his life, only to be destroyed, in an ending similar to a Greek tragedy, by the Three Furies, in the guise of the three "mothers" of the protagonist, Omar Khayyam, a lazy, indolent man without shame or much of a conscience either. Neatly balancing Omar is the book's other protagonist, a little girl so engulfed in shame that her blushes burn everyone who touches her and almost set water to boil; when she grows up and loses her shame and thus her modesty, all hell breaks loose. Rushdie is also a terrific humorist, and some sections of the book will have you on the floor laughing. Above all,"Shame" is a tour-de force, a non-stop page-turner, a dizzying melange of allegory, parody, fantasy, mythology and modern history, told by a writer whose love/hate relationship with his country is reflected all over the book. It's Rushdie at his finest and helps to secure his place as one of the best writers of his generation.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive for those in the mood
Review: A curious novel, written in what I'm coming to believe was Rushdie's early style: a satire comprising of a mix of realistic narrative and fable.

It's by no means an easy read: both time and place are mutable; characters shift from being seemingly true to life, to being thinly-disguised allusions to real historical figures, and then again to being exemplifications of human traits. You could almost think of "Shame" as a kaleidoscopic novel, aimed at modern Pakistan and Pakistani history.

I suppose this is great stuff if you like a challenging novel and are in to this kind of writing. I found it too clever by half to be enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining political satire
Review: Although Rushdie makes a half-hearted attempt to argue otherwise, Shame is obviously an allegory of Pakistani politics from the time of Pakistan's creation to the downfall of General Zia. Many of Rushdie's trademarks are on display. Historical and cultural influences are important to Rushdie, as he likes to trace families back several generations in order to explain the development of his main character(s). Once again we have several characters representing chauvinist, extremist elements, and Rushdie astutely portrays how they gain influence in political circles at the highest level. Rushdie also likes to blend fantasy with reality, and it is often difficult to know when to take him literally or not. I just recently read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" for the first time, and I realize retrospectively how much Rushdie borrows from Marquez and other magical realists. Thus, if you like this kind of writing, you will love this book. Even if you don't care for the magical realist style, however, you can still appreciate Rushdie's political and social insights. And even if you don't know or care about Pakistan, you can enjoy his remarkable wit and his flowing prose.

Rating:
Summary: read this book or you are seriously blowing it
Review: I salute Salman Rushdie for his temerity and literary excellence in creating a brilliant allegorical satire on his former country. It sizzles with much energy and crisp prose, as a hysterical, hilarious look at Pakistan's birth and history through the 1980's. Rushdie draws freely on ancient Greek and Roman mythology as well as Shakespeare to create his fictitious country; he confesses in brief, almost memoiresque asides, that it is indeed Pakistan. Pakistan's leading historical figures are portrayed as sex-crazed bumbling fools; one wonders how they managed to give birth to Pakistan and retain political control over the country for so many decades. I suppose Pakistanis may consider "Shame" as blasphemous as "The Satanic Verses", yet Rushdie is both a shrewd, as well as sarcastic, observer of Pakistan's history and politics. Without question this is one of Rushdie's finest novels.

Rating:
Summary: Modern myth come to life
Review: I was not sure what to expect, this being my first Rushdie novel, but I was not disappointed. The story from the start struck me as stepping a good ways away from the cut and dried storytelling method may narrators use today by conciously making the narrator a highly judgemental one, and not simply letting the story tell itself.

We start out with a mythical birth: a man destined to become a fat, decidant doctor whose intellect is matched only by is weight. He finds himself, eventually, positioned between political factions desperate to cover their own rears while taking what they can for themselves from the government and country. What we see throughout is a mix of straitforward illustration of greater events mixed with fable for the day to day lives of the characters, a mix which is very appealing in such a tale.

I would not recommend this book for everyone. Probably only a few, in reality. Many will get bored with it soon, where others will get drawn in. Try reading the first part (30 pages or so) at a local bookstore or on-line if possible to see if you can get into things. If so, you will not be disappointed with the rest.

Rating:
Summary: One of Rushdie's most thematically driven novels...
Review: Let me start by saying that if you have never read a Salman Rushdie book before, I do not recommend that this be your first. My first encounter with Rushdie was Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a friend of mine began to appreciate his writing after reading Midnight's Children. Stick to those (or perhaps East, West) if you are a Rushdie neophyte. Shame is not necessarily the best introduction to one of the best writers of the 20th century.

