The Ground Beneath Her Feet: A Novel
by Salman Rushdie
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Book Summary Information
Author: Salman RushdieEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-03-16
ISBN: 0312254997
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of The Ground Beneath Her Feet: A Novel
Book Review: Set up no stone to his memory...
Summary: 5 Stars
Salman Rushdie first attracted my notice many years ago, and since that time I have purchased most all of his novels, save for 'Grimus'; an inexpensive used hardcover of which eludes me to this day. Over the past few years I have worked my way through all but 'Midnight's Children' that are in my possession.
Having once before tried to start 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet', the first few pages didn't grab me initially. But this time I plowed ahead, undaunted, and completed the book a couple of weeks ago.
Re-working the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice into a sprawling epic of the rise to fame and undying love of Ormus Cama and Vina Apsara, the author delivers a masterwork of a tale. Ormus and Vina become the darlings of the rock and roll world, despite inauspicious beginnings, and fall madly in love with one another. Ormus, several years older than Vina when they meet, vows to wait for her to be of an age more acceptable for their life-long love affair to begin. However, in a turn about of typical stories, Ormus is the one who remains all but chaste in his courtship of Vina.
Chronicling their story is Rai, a childhood friend of Ormus, and later the sometimes lover of Vina. Both men fall completely under her spell...and both spend their lives failing to tame the passions inside of her completely. And when Vina and Ormus make their music together, legions of fans fall under their spell as well.
Rushdie's style here is, to me, reminiscent of John Irving, another of my favorite authors. Rushdie also taps into several of Irving's recurring themes; such as death under bizarre circumstances, absentee parents, and love that leads to tragic consequences.
Other reviewers have panned this novel as being poorly written, self-indulgent, and simply not the author's best work. And while I would not rate this as my favorite of his novels, it certainly is near the top of 'my' list of favorites. Rushdie's pukish, tongue-in-cheek, eccentric word-play is in fine form here, like his other novels.
Though I would hesitate to recommend this novel as a starting point for getting to know the works of Salman Rushdie, I do recommend an eventual foray into this book as well.
Summary of The Ground Beneath Her Feet: A Novel
In this remaking of the myth of Orpheus, Rushdie tells the story of Vina Apsara, a pop star, and Ormus Cama, an extraordinary songwriter and musician, who captivate and change the world through their music and their romance. Beginning in Bombay in the fifties, moving to London in the sixties, and New York for the last quarter century, the novel pulsates with a half-century of music and celebrates the power rock 'n' roll.
The ground shifts repeatedly beneath the reader's feet during the course of Salman Rushdie's sixth novel, a riff on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in the high-octane world of rock & roll. Readers get their first clues early on that the universe Rushdie is creating here is not quite the one we know: Jesse Aron Parker, for example, wrote "Heartbreak Hotel"; Carly Simon and Guinevere Garfunkel sang "Bridge over Troubled Water"; and Shirley Jones and Gordon McRae starred in "South Pacific." And as the novel progresses, Rushdie adds unmistakable elements of science fiction to his already patented magical realism, with occasionally uneven results.
Rushdie's cunning musician is Ormus Cana, the Bombay-born founder of the most popular group in the world. Ormus's Eurydice (and lead singer) is Vina Apsara, the daughter of a Greek American woman and an Indian father who abandoned the family. What these two share, besides amazing musical talent, is a decidedly twisted family life: Ormus's twin brother died at birth and communicates to him from "the other side"; his older brothers, also twins, are, respectively, brain-damaged and a serial killer. Vina, on the other hand, grew up in rural West Virginia where she returned home one day to find her stepfather and sisters shot to death and her mother hanging from a rafter in the barn. No wonder these two believe they were made for each other.
Narrated by Rai Merchant, a childhood friend of both Vina and Ormus, The Ground Beneath Her Feet begins with a terrible earthquake in 1989 that swallows Vina whole, then moves back in time to chronicle the tangled histories of all the main characters and a host of minor ones as well. Rushdie's canvas is huge, stretching from India to London to New York and beyond--and there's plenty of room for him to punctuate this epic tale with pointed commentary on his own situation: Muslim-born Rai, for example, remarks that "my parents gave me the gift of irreligion, of growing up without bothering to ask people what gods they held dear.... You may argue that the gift was a poisoned chalice, but even if so, that's a cup from which I'd happily drink again." Despite earthquakes, heartbreaks, and a rip in the time-space continuum, The Ground Beneath Her Feet may be the most optimistic, accessible novel Rushdie has yet written. --Alix Wilber
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