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mark_von_oink's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed every one of the short stories, besides Yorick which to me seemed a bit messy and hard to follow. I really enjoyed 'The harmony of the Spheres' and 'Chekov and zulu' in particular. These stories definitely will make me keep an eye out for some of his full size books to read.
elena_ceuppens's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
lucidstyle's review against another edition
3.0
What I like about Rushdie is his playfulness, with character, style, you name it. Truly, it is much more enjoyable to read works by an author who loves to craft.
jazz_faith's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
aletebell's review against another edition
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
manda2491's review against another edition
3.0
Rushdie explores the relationships between India and England in his short stories, East, West. The stories incorporate dark themes and unsavory characters while still maintaining an aura of mystical lightness. Rushdie, in a show of his own oeuvre, uses multiple narrative strategies including collective consciousness, third & first person, metanarrative, and stream of consciousness. Resonating through the work are themes of home, nostalgia, government corruption, spirituality, and inner peace. Though each story deals with the theme of book's title, they do not form a cohesive whole. As a result, Rushdie's work manifests as collection of stories more so than a book of stories. Nevertheless East, West is an inventive and dynamic approach to bridging two distinct cultures, poignantly revealing moments of intimacy and unexpected truths along the way.
saroz162's review against another edition
3.0
Rushdie is an author I've always wanted to read more of than I have. I'm mostly familiar with him through his children's novel, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," as well as at least one novel that I read in herky-jerky bits and pieces during my 20s. I think it's entirely fair to say that Rushdie is one of those writers I always feel, snobbishly, like I *should* have read, and I've enjoyed seeing him interviewed and talking about other books and films. It finally dawned on me, then, that a short story collection like "East, West" might be my "way in" to a fuller appreciation of his work.
It's a challenging set of stories. What is immediately apparent is the mastery Rushdie has with the English language, because even the stories I didn't enjoy, content-wise, had a real flow that made them like music to read. I found myself wondering if Rushdie ever reads his own work aloud for audiences; in many cases, I felt like these would be even more of a joy to hear performed by the author. As stories, though, they were sometimes a little beyond me (hard as that is to admit). The collection is split into three sections - "East," "West," and "East, West" - with three stories in each. You can guess the thematic separation between these sections ("East" largely indicating India and "West" Britain). To be perfectly fair, most of the first six left me feeling a little distant, with probably "The Prophet's Hair" - which is rather like a mournful, bad-luck Indian fairy tale - the most engaging of the lot. However, I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed all three stories of the final section, each of them playing on themes as varied as infidelity, loyalty, and a shared love of the original "Star Trek" to find an interesting shared space between Indian upbringing and British culture. Those stories made my reading of the volume completely worthwhile.
Would I recommend the collection? Contrary to my original theory, I think these might come off better if you are already familiar with Rushdie's longer work. His stories are dense and literate, and I think if you know the patterns of his writing, they might be a little easier to engage. That said, I'm certainly glad I made the attempt. Reading "East, West" has made me want to move back toward Rushdie novels and give them a more determined try. This time, I'll be better prepared for the density, and I always like to read beautiful music.
It's a challenging set of stories. What is immediately apparent is the mastery Rushdie has with the English language, because even the stories I didn't enjoy, content-wise, had a real flow that made them like music to read. I found myself wondering if Rushdie ever reads his own work aloud for audiences; in many cases, I felt like these would be even more of a joy to hear performed by the author. As stories, though, they were sometimes a little beyond me (hard as that is to admit). The collection is split into three sections - "East," "West," and "East, West" - with three stories in each. You can guess the thematic separation between these sections ("East" largely indicating India and "West" Britain). To be perfectly fair, most of the first six left me feeling a little distant, with probably "The Prophet's Hair" - which is rather like a mournful, bad-luck Indian fairy tale - the most engaging of the lot. However, I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed all three stories of the final section, each of them playing on themes as varied as infidelity, loyalty, and a shared love of the original "Star Trek" to find an interesting shared space between Indian upbringing and British culture. Those stories made my reading of the volume completely worthwhile.
