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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
It has been a long time since I read a Rushdie book and almost that long since I read a book written in such a fanciful style. I am out of practice, but I enjoyed this book nonetheless. It is fun to get carried along in the page long paragraphs, paragraph long sentences and long lists of people, places, events, things, emotions, etc. Rushdie's use of language is still beautiful, even if his frequent parenthetical detours have become even harder for me to follow through. This story is a great combination of his classic magical reality style, with Jinns (genies) running amok in the human world after centuries of being held apart. Rushdie explores what it means to be human by comparing and contrasting the ultimate inhumans, the jinn. There is love, hatred, loss, pain, discrimination, war... all of the best of Rushdie. Highly recommended if you like the author.
Although it was often difficult to keep up with/remember the vast number of characters who disappeared for such lengths of time, I quite enjoyed the world that Rushdie crafted in this book and the thinning of the barriers between the human and the djinn worlds. He is so great at transporting you to somewhere else in your mind, and I’ve yet to read a book of his where I wasn’t grateful for that escape to the wondrous and often ridiculous place he’d created.
This book is beyond the concept of "best books of my life". It is a miracle of literature, or art, of magical realism and storytelling. Furthermore, it came out in the perfect time, considering the way in which religion, stupidity, lack of culture and, most importantly, LACK OF COHERENCE (hint hint) are destroying our world. This book made me think a lot about so many social issues and it is one of the most amazing and well put together metaphors in the literary world. Besides the profound meaning, there is entertainment and fun, joked and insistent repetitions that make this such a pleasant and relaxing read, while it is also a harrowing and horrifying fresco of our mutilated world.
Sublime, if I were to describe it in just one word. But not for those who prefer to dwell in the cess-pool of limited, short-sentenced, teeny boppy young adult. This is a book for adults, for intellectuals who know how to spot magic in meaning and depth in fable.
Sublime, if I were to describe it in just one word. But not for those who prefer to dwell in the cess-pool of limited, short-sentenced, teeny boppy young adult. This is a book for adults, for intellectuals who know how to spot magic in meaning and depth in fable.
I am so, so glad this is over. I listened to it as an audiobook, and less than half-way through, I knew it wasn't the book for me. But sometimes I get stubborn and push through, thinking "I should read this" because it's by a well-known author, a respected author, a literary author. Suffice to say, it wasn't for me. I finished it, and can say I've read it. But so definitely not for me.
Maybe I'm just over magical realism's sprawling narratives and long list of characters? I had a hard time holding onto any one character. Whatever political undertones about demagoguery, oppression, othering, etc. felt lost in the noise.
I loved the language play in this book. Starting with the name of the philosopher, Ibn Rushd, and continuing with the wonderfully nicknamed “Mac” Aroni, I was amazed at the plays on words throughout. Rushdie also had fun putting words and analogies together. I wish I’d kept track of more of my favorite phrases like “the roofs of houses flew through the night sky like disoriented bats”(p19) , but they were sprinkled throughout the book. You really had to pay attention or references like this Proust title in ordinary descriptions could easily slip by: “Everywhere they went men stood in the shadow of young girls in flower. I’m sure there were as many twists of the language that I missed as there were those I caught, but it was Rushdie’s writing itself that pleased me the most in this book. The plot was less engaging, so I ended up giving the book 4 stars, but it is definitely recommended!
This was not a long book, but it sure felt like it.
The book is supposed to be about this epic battle between dark and light jinn, with the light jinn relying heavily on half-jinn, half-human descendants of a genia princess. But the whole first half of the book is dedicated to the half-jinn characters discovering their weird and random magical powers. I think Rushdie thinks he's doing some awesome character development during this section, but none of the characters really captured me, so mostly it just felt like nothing was happening. And even when the epic battle started, the decisive battles were wrapped up quickly and easily in a few sentences. I tend to get bored during long, drawn-out battle scenes, so I guess that's fine. But it did seem kind of anti-climactic after putting up with all the boredom to get there.
In the beginning I thought this might be a three-star book by virtue of "good writing" because Rushdie is a pretty big deal, but honestly, the writing just felt pretentious. It was obviously trying to be clever and funny, but I don't think I cracked a smile once, much less laughed. The distant and academic tone also made it really hard to get invested. And the heavy-handed moral messaging at the end pretty much clinched it for me -- this book would be lucky to scrape by with a two-star rating, and that pretty much just because I liked Baby Storm, and the fitting legacy of Jimmy Kapoor.
[Also, this book wants to be categorized as magical realism because magical realism is taken more seriously in literary circles, but really, it's fantasy. This is not a mostly real-world story where strange, magical things happen once in a while. This is a book where a sizeable portion of the named characters are genies and part of it takes place in fairyland. Also, if you classify it as magical realism, it's easier to overlook its shoddy worldbuilding. Seriously, it takes more than constant orgies to characterize a whole magical race. So, yeah, it fails as magical realism by having too little reality attached, and it can't hold a candle against any fantasy worth its salt.]
The book is supposed to be about this epic battle between dark and light jinn, with the light jinn relying heavily on half-jinn, half-human descendants of a genia princess. But the whole first half of the book is dedicated to the half-jinn characters discovering their weird and random magical powers. I think Rushdie thinks he's doing some awesome character development during this section, but none of the characters really captured me, so mostly it just felt like nothing was happening. And even when the epic battle started, the decisive battles were wrapped up quickly and easily in a few sentences. I tend to get bored during long, drawn-out battle scenes, so I guess that's fine. But it did seem kind of anti-climactic after putting up with all the boredom to get there.
In the beginning I thought this might be a three-star book by virtue of "good writing" because Rushdie is a pretty big deal, but honestly, the writing just felt pretentious. It was obviously trying to be clever and funny, but I don't think I cracked a smile once, much less laughed. The distant and academic tone also made it really hard to get invested. And the heavy-handed moral messaging at the end pretty much clinched it for me -- this book would be lucky to scrape by with a two-star rating, and that pretty much just because I liked Baby Storm, and the fitting legacy of Jimmy Kapoor.
[Also, this book wants to be categorized as magical realism because magical realism is taken more seriously in literary circles, but really, it's fantasy. This is not a mostly real-world story where strange, magical things happen once in a while. This is a book where a sizeable portion of the named characters are genies and part of it takes place in fairyland. Also, if you classify it as magical realism, it's easier to overlook its shoddy worldbuilding. Seriously, it takes more than constant orgies to characterize a whole magical race. So, yeah, it fails as magical realism by having too little reality attached, and it can't hold a candle against any fantasy worth its salt.]
I found this book so tedious. I really struggled to finish it, but I have a pathological need to finish books that I start, so I slogged through it.