Rushdie... is a comparison to Proust going too far?

DoDi

I'm probably the only person on IM who is just now reading Midnight's Children And I cannot use my 'newbie' status to things Indian as a pretext, because it's clear to me (being 3/4 of the way through this masterpiece) that Rushdie is not just a towering figure of Indian literature, but an author who is a world class treasure.

Will Bombay be the new capital city of the English novel?

Casey

While I fully enjoyed his earlier works, I have been quite disappointed by "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" and "Fury". Some of the more contemporary aspects of his novels fail (the rock star stuff in TGBHF), as do the autobiographical elements in "Fury". The Moor's Last Sigh was one that I loved. So for me, he is hit or miss. Glad you started out with a good one.

Merchant

Yeah. Rushdie will go down as major novelist of the 20th century and might end up with a Nobel Prize for his efforts. "Midnight's Children" won the "Booker of Bookers," selected as the best of the Booker prize-winning novels of the last 30 years or so. That would make it one of the world's most highly decorated individual novels. He's a vastly better novelist than V.S. Naipaul, who picked up his medal from the king of Sweden recently.

machadinha

I somehow doubt it.

To say that X is the Y of Z just because s/he's good is such a futile attempt however. Proust was the Proust of Prousts I'd say and not many people are able to read him.

Enjoy your Rushdie however, it's a good book, although I can't say I ever got around to finishing it.

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wonderwomanusa

I've tried to read several of Rushdie's books, including MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN and THE MOOR'S LAST SIGH, but have never been able to get more than 10-or-so pages into them. I did enjoy one of his short stories recently, so maybe, one day, I'll find a book of his that I love.

DoDi

I have read probably all of V.S. Naipaul's books and enjoyed them, although sometimes I'm not sure why... my favorite of Naipaul's is his first 'House for Mr. Biswas', which I think he wrote while still in school. But as good as Naipaul is I agree with you, Rushdie (at least Midnight's Children) is in a whole different class.

There's so many lines in Rushdie that make me just stop and contemplate, or make me go WOW! it's so TRUE!

The other novel I've read recently that had the same sort of affect on me is Malcolm Lowrys' Under the Volcano, which has some beautiful language pictures in it.

DoDi

Thanks very much Casey... I'll use your advice and check out Moor's Last Sigh.

artwallah

After forcing myself to get through Satanic Verses I thought I'd never read another book by him. But I listened to audio versions of both Ground beneath her feet and Fury and got a much different opinion of him. I absolutely loved TGBHF, though I am not at all a rock fan and do not generally like books about rock musicians (the subject seems to bring out the worst sort of preening self-importance in writers). I went out and bought a print copy and re-read it, something I seldom do. Fury was fascinating, but the end faltered badly. Now I'm eagerly plunging into The Moor's last sigh and enjoying it mightily!
Comparing him to Proust and Naipaul is useless. He is very much his own man and a master writer.

DoDi

I bought Satanic Verses way back during the banning, more out of loyalty to literary freedom than an immediate desire to read it. So I put it up on the bookshelf for later and now that I'm interested it seems to have disappeared.

anonymous

It's been mentioned before, there are topics that pretend to be about India but actually have nothing to do with India. This is one of them. But that's OK, IndiaMike has famously changed over the last few months and the subject of literature appeals to me anyway so I'm happy to state my opinion.

I also bought Satanic Verses. Paid good money for it. Put it down in disgust, it was like walking along a turd covered beach. Such pretentiousness! Instead of a comparison with Proust I think James Joyce and Finnegan's Wake is much more apt. No I don't think that's a compliment.

Here's an admission that a critic like myself never should make. I haven't read Midnight's Children. But I did see the BBC program. Sort of like reading The "Classics Comic Book" version perhaps and not the same as reading the book I know. Still, a visual medium gives you a chance to size up the author. I decided that I didn't like what I saw. He looked to me like a candidate for the Nobel Prize.

LaContessa

It seems to me people either really like Rushdie, or they can't read his books.
The Moors Last Sigh is one of my favorite books, fabulous use of language features, word play, and amazing imagery, also very funny. Great storyline too.
I also liked Midnights Children. However..... However hard I tried I couldn't get to grips with TGBHF and ditched it about 2 chapters before the end... And Satanic Verses seemed to be trying to be more clever than was really necessary.
Still I would consider myself a Rushdie fan nevertheless..

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It seemed like a good thing to do at the time.......

alyosha

nothing like literary arguments when you can't sleep. for my two cents that nobody asked for, salman rushdie is nothing like proust or joyce, except perhaps that the harder you look, the funnier all three get. it also seems like joyce lets you disbelieve what he's telling you; you don't have to be sold to go on the ride, but if you're not 100% with rushdie the magic carpet doesn't fly. if i were to compare rushdie to anybody, it would be haruki murakami because of the way both of them treat myth as a sort of commonplace, yet confusing, thing. rushdie doesn't reference nearly as much popular culture...but they're all great writers. and let's not forget: anyone who can write a book in it's own sort of language that isn't about the fricking triumph of the human spirit but time, morality and consequences, letting you make up your own mind deserves a pat on the back from all of us.

zenkris

btw, perhaps not a very intellectual comment on the thread, but has anyone noticed the similarity between rushdie (probably one of the finest authors in the last 50 years) and stanley kubrick (probably one of the top 5 directors of the last 50 years):





damn, maybe kubrick didn't die of natural causes after all.
perhaps the islamic fundamentalists just made a mistake

skell

That is an amazing likeness!

Jorge Reverter

As Casey says, the last novels are really disappointing, but "Midnight's Children" and " The Moor Last Sigh " are in my opinion real masterpieces.

Years ago, aside the religious controversy, I thought he was one of the best and more original writers in the world. Since years money has won the game, and now I don't expect any good surprise from his side.

In India now, writers like Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth and many others, are far away in terms of quality and creativity.