Why, you might ask? The fact is that Shame homes in on a specific theme and doesn't let go. The book is essentially about the birth of Pakistan and its painful, turbulent early years. It is so focused on these themes that Rushdie goes so far as to include personal asides in the middle of the prose in order to further clarify the points he is making. Shame is a fun, clever and tremendously enjoyable novel but I can see people being put off by an almost educational, preachy tone in these little asides.

Don't get me wrong.... Shame is a GREAT book! For any of you who are familiar with Rushdie's style, you will find that he is up to form here. The plot is full of clever devices (much like in The Moor's Last Sigh) which will have you placing the book down, simply awestruck at the inventiveness and foresight.

What else can I say? I am enraptured with Rushdie. Anyone interested in reading simply astounding prose needs to do themselves a favor and read this author's work. Be forewarned though, this in not a light afternoon read, it requires a certain intellectual investment.

Rating:
Summary: One of Rushdie's most thematically driven novels...
Review: Let me start by saying that if you have never read a Salman Rushdie book before, I do not recommend that this be your first. My first encounter with Rushdie was Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a friend of mine began to appreciate his writing after reading Midnight's Children. Stick to those (or perhaps East, West) if you are a Rushdie neophyte. Shame is not necessarily the best introduction to one of the best writers of the 20th century.

Why, you might ask? The fact is that Shame homes in on a specific theme and doesn't let go. The book is essentially about the birth of Pakistan and its painful, turbulent early years. It is so focused on these themes that Rushdie goes so far as to include personal asides in the middle of the prose in order to further clarify the points he is making. Shame is a fun, clever and tremendously enjoyable novel but I can see people being put off by an almost educational, preachy tone in these little asides.

Don't get me wrong.... Shame is a GREAT book! For any of you who are familiar with Rushdie's style, you will find that he is up to form here. The plot is full of clever devices (much like in The Moor's Last Sigh) which will have you placing the book down, simply awestruck at the inventiveness and foresight.

What else can I say? I am enraptured with Rushdie. Anyone interested in reading simply astounding prose needs to do themselves a favor and read this author's work. Be forewarned though, this in not a light afternoon read, it requires a certain intellectual investment.

Rating:
Summary: Magical realism in Pakistan
Review: Mr Rushdie borrows heavily from the Gabriel Garcia Marquez ouvre and from his own sophomore effort, Midnight's Children, but comes up with something fresh, disturbing and utterly memorable. Magical realism can be a cute wordplay, a device to be precious without having the ideas to back up the innovation and at times it can seem like an adolescent game of hopscotch among the literati as to who knows more words and can mingle them most outrageously; but when the imagery works and the verbose fireworks are centered by wit and passion it is moving the way sparser prose can never be.
This particular novel, a savage parody of Pakistan since the partition, knows how to engage heart and mind and the author's graphic imagination seems never gratuitous but true artistry because his blood-thirsty, confused and deeply melancholy characters are not cartoon characters from 1001 Nights but humanity in a microcosmos, albeit with the drives and traumas of people living on the edge of sanity.

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Parody
Review: Rushdie is absolutely brilliant in this novel. I have not seen any book that contains such a confluence of histories, comedies and tragedies wrapped up so neatly in 300 pages.

This novel operates in several layers. The first layer is the rough history of Pakistan -- with the characters of Jinnah, Bhutto etc. The second layer fictionalizes the entire history, by changing the names of the historical figures and finally, adding Rushdie's patented "magical realism." The result is half fiction, half history and brimming with hilarious anecdotes, mysterious mythology and a gripping chronicle of the rise and fall of a military dictator and his rival, a debauched elite.

Rating:
Summary: one of the modern books I ever read
Review: When I read this book, I knew very little of Pakistan's history. And that doesn't matter one bit.
Even without knowledge of the allegories that can be made, Shame is a beatiful book, describing human emotions, conflicts, well basically everything you expect from a gripping story, and more than that.

If anything, you have to admire the masterful way in which the plot(s) slowly but inevitably unravel(s). Slow doesn't mean that the story has no pace, on the contrary. Seldom have I read a story that was so well structured as this one. I do not like to call books masterpieces, but I'll make an exception for this one.