Would I recommend the collection? Contrary to my original theory, I think these might come off better if you are already familiar with Rushdie's longer work. His stories are dense and literate, and I think if you know the patterns of his writing, they might be a little easier to engage. That said, I'm certainly glad I made the attempt. Reading "East, West" has made me want to move back toward Rushdie novels and give them a more determined try. This time, I'll be better prepared for the density, and I always like to read beautiful music.
booksntea99's review against another edition
5.0
One of the books which introduced me to Postcolonial studies and a vast array of awesome authors: Kiran Desai, Jhumpra Lahiri, Nam Le, Rana Dasgupta, etc. I could write about any of those authors, tbh. I love it how these books question everything, give you a totally different perspective, and, in the most obnoxious literary student way possible, write back. I feel like I was such an uneducated idiot before and said literature broadened my horizon so very much and made me think thoughts I've never thought before. I'm very glad about that.
tzurky's review against another edition
4.0
The book has three parts with 3 stories each. Thankfully, I have pretty similar feelings about the stories in each part so I won’t have to do a review of each story.
I loved the stories in the “East” part (5 stars) because they were very atmospheric, at the same time grounded in the not always rosy reality and somewhat distant, blurry, archetypal. I don’t want to use the term magical realism because it wouldn’t fit, but I had much the same feeling, that the stories were not about real persons but about mythological actors. The plots themselves were engrossing and even seemed to have a “moral”. You could find elements of fables as well.
The last part, the meeting of “East” and “West” was also wonderful (5 stars). This time the stories feel very realistic, even limited and enclosed by their surroundings. The characters are unique and interesting, but also endearing. As opposed to the second part, they are very mundane, regular people. The cultural encounters are done very well and very subtly. At the same time, major cultural events take place on the edges of the stories, in the background, and their echoes of even their direct influence are felt by the characters.
Now then, to the elephant in the room, the middle part “West”. I’ll be honest and admit that this part went completely over my head. I am missing it’s point so badly it’s nowhere in sight. I have been trying to figure out what the author was trying to do and I can almost see it. I think he was going for western archetypes. Trying to identify some of the central myths at the core of western identity and self-conception. He takes up Hamlet and Columbus and the materialism and consumption that our societies and economic systems are based around. And it’s a very smart idea, very smartly done. I can tell that there is excellent craftsmanship and finesse in the stories. But they just seem to be beating you over the head with their themes and at the same time they don’t really fit for me, they didn’t elicit any emotional reaction or intellectual realization. This could be due to the fact that I’m not actually part of the West. On the contrary, I was born in the East. The fact that I haven’t read Hamlet is definitely detrimental to my enjoyment of its reimagining. And yet, I can’t help but wonder whether this part may just generally not be as on point as the other two. I don’t feel like I’m entitled to judge that though, since I quite obviously don’t get it.
I loved the stories in the “East” part (5 stars) because they were very atmospheric, at the same time grounded in the not always rosy reality and somewhat distant, blurry, archetypal. I don’t want to use the term magical realism because it wouldn’t fit, but I had much the same feeling, that the stories were not about real persons but about mythological actors. The plots themselves were engrossing and even seemed to have a “moral”. You could find elements of fables as well.
The last part, the meeting of “East” and “West” was also wonderful (5 stars). This time the stories feel very realistic, even limited and enclosed by their surroundings. The characters are unique and interesting, but also endearing. As opposed to the second part, they are very mundane, regular people. The cultural encounters are done very well and very subtly. At the same time, major cultural events take place on the edges of the stories, in the background, and their echoes of even their direct influence are felt by the characters.
Now then, to the elephant in the room, the middle part “West”. I’ll be honest and admit that this part went completely over my head. I am missing it’s point so badly it’s nowhere in sight. I have been trying to figure out what the author was trying to do and I can almost see it. I think he was going for western archetypes. Trying to identify some of the central myths at the core of western identity and self-conception. He takes up Hamlet and Columbus and the materialism and consumption that our societies and economic systems are based around. And it’s a very smart idea, very smartly done. I can tell that there is excellent craftsmanship and finesse in the stories. But they just seem to be beating you over the head with their themes and at the same time they don’t really fit for me, they didn’t elicit any emotional reaction or intellectual realization. This could be due to the fact that I’m not actually part of the West. On the contrary, I was born in the East. The fact that I haven’t read Hamlet is definitely detrimental to my enjoyment of its reimagining. And yet, I can’t help but wonder whether this part may just generally not be as on point as the other two. I don’t feel like I’m entitled to judge that though, since I quite obviously don’t get it.