Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
To state the obvious: Main characters don’t have to be likable, or change for the better—but they should develop in *some* way. If the characters don’t develop, then the plot needs to make the tale worthwhile—but this one meandered quite a bit, and was only intermittently interesting. Perhaps there could be some nuanced secondary characters? No—they’re all pretty two dimensional, and the women in particular all feel the same. How about some local color or humor? These are present, and well executed—but it’s not enough to tempt me to the end of a 22 hour audiobook.
Dense language throughout doesn’t stop this from being very entertaining. I am a sucker for dreams and multiple plot lines across time so this stuck all the right compositional chords. I can see how it offended folks. I pity Rushdie as he doesn’t come across as a friend of God, but I respect him for writing in terror at even a peaceful, foreseen death (feels almost confessional).
Long but pretty good. I love the way Rushdie writes and this one definitely reminded me a lot of 'one hundred years of solitude' (another book I can appreciate even though I don't love it). I'm sure I missed most of the political/religious issues but it was interesting to read a book that caused such a furor (bans, burnings, etc.) as well as multiple attempts on Rushdie's life..religious folks are wild!
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I'm giving this four stars because I acknowledge the importance of what this book has to say. The importance does not outweigh the fact that Rushdie does the "oh look how badly they treat women they must be bad!" dance while amassing almost a dozen girlfriends in the refrigerator and a couple personas whose bad ass character definition is completely subsumed by their (male) lover's plot lines, but stands alongside it, equally worthy of mention. It's a balancing of my importance as a self with my importance as an idea, something that men the world over could learn something from. Intersectionality does not dampen your critical thinking skills; solipsism does. And when it comes to gynephobia or any other ideological oppression, solipsism kills.
Mahound, any new idea is asked two questions. When it's weak: will it compromise? We know the answer to that one. And now, Mahound, on your return to Jahilia, time for the second question: How do you behave when you win? When your enemies are at your mercy and your power has become absolute: what then?The main reason why I think this book deserves to be read is because while Rushdie does fall into authorial/political traps in regards to women, he does so while deconstructing the very power structures that propagate those traps. It's not a matter of "I did my best and no one should criticize me" feel-good stagnancy, nor a philosophical degeneration into nonentity that likes to pretend privilege is not a thing, but a real look at the compromises we live by in the societal boundaries of good and evil. This angry and messy view of things is particular important when considering the book, its history, and the particular reader I am, an atheist woman who grew to adulthood in the wake of 9/11. I have my own issues due to my identity, but I'll never be thought a terrorist.
Emboldened by the lights and the patient, silent lens, he goes further. These kids don't know how lucky they are, he suggests. They should consult their kith and kin. Africa, Asia, the Caribbean: now those are places with real problems. Those are places where people might have grievances worth respecting. Things aren't so bad here, not by a long chalk; no slaughters here, no torture, no military coups. People should value what they've got before they lose it. Ours always was a peaceful land, he says. Our industrious island race.I know people died for the sake of this book, I know people died for the sake of my country's obsessions with security and military industrial complex as a direct result of Islamophobia, and I know how easy it would be to use one to excuse the other. It's the same parsed feeling when Rushdie writes about current events in Ferguson twenty-six years before in fiction form, and then goes on to comment how the martyr of his particular story had a history of abusing women that does not receive coverage for the sake of solidarity. What's important here is how little confidence there is in regards to the "right" answer to all this, how Rushdie handles the choice between in such a way that the good and the bad of each are readily apparent and always in metamorphosis. Much like Murakami, I found myself questioning my own beliefs not because of how characters I had identified with had suffered, but due to the genuine interest the author had in questioning the lines of good and evil and what that all meant for our effort to live. Both of them have issues with writing female characters, but the "worth reading" quality is high enough to merit a pass.
Allie had a way of switching from the concrete to the abstract, a trope so casually achieved as to leave the listener half-wondering if she knew the difference between the two; or, very often, unsure as to whether, finally, such a difference could be said to exist.If I can do it, so can you. Personal offence does not impress me when lives are on the line, and that goes for any and all lives.
4.5 - started sort of slowly but this book was insane, I especially loved the hallucinations (or were they) of Gibreel towards the climax of the book, and all the dream sequences were excellent
medium-paced
Am absolutely no way qualified to try and dissect this work in relation to its myriad social and religious controversies, not least because of the very real amount of death left in its wake as a result of both. So all I'll say is that said controversies are far more interesting and worthy of study than the quality of Rushdie's amped-up approach to bawdy showbiz satire and opulent magical realism. It's a bit tiresome really.
I just can't bring myself to read another page of this book. I know, I know, it's highly lauded and an amazing piece of literature. With all of the books out there that I have yet to read, I can't try to read this one again when it just doesn't speak to me.