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brian_loane 's review for:
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
by Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie’s novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a window into the wild world of rock’n’roll in the 1950’s through the 1970’s. I am not a huge rock’n’roll fan, but Rushdie is my favorite novelist, and so this was one of the last of his novels that I read. This was a mistake. It is quite possibly my favorite of his novels precisely because of its ambition. In this story, Rushdie seeks to capture the sound and feel of rock’n’roll into the pages of a novel. He succeeds, and with this success comes a serious investigation of two huge themes: the feeling of belonging and relationship between art, love, and death.
There are always humans who feel that they do not belong to the place in which they were born. This feeling is often discussed as if it were not common, but Rushdie suggests that it is. Even if we do not believe that we belong somewhere else, our dreams betray our true desires. He writes, “Alone in our beds, we soar, we fly, we flee. And in the waking dreams our societies permit, in our myths, our arts, our songs, we celebrate the non-belongers, the different ones, the outlaws, the freaks…if we did not recognize in them our least-fulfilled needs, we would not invent them over and over again, in every place, in every language, in every time.”
This feeling of not-belonging is common to humanity, and Rushdie’s storytelling device demonstrates this. The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a reimagination of the famous Orpheus and Eurydice myth. In Rushdie’s take on the myth, his Orpheus is a Bombay-born singer named Ormus Cama, and his great love is the international star Vina Apsara. In the classic story, Eurydice dies, and Orpheus attempts to save her, so naturally this dynamic occurs in the modern story—Ormus tries to save Vina. However, there is also a story in Hindu mythology where Shiva reduces Kama—love—to a pile of ash, and his love Rati must bring him back to life. In Rushdie’s work there are moments when Vina saves Ormus, which echoes the Hindu myth. It is the same story from two different cultures. The fact that the same ideas can creep up into the same stories displays the fact that the feeling of un-belonging is common to humanity. Rushdie’s story then unites us further.
Rushdie’s other great theme is an exploration of the complex relation between love, death, and art. He explains that at the center of his story is a triangle, and on the points rest love, art, and death. His story, like the Orpheus myth, manipulates this triangle into every combination: love, through art, can overcome death; death despite art, will destroy love; or art can explain love and death. These interpretations all make sense, which displays the extraordinary depth of this novel. Orpheus’ music nearly saved his beloved Eurydice from the Underworld, but in the end he couldn’t. However, Rati was able to bring Kama back to life. Love triumphing over death, or art failing to save love? Rushdie displays a deep trust in the reader as he or she must decide individually what the story wishes to say. Rushdie asks the question but allows us to answer.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a grand novel in scope and size. Rushdie’s brilliance shines through every sentence, and his characters breathe life into his great examination of ideas common to humanity.
There are always humans who feel that they do not belong to the place in which they were born. This feeling is often discussed as if it were not common, but Rushdie suggests that it is. Even if we do not believe that we belong somewhere else, our dreams betray our true desires. He writes, “Alone in our beds, we soar, we fly, we flee. And in the waking dreams our societies permit, in our myths, our arts, our songs, we celebrate the non-belongers, the different ones, the outlaws, the freaks…if we did not recognize in them our least-fulfilled needs, we would not invent them over and over again, in every place, in every language, in every time.”
This feeling of not-belonging is common to humanity, and Rushdie’s storytelling device demonstrates this. The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a reimagination of the famous Orpheus and Eurydice myth. In Rushdie’s take on the myth, his Orpheus is a Bombay-born singer named Ormus Cama, and his great love is the international star Vina Apsara. In the classic story, Eurydice dies, and Orpheus attempts to save her, so naturally this dynamic occurs in the modern story—Ormus tries to save Vina. However, there is also a story in Hindu mythology where Shiva reduces Kama—love—to a pile of ash, and his love Rati must bring him back to life. In Rushdie’s work there are moments when Vina saves Ormus, which echoes the Hindu myth. It is the same story from two different cultures. The fact that the same ideas can creep up into the same stories displays the fact that the feeling of un-belonging is common to humanity. Rushdie’s story then unites us further.
Rushdie’s other great theme is an exploration of the complex relation between love, death, and art. He explains that at the center of his story is a triangle, and on the points rest love, art, and death. His story, like the Orpheus myth, manipulates this triangle into every combination: love, through art, can overcome death; death despite art, will destroy love; or art can explain love and death. These interpretations all make sense, which displays the extraordinary depth of this novel. Orpheus’ music nearly saved his beloved Eurydice from the Underworld, but in the end he couldn’t. However, Rati was able to bring Kama back to life. Love triumphing over death, or art failing to save love? Rushdie displays a deep trust in the reader as he or she must decide individually what the story wishes to say. Rushdie asks the question but allows us to answer.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a grand novel in scope and size. Rushdie’s brilliance shines through every sentence, and his characters breathe life into his great examination of ideas common to humanity.