Reviews

Grimus by Salman Rushdie

mcormier's review against another edition

4.0

An impressive debut. What is more impressive is the progression from this novel to his next, Midnight's Children, which wins the Booker. Most people should skip this book and simply read Midnight's Children. Completists should do what completists do and read them both.

Interestingly I read this book shortly after William Gibson's Agency. Both books have short sentences and short chapters. But while Gibson's prose sometimes felt jagged and abrupt, I never got that feeling when reading Rushdie. Even with Rushdie's most curt phrases things felt fluid and smooth.

bigfrog's review against another edition

3.5

I have a hard time saying this is bad, but it doesn’t mean I think its good.

whimsicalmeerkat's review against another edition

1.0

Painfully bad. In many cases, I like people's first works, but not this time.

popefacekillah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

tani's review against another edition

2.0

Ugh. Disliked the main character. Didn't care about the story. Writing was good, but didn't make up for everything else. Also, having women around only so that the main character can have sex with them? Definitely not the way to win me over. Just sayin'.

tanninsandtales's review against another edition

4.0

Turns out that crap Rushdie is still quite good.

vanessar's review against another edition

2.0

This is not your usual kind of Salman Rushdie book. There are magic potions, conjurers, big stone frogs, gates onto other worlds and a fair few nutcases. The main character, an American Indian granted immortality and now wanting to get his death back, is kind of boring. The people he meets, especially Virgil, are mildly more interesting, but the book only really gets going around the middle section, when our hero, Flapping Eagle, is in the town and involved with other people. When he's struggling through various parallel dimensions in a bid to get to the all-powerful Grimus and argue his case for mortality, it gets bizarre and arbitrary and I turn off. But then, I'm not a sci-fi fan so it had its work cut out from the start.

mrears0_0's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

self indulgent

portlandcat's review against another edition

4.0

It took me a long time to get through this one - only for the die-hard Rushdie fans, I think.

cb613's